Soô

Perhaps it was recording 2012’s Brothers in Bamako with the American bluesman Eric Bibb that persuaded Habib Koité it was time for a change; but for whatever the reason, after more than 20 years and half a dozen albums backed by his band Bamada, only bassist Abdul Berthe remains on Soô. It’s more than a simple change of personnel, too. He’s dropped the drum kit in favour of calabash and djembé and added a banjo to the line-up – an instrument that he was introduced to by Bibb. The result is a lilting set sung in his smooth baritone voice in Malinké, Bamana and Dogon, mixing different Malian traditions and addressing many of the problems currently facing his country. The context of the gently melancholic ‘Dêmê’, with its message about living together in peace could not be clearer, given Mali’s recent history. ‘Need You’ is about forced marriage; ‘Khafole,’ despite its gorgeous lullaby-like melody, is a tragic song about a mother grieving for her dead son. The closer, ‘Diadjiry’, a song about war and its horrors made famous by Fanta Damba, is played as a sparkling solo guitar piece and reminds us that Habib is one of Africa’s most accomplished instrumentalists. The changes have done Habib no end of good.