WOMAD

Super Rail Band of Bamako

From Mali

The Super Rail Band, 2003: Kongo SiguiPioneers of Manding electric pop in West Africa since 1970, the Super Rail Band are powering their way into the 21st century as living history and one of Afropop’s great survival stories.As independence dawned in West Africa in the late ‘50s, Mali’s first president Modibo Keita created a system of regional and national dance bands. Keita believed that music was one way to promote a sense of nationhood in a young, multicultural nation. But these bands could no longer just play Afro-Cuban dance music and American jazz; they had to incorporate local traditions into the music. The Manding people made an especially strong contribution to the new sound that developed. The flowing melodies of the Manding kora (21-string harp), ngoni (spike lute), and balafon (wooden xylophone) fit naturally onto electric guitars, and the powerful songs of Manding “griot” praise singers blended easily with the lilt of popular Latin music. These strands came together in a spirit of invention and improvisation that is a hallmark of Malian music, and in the process a new genre, sometimes called “Manding swing,” was born.This movement was interrupted in 1968 when a military coup brought Moussa Traore—a dictator with no real cultural vision—to power in Mali. “They broke everything Modibo [Keita] had made,” recalls the Rail Band’s lead guitarist, Djelimady Tounkara, “the national dance troupe, national band, national theater. Broken, broken, broken.” In a creative response to the situation, directors of the Malian Railway Company sought to pick up the pieces by sponsoring a band that would play at the hotel next to the Bamako train station, the Buffet Hotel de la Gare. Djibril Diallo, the director of the Buffet, recruited a trumpet-playing griot named Tidiani Kone to organize the band. In its first decade, two of West Africa’s greatest singers—Salif Keita and Mory Kante—passed through the Rail Band’s ranks. When Keita left the band in 1972 to form his own group, Les Ambassadeurs, the rivalry between these two bands became the talk of West Africa as each spurred the other on to new heights of creativity. In 1979, Mory Kante also left the Rail Band to pursue a solo career, but the Rail Band’s adaptations of Malian folklore were strong enough to survive these departures as other great singers like Makan Ganessy, Lafia Diabaté, and the present Rail Band vocalists Damory Kouyaté and Samba Sissoko took the microphone. Over the years, Djelimady Tounkara earned his reputation as one of the greatest guitarists in Africa. His ability to turn the character and phrasing of traditional Manding instruments into searing electric guitar wizardry was an inspiration to a whole generation of guitarists. The Super Rail Band remained popular in West Africa in the 1980s, but in this era of singing stars, many of the great old dance bands fell by the wayside. In the 1990s, times were tough for the Rail Band, and their survival owes a lot to the dedication and faith of French producer and promoter Christian Mousset, who organized European concert tours and produced three Rail Band CDs since 1991, including the universally acclaimed Mansa (1995), and the band’s new, ground-breaking recording, Kongo Sigui. These days, the Super Rail Band plays to a whole new audience in Mali. The band has privatized and abandoned the Buffet Hotel de la Gare, a venue with little appeal to young music fans. At its new home base, the Djembe Club in Bamako’s Lafiabougou neighborhood, the Rail Band plays to Malians who weren’t even born when Moussa Traoré took power. To reach these young ears, Tounkara has revitalized the band’s signature blend of Manding pop, reggae, Congolese rumba, salsa, blues, and rock ‘n’ roll. In the Rail Band’s present lean-and-mean sound, there is no longer a brass section, but the guitars tangle with new intensity, and the tempos are fast to drive the dance floor and dazzle the band’s new youth audience. This is the sound captured on Kongo-Sigui, an amazing example of reinvention and ingenious survival instinct from what remains one of the most powerful dance bands in Africa.THE SONGSMogognya Kodola (Bamba Dembele)This is a song about human beings, and about honestly. “In everything you do in life,” says Bamba, “never imagine that no one is watching you. When the leader of a state takes the riches of his country and puts it in his Swiss bank account, someone sees that, even if he does not say. But the day will come when he speaks, so in everything you do in life, you must be honest. Always keep in mind that someone is watching you. This way, there will be more honesty than dishonesty in the world.”Dakan (Fotigui Keita)“Dakan” means destiny. “God has created human beings in his image,” says Bamba, “and he can dispose of human beings as he likes. That is destiny. So when you are born, we believe that God has planned everything. But watch out. God gave you a head, eyes, ears, nose and a mouth. You can see, smell, hear, speak and think. You can improve your destiny.” This song’s author, Rail Band bass player Fotigui Keita, was born a noble like the famous singer Salif Keita. Griots are supposed to sing for nobles, and in more traditional times, no Keita would not have been able to play music. Still, Fotigui has made it his destiny to play music. Balla Moussa Keita (Samba Sissoko)This song praises a great Malian radio and television personality and film maker. This is a man who worked tirelessly for 30 years and distinguished himself in many realms of Mali’s modern life prior to his death in 2001. Keita made one particularly famous film called “The Wind.” This song is intended to preserve the memory of a great man and exhort others to follow his example. Djon Mansa (Maguett Diop)This song that talks about the possibilities in life. Djon is a slave, and mansa is a king—two sides of life’s coin. As long as you are alive, you must always hope and strive. You might be poor today and rich tomorrow—or the reverse. Anything can happen in life. So if you have money, you must have consideration for those less rich than you, and share with them. One day, you might be the one in need. We are all the slaves of God. Deni (Fotigui Keita)A love song written for a young woman in Bamako. Deni is a fan of the Super Rail Band, and a regular at the Djembe nightclub where the band performs most weekends. Bamba says, “When you see a beautiful woman you want to court, and you see that she is very well dressed, you say, ‘Ah, Cheri, the dress you are wearing, what tailor made it? Because he is the best tailor in the world. The shoes you are wearing, what cobbler made them? Because he is the best cobbler in the world. Even the hair braids you are wearing are the best in the world.’ Everyone loves to be flattered, especially women.”Sada Diallo (Djelimady Tounkara)This song praises a businessman who gave moral support and financial assistance Djelimady and the Rail Band during his life. In the tradition of Manding griots, it is common to write songs in praise of great people, especially after they die. Djelimady says, “He was a friend and supporter of many musicians and artists in Mali, especially me and Mory Kante. He even gave me a plot of land to build on. He did everything for the Rail Band.” Kongo Sigui (Djelimady Tounkara)Kongo Sigui is the buffalo that lives in the bush. This animal figures into the story of Sunjata, the first king of the Malian Empire. Sunjata’s mother was a supernatural being who manifested herself as a buffalo with menacing powers. Bamba says, “You cannot speak about sigui without mentioning the bravery of hunters, because there are many ferocious animals in the bush. Before the arrival of Western medicine in Mali, the hunters were the healers. They understood traditional medicines, and when the village was threatened by dangerous beasts, it was the hunters who fought them and protected people.” Masory (Damory Kouyate)This is a song from Mali’s vast repertoire of hunters’ lore. “Sory” means “early in the morning.” To have success as a hunter, one has to rise early. This is the moment when the lion and the buffalo graze, giving the hunter his chance. The music itself comes from ancient folklore, but as always, it has been arranged and modernized by the Rail Band.Pirates (Damory Kouyate)A song in the Latin-flavored genre of Guinean Manding music. This lyrics protest the rampant practice of cassette piracy. People who manufacture and sell illegal cassettes are stealing from musicians and must be stopped. Bamba says, “We artists in Bamako are threatened by one thing above all, piracy. It is true that we have struggled against this, and that the government has taken action to slow this practice, but unfortunately it is alive and well. We need concerted government action throughout Mali, Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, Guinea, Senegal, and Mauritania to stop this. Artists must live from their work.” Notes by Banning Eyre, author of In Griot Time: An American Guitarist in Mali (Temple University Press and Serpent’s Tale), and editor of www.afropop.org.