{"id":437,"date":"2025-05-08T13:19:59","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T13:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/salif-keita-so-kono-149726\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T13:19:59","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T13:19:59","slug":"salif-keita-so-kono-149726","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/salif-keita-so-kono-149726\/","title":{"rendered":"Salif Keita \u2013 So Kono"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mali might be one of Africa\u2019s poorest nations, but it remains a musical superpower. The centre of the medieval Mande empire has been the breeding ground for dozens of global success stories, including the likes of Toumani Diabate<\/strong>, Ali Farka Toure<\/strong>, Rokia Traore<\/strong>, Oumou Sangare<\/strong>, Fatoumata Diawara<\/strong>, Boubacar Traore<\/strong>, Afel Bocoum<\/strong>, Bassekou Kouyate<\/strong> and Amadou & Mariam<\/strong> \u2013 not to mention Tuareg rockers like Tinariwen<\/strong>, Tamikrest<\/strong> and Songhoy Blues<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mali might be one of Africa\u2019s poorest nations, but it remains a musical superpower. The centre of the medieval Mande empire has been the breeding ground for dozens of global success stories, including the likes of Toumani Diabate<\/strong>, Ali Farka Toure<\/strong>, Rokia Traore<\/strong>, Oumou Sangare<\/strong>, Fatoumata Diawara<\/strong>, Boubacar Traore<\/strong>, Afel Bocoum<\/strong>, Bassekou Kouyate<\/strong> and Amadou & Mariam<\/strong> \u2013 not to mention Tuareg rockers like Tinariwen<\/strong>, Tamikrest<\/strong> and Songhoy Blues<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Salif Keita<\/strong> might be the most famous of them all, but he was always the odd one out. Not only was he an albino in a society that regarded albinos as cursed, but he was an outcast from a minor royal family, competing with storytelling griots who tended to come from an ancestral lineage of musicians. It helped that he was blessed with an extraordinary voice. Keita can turn a jerky, conversational, arhythmic lyric into something that flows perfectly; making any amount of syllables fit into whatever space he has, improvising like a jazz singer, adding bluesy flourishes and grace notes, often leaping up an octave or more into a spine-tingling register.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a voice that has worked across multiple genres. He started out in 1970, singing Afro-Cuban son and Congolese soukous with the Rail Band<\/strong>; a few years later he was performing rumbas, foxtrots, French ballads and Senegalese wolof songs with Les Ambassadeurs<\/strong>. In 1987 his breakthrough solo album Soro<\/strong> heralded the birth of the digital griot, setting Keita\u2019s voice against a Peter Gabriel<\/strong>-ish backdrop of sampled koras and digi-drums. Since then he\u2019s collaborated extensively \u2013 albums produced by Joe Zawinul<\/strong>, Vernon Reid<\/strong> and Wally Badarou<\/strong>; duets with the likes of Carlos Santana<\/strong>, Wayne Shorter<\/strong>, Grace Jones<\/strong>, Esperanza Spalding<\/strong>, Bobby McFerrin<\/strong>, Roots Manuva<\/strong>, Richard Bona<\/strong> and Cesaria Evora<\/strong>. In 2018 he released Un Autre Blanc<\/strong> \u2013 a heavily synthesized, elaborately orchestrated studio album featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo<\/strong>, Angelique Kidjo<\/strong> and Alpha Blondy<\/strong> \u2013 and announced in interviews that, approaching his 70th birthday, it would be his last LP.<\/p>\n

That was until 2023, when he was invited to play an unplugged set at a festival in Japan: just voice and acoustic guitar, with occasional accompaniment on the ngoni (a kind of harp-like banjo) and percussion. Keita loved the setting, realising that it brought out a side of him that had been hidden across his five-decade career, and he transformed his hotel suite into an impromptu studio to record this album.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So Kono<\/strong> \u2013 which translates as \u201cinside the chamber\u201d in the Mande language \u2013 is Keita\u2019s most spartan LP yet. He has always said that he feels self-conscious about his guitar playing, seeing it purely as a tool for songwriting, but here it takes centre stage \u2013 hypnotic, complex, repetitive patterns, played clawhammer style, plucked with the flesh at the tips of his fingers, like a medieval lute player, usually with a capo high on the fretboard.<\/p>\n

Some of these songs rework older compositions. \u201cLaban<\/strong>\u201d, a piece of desert rock on his 2005 album M\u2019Bemba<\/strong>, is turned into a wonderfully baroque miniature, featuring a Martin Carthy<\/strong>-like guitar pattern. The already quite spartan \u201cTu Vas Me Manquer<\/strong>\u201d (\u2018I will miss you\u2019) sounds even more beautifully heartbroken, while \u201cTassi<\/strong>\u201d, a piece of bubblegum Latin pop from his 2012 LP Tal\u00e9<\/strong>, is turned into a hypnotic meditation. Occasionally, Keita\u2019s metrical, minimalist guitar patterns are set against the florid, tumbling ngoni flourishes of Badi\u00e9 Tounkara<\/strong>, like on the gentle minor-key waltz \u201cAwa<\/strong>\u201d, which translates as Eve, and serves as Keita\u2019s tribute to womankind; the yearning declaration of love \u201cCherie<\/strong>\u201d, which also features accompaniment on cello and talking drum; or \u201cSoundiata<\/strong>\u201d, a mesmeric tribute to his royal ancestors.<\/p>\n

There are tributes to friends. \u201cKant\u00e9 Manfila<\/strong>\u201d is dedicated to a late bandmate of the same name who was in Les Ambassadeurs, while \u201cAboubakrin<\/strong>\u201d is named after a successful politician. One is a eulogy, the other a joyful song of praise, but both have the same mood \u2013 trance-like guitar patterns and soaring vocals that sound a muezzin\u2019s call to prayer.<\/p>\n

Most startling of all is the final track \u201cProud<\/strong>\u201d. Here, instead of playing acoustic guitar, Keita switches to a simbi, a Malian harp-lute, with a bulbous calabash body. He plays a metallic, jangling riff while howling the lyrics \u2013 partly in English \u2013 at the upper end of his vocal register, half ancient bluesman, half Pakistani qawaali singer. \u201cI\u2019m African, I\u2019m proud<\/em>,\u201d he howls. \u201cI\u2019m albino, I\u2019m proud\/ I\u2019m different, I\u2019m proud<\/em>.\u201d It\u2019s a fitting summation of a remarkable career.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post Salif Keita \u2013 So Kono<\/a> appeared first on UNCUT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mali might be one of Africa\u2019s poorest nations, but it remains a musical superpower. The centre of the medieval Mande empire has been the breeding ground for dozens of global…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,88,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album","category-reviews","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}