Nicole Mitchell is a renowned flautist and former chair of the AACM. Ballaké Sissoko an innovative kora player from Mali. Both are esteemed composers and both have defied convention in their respective genres: Mitchell’s adoption of Afrofuturism and cosmic bliss, Sissoko’s integration of western guitar progressions into kora compositions.
Both bring traditional forms into new spaces, both bring a history of collaboration across genres. This congruence began in Paris in 2014 as the awkwardly titled Beyond Black but once the Bamako musicians had arrived in Chicago in 2017, their new title was born.
It is Sissoko’s kora that largely dominates, along with the evocative and contrasting vocals of Fatim Kouyate and Mankwe Ndosi, as the entire album embodies the African griot traditions of call and response. But that in turns harks back to the roots of black American blues, creating a true meeting of Bamako and Chicago, West Africa and the mid-West. Bubbling away in the background are Fassery Diabeté’s vibrant balafon, an African xylophone, and JoVia Armstrong’s ever-tuneful percussion.
Throughout, Mitchell’s layered, complex and often otherworldly compositions and her powerful flute carry all before them, notably on her unaccompanied solo on the lengthy, disrupted This Moment. All the instruments merge well while retaining their differences, like dancers coming easily together as one.
Some of the pieces evoke the feeling of Bamako serenading Chicago through the streets of Mali, as on Tara, while elsewhere, as on Spicy Jambalaya, Se Wa Kole, and the concluding chanson Vulnerable, Chicago guides Bamoko on a similar journey, one that is more blues-orientated and spacey, thanks to Jeff Parker’s psychedelic guitar and Fatim Kouyate’s soulful chants.
This set is delightful, a worthy fusion of two distinct but compatible black musics. Celebrate the meeting, and enjoy.
Discography
Bamako Chicago; Doname; Kanu; Tolotai (Games Are Not); Spicy Jambalaya; Tara (They Go); This Moment; Se Wa Kole (This Is Happiness); Vulnerable (61.28)
Mitchell (f); Sissoko (kora); Jeff Parker (g); Fassery Diabeté (balafon); Joshua Abrams (b); JoVia Armstrong (pc); Fatim Kouyate, Mankwe Ndosi (v). Chicago, July 2017.
FFE Records 60
