Dounia Tabolo

Now in his mid-70s, Traoré was allegedly playing African blues guitar even before the late, great Ali Farka Touré. His African recordings speak volumes about the centuries-old musical trade routes between West Africa and black America but Dounia Tabolo represents the first time he has travelled to the US to record. The result is an album that ranks alongside Ali Farka Touré and Ry Cooder's Talking Timbuktu as a living, vital connection between Mali and the Mississippi Delta. Recorded in a studio deep in Louisiana, the album features American acoustic bluesman Corey Harris duetting on guitar, while Cedric Watson coaxes from his violin a plaintive sound like the West African one-string njarka and the estimable Leyla McCalla, once of Carolina Chocolate Drops, contributes some gloriously resonant cello licks, heard most tellingly on ‘Yafa Ma’. Traoré sings in a deep baritone in Bamana and French but the tunes seem to transcend language barriers. Inadvertently I found myself singing Big Joe Williams' ‘Baby Please Don’t Go' to Traoré's ‘Dis Lui Que Je l’Aime Comme Mon Pays' while ‘Kanou (Kanga Keniogon Fe)’ evokes the rich heritage of zydeco. Magnificent as Traoré's African recordings are, Traoré's blues have never sounded deeper and more profound than they do here.