Page 54 - Akae Beka

Often referred to as “The Hendrix of the Sahara,” Vieux Farka Touré continues his A powerhouse vocalist and champion of women’s rights, Oumou Sangaré is a
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father’s legacy of merging African sounds and the blues. Photo by Sachyn Mital Grammy Award-winning Malian Wassoulou musician. Photo by Bryan Ledgard
did not all necessarily speak the same languages, they had America’s oldest musical, melodic, harmonic and rhythmic
cultural markers in common in the expression of movement instrument celebrated since the earliest beginnings of this nation’s
through dance. These West African populations had in musical mecca – Nashville – is an instrument from West Africa
common musical instruments, melodies, songs and concepts that is called the ngoni – the banjo. President Jefferson referred
of rhythms anchored in a polyrhythmic ternary appreciation to the banjo in his letters to Monticello as an instrument played
and subdivision of time or groove, from which the great Duke by his slaves that he had never heard before, but “which is quite
Ellington concluded, “It Don’t Mean A Thing if It Ain’t Got That pleasant to the ear.” The banjo was the vehicle through which
Swing.” African rhythms swing, therefore African Americans’ African culture maintained its umbilical cord to Africa through
expressions of rhythm swing. the expression of its tonal colors, its rhythmic syncopations and
We should not forget that to Africans, music is part of every its harmonic and melodic systems in blues music. Furthermore,
human activity. There is the recognition that the management it is the rhythmic and melodic syncopations of the banjo that
of sound wave vibrations (i.e. music making) is also a space Blacks replicated on the left of the piano to create ragtime, when
where the sacred nature of the sound is and should be Christian missionaries introduced the piano on the plantations.
celebrated, thus the importance of the Black Church in African There hadn’t been a single banjo in England, Scotland or Ireland.
American life as early as its arrival on the continent of North The populations from the British Isles immigrating to the United
America. The connection between sound and sacred is part States and moving into the South – the Appalachians, Kentucky,
of an important tradition of religious rituals on the continent of Tennessee – found on the Tennessee River banks these African
Africa, in which communication with the sacred and ancestors populations playing the banjo. They incorporated these sounds,
is done through music, rhythms, trances and possessions of colors, textures and rhythms from the music of the Mississippi
the spirit through sounds. Delta into their own Celtic heritage to create an authentically
The Great Malian guitarist/vocalist Ali Farka Touré from American music and style that we call bluegrass. No instrument
Timbuktu used to say, “In reality, there is no such a thing as or culture from Mali, no bluegrass!
Black Americans... but there are Blacks in America... which Several musicians on the scene today continue the tradition
means that they came with their culture...” While this seems of incorporating African musical aesthetics to animate the blues.
an obvious statement, given the forced nature of the migration Vieux Farka Touré, son of venerated Songhai guitarist/vocalist
through the period of the Atlantic slave trade, it underscores Ali Farka Touré continues in his father’s footsteps to promote
the power of African culture, the resilience of its people, its the musical aesthetics of the Malian empire on today’s festival
identity markers through its aesthetics and its unique ability to circuit, along with powerhouse vocalist Oumou Sangaré. The
morph and adapt to its changing environment. The celebrated West African Cameroonian veteran of the saxophone, Manu
ethnomusicologist and blues guitarist Ry Cooder came to the Dibango, is still on the scene today playing musical riffs that
same conclusions when he first heard the traditional music of animate the concept of the American blues, but more importantly,
the Songhai people of Mali in the songs, rhythms and riffs of let’s remember American blues superstar guitarist/vocalist Bonnie
guitarist Ali Farka Touré. These African aesthetic markers were Raitt, a lady who really knows about the blues and can converse
so evident to the European-American clergy, who heard the about Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters or Son House, and who
rendition of their Christian hymns by the Black Church, that traveled to Mali and sang in Bamako with the great Ali Farka
the White clergy felt the need to give them the new name of Touré, stating the experience “changed her musical outlook on
“Negro Spirituals.” music” (Public Radio International, May 2017).

52 Blues Festival Guide 2020