Bagola

Malian group Trio da Kali have been around for some time. They were at the BBC Proms in 2013, and I saw them in Bamako in 2015, yet curiously, this is their stand-alone debut – albeit they did record Ladilikan with Kronos Quartet in 2017 (a Top of the World in #132). So expectations for this album are high and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. The confident voice of Hawa Kasse Mady Diabaté, daughter of the late Kasse Mady, is at the heart of the trio, but the rippling and bubbling balafons of Lassana Diabaté are a joyous lubricant in the musical texture. He was an important member of World Circuit’s AfroCubism project. The final member of the trio is Madou Kouyaté, son of Bassekou, playing bass ngoni (or ngoniba). His soft bass beautifully underpins ‘Wara’; they are a super-tight ensemble. The album doesn’t come with much information about the songs, but the opening ‘Bagola’ is “a light-hearted critique of men in Malian society” and ‘Orpaillage’ a lament for the despoliation of the environment from gold panning. But the absolute joy of the album is the sublime interaction of dramatic vocals, fluid yet rhythmic balafon and the delicate plucked sounds of the ngoni bass. The group is slightly augmented with kamalengoni and claps for the final ‘Deme’. Superb production from Lucy Durán.