Dounia Tabolo

Album review

The close links between Malian musicians and Mississippi blues are no longer a secret. It’s not only because of the influx of African slaves who were taken to the cotton plantations, but also because of an influence going in the opposite direction. Boubacar Traoré, for example, saw an enormous success in 1963, in his country with his Mali twist, under the grip of the Unites States. Half a century later, Kar Kar is staying faithful to the style that he came to know. For this Dounia Tabolo, he even went to Louisiana to converse with some local musicians about some new compositions and key pieces in his repertoire. It was there that he met Cedric Watson and his Cajun violin, as well as Corey Harris (who was at the centre of Martin Scorsese’s blues documentary Feel Like Going Home) on the guitar and mic. The cellist Leyla McCalla also responds to Boubacar Traoré on Je chanterai pour toi. These happy associations are a wonderful complement to Kar Kar’s natural musical balance and his faithful accomplices, Alkassane Samaké on percussion and Vincent Bucher on the harmonica. A record of obvious elegance. © BM/Qobuz