Mande music
The Mande people are divided into three groups based on language. They all claim descent from the legendary warrior Sunjata Keita, who founded the Mande Empire. The Maninka, Mandinka and Bamana languages are spoken in Mali and in parts of surrounding Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Senegal and The Gambia.
Bamana
Bamana-speaking peoples live in central Mali; the language is the most commonly-used one in Mali. Music is simple and unadorned, and pentatonic. Well-known Bamana performers include the first female musical celebrity, Fanta Damba. Damba and other Bamana (and Maninka) musicians in cities like Bamako are known throughout the country for a style of guitar music called bajourou (named after an 18th century song glorifying ancient king Tutu Jara).
Mandinka
The Mandinka live in Mali]], The Gambia and Senegal and their music is influenced by their neighbors, especially the Wolof and Jola, two of the largest groups in Senegal. The kora is the most popular instrument.
Maninka
Maninka music is the most complex of the three classifications of Mande cultures. It is highly-ornamented and heptatonic, dominated by female vocalists and dance-oriented rhythms. The ngoni lute is the most popular traditional instrument. Most of the best-known Maninka musicians are from eastern Guinea and play a type of guitar music that adapts balafon-playing (traditional xylophone) to the imported instrument.
The jelis (jelimusolu is the feminine) are a caste of travelling musicians, sponsored by noble patrons of the horon class and part of the same caste as craftsmen (nyamakala) like blacksmiths. Surnames are caste-based; thus names like Kouyatés are held only by jelis. Other common jeli surnames include Kamissoko, Cissokho, Dambele, Soumano, Kantés, Diabaté and Koné''.
Jelis are supported by their noble sponsors, and sing their patron's praises. The position is highly-respected, and jelis are often trusted by their patrons with privileged information because the caste system does not allow the jelis to be a potential rival of the nobleman.
Few non-jelis have taken music as a profession, though Salif Keita remains an extremely prominent example of a noble-born Malian who became a singer, adopting traditional garb and styles. He has, however, made it clear that he sings as an artist, in order to personally express himself, and not as a jeli.
The jeli repertoire includes several ancient songs; the oldest may be "Lambang", which praises music. Other songs praise ancient kings and heroes, especially Sunjata Keita ("Sunjata") and Tutu Jara ("Tut Jara"). Music is typically accompanied by a full dance band, often using electric instruments in recent years. Songs are composed of a scripted refrain (donkili) and an improvised section. Improvised lyrics praise ancestors, and are usually based around a surname. Each surname has an epithet used to glorify its ancient holders, and singers also praise recent and still-living family members. Proverbs are another major component of traditional songs.
The kora is by far the most popular traditional instrument. It is similar to both a harp and a lute and can have between 21 and 25 strings. Ngoni (lutes) and balafon (xylophones) are also common.
The kora is believed to have come from what is now Guinea-Bissau, and is known to have existed by 1796, when Mungo Park, a Scottish explorer, reported seeing one. There are two styles of playing the kora. The western style is found mostly in Senegal and The Gambia, and is more rhythmically complex than the eastern tradition. Eastern kora-playing is more vocally-dominated, and is found throughout Mali and Guinea. Respected players of the kora include Sidiki Diabaté, Toumani Diabaté, Djeli Moussa Sissoko and Batouou Sekou Kouyaté.
The ngoni is known to have existed since 1352, when Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan traveller reported seeing one in the court of Mansa Musa. It is believed to have evolved into the banjo in North America after Mande slaves were exported there en masse. Battuta also reported the existence of a balafon, which is a complex xylophone popular especially among the Susu of western Guinea.
Mande percussion instruments include the tama, djembe and doundoun drums.
The end of World War 2 saw the guitar become common throughout Africa, partially resulting from the intermixing of African, American and British soldiers. Dance bands were popular in Mali, especially the town of Kita's orchestra led by Boureima Keita and Afro-Jazz de S´gou. Imported European dances were popular, especially rumbas, waltzes and Argentine-derived tangos. By the 1960s, however, the influence of Cuban music began to rise.
After independence in 1960, Malians saw new opportunities for cultural expression in the burgeoning media of radio, television and recorded music. Under President Modibo Keita, orchestras were state-supported, including the first electric dance band, Orchestre Nationale A. Other influential dance bands included Rail Band and Pioneer Jazz. Cuban music remained popular in Mali throughout the 1960s, and remains popular today.
With the coming to power of Mali's second president, Moussa Traoré, however, Cuban music was discouraged in favor of Malian traditional music. Biennale festivals were held to encourage folk music. Old dance bands reformed in many cases, under new names, as part of this roots revival. Especially influential bands included Tidiane Koné's Rail Band du Buffet Hôtel de la Gare, which launches the careers of future stars Salif Keita and Mory Kanté, and Super Biton de Ségou.
Bajourou music also became popular, beginning with Fanta Sacko's Fanta Sacko, the first bajourou LP. Fanta Sacko's success set the stage for future jelimusolu stars which have been consistently popular in Mali; the mainstream acceptance of female singers is unusual in West Africa, and marks Malian music as unique.
Not all bands took part in Traoré's roots revival, however. Les Ambassadeurs du Motel formed in 1971, playing popular songs imported from Senegal, Cuba and France. Les Ambassadeurs and Rail Band were the two biggest bands in the country, and a fierce rivalry developed. Salif Keita, perhaps the most popular singer of the time, defected in 1972 to Les Ambassadeurs. This was followed by a major concert at which both bands performed as part of the Kibaru (literacy) program. The audience fell into a frenzy of excitement and unity, and the concert is still remembered as one of the defining moments in 1970s Malian music.
The mid-70s also saw the formation of National Badema, a band that played Cuban music and soon added Kasse Mady Diabaté, who led a movement to incorporate Maninka praise-singing into Cuban-style music.
In 1975, Fanta Damba became the first jelimusolu to tour Europe, as bajourou continued to become mainstream throughout Mali.
Both the Rail Band and Les Ambassadeurs left for Abidjan at the end of the 1970s due to a poor economic climate in Mali. There, Les Ambassadeurs recorded Mandjou, an album which featured their most popular song, "Mandjou". The song was a major success, and helped make Salif Keita a solo star. Many of the biggest musicians of the period also fled Mali, moving to Abidjan, Dakar, Paris, London, New York or Chicago. Their recordings remained widely available, however, and these musicians-in-exile helped to bring international attention to Mande music. Salif Keita and Mory Kanté, for example, moved to Paris, while Foday Musa Suso relocated to Chicago.
During the 1980s, Les Ambassadeurs and Rail Band continued recording and performing, under a variety of names. In 1982, Salif Keita, who had spent time recording with Les Ambassadeurs' Kanté Manfila, left his band and recorded an influential fusion album, Soro, with Ibrahima Sylla and French keyboardist Jean-Philippe Rykiel. The album revolutionized Malian pop, finally eliminating all traces of Cuban music but incorporated new influences from rock and pop. By the middle of the decade, Paris had become the new capital of Mande dance music. Mory Kanté saw major mainstream success with techno-influenced Mande music, becoming a #1 hit on several European charts.
In addition the Keita's modernization and the numerous artists who followed in his wake, another roots revival began in the mid-1980s. Guinean singer and kora player Jali Musa Jawara's 1983 Yasimika is said to have begun this trend, followed by a series of acoustic releases from Kanté Manfila and Kasse Mady.
At the end of the 1980s, public support for the Malian government declined and praise-singing, with its assumption of support for the status quo and for political leaders, became unfashionable. The region of Wassoulou, south of Bamako, became the center for a new wave of music also referred to as wassoulou.
Wassoulou had been developing since at least the mid-70s. Jelis had never played a large part in the music scene in Wassoulou, and music was a more democratic field there. The modern form of wassoulou music is a combination of hunter's songs with sogoninkum, a type of elaborate masked dance. Oumou Sangaré was the first major wassoulou star; she achieved fame suddenly in 1989 with the release of Moussoulou.
In the 1990s, wassoulou's popularity continued to skyrocket. Performers like Oumou Sangaré gained fame and controversy for criticizing practices like polygamy and arranged marriage. Wassoulou's music, largely based on the kamalengoni harp invented in the late 50s by Allata Brulaye Sidibí, has become the most popular in Mali, especially among the youth.Jelis
Traditional instruments
Popular music
Post-independence
Roots revival
Bajourou
Mid-70s diversification
Exodus
1980s
Wassoulou
1990s