The National Badema of Mali
A musical postcard

The National Badema which is among the more prestigious orchestra of Mali contributed a lot to settle the great notoriety of our country.

The experience began with the return of the “Cubans”; that is to say the group of young musicians the independent Mali had sent for formation in Cuban. Some of them were Boncana, Moustapha, Bah Tapo, Tino, Alou Traoré, Salif Kéita; Mahamane Touré... a part of this young people formed the band “As Marabias”, which reputation quickly spread over the frontiers of the country. During one of their tours in Guinea, they were received by late Ahmed Sékou Touré because he was very seduced by their compositions. However, the first president of Guinea Conakry make them remark that the name of their band has a lusophone consonance. He then advised them to give it a name coming from the country. That’s how the band became the “National Badema” in 1976.

Later on, the rivalry caused by the success of the band pushed some founders like Khalil Traoré to leave the band. Fortunately, this didn’t stop the band which continued even without Bah Tapo, Baba Traoré, and Dramane Coulibaly under the direction of Harouna Barry (artistic director since 1986).

“The force of the Badema is that we have a varied repertoire. We are not contenting with only afro-Cuban any more. We made big efforts on the arrangements of folkloric songs such as “Fôgnana”, “Kuma”, “Namah”, “Guédé”, “Touramakan”, “Namory”...”, said M. Barry. Thanks to the government, the orchestra had annually one retirement month. That’s how Harouna and his musicians went to Koutiala (1975), Bougouni (1976) and Markala (1977) to enrich their repertoire.
There were a lot of rupture periods in the evolution of the Badema. Thus, after the leaving of the “Cubans”, it’s the one of Kassé Mady Diabaté which has been very hard for the band. “The departure of Kassé Mady put us in a very difficult situation because he’s not an artist that can be easily replaced. After him, I tried a lot of young artists who didn’t give me satisfaction. The positive thing in this event is that it pushed us to question and start over on new bases” said the maestro. This departure was seen in the compositions and arrangements.

So a new repertoire was born with the name of “Mali postcard”. “This menu contained music of all the regions of Mali. We reconstituted the repertoire without griot music with which we had a lot of success with Kassé Mady”. This new takeoff was facilitated by the talent and experience of Mamah Sissoko, Sidi Coulibaly and ADS. The arrival of Mah Kouyaté N°1 helped a lot also because in addition to her beauty and her wonderful voice, this singer has a mastership in folkloric songs of several ethnical group of Mali.

“It would be ungrateful to speak of the National Badema without evoking the help of Alpha Oumar Konaré. When he was minister of Sports, Arts and Culture in 1978, he equipped the Badema. The Badema waited until his appointment as President in 1994 to receive new instruments on his initiative. He did his best to make the Badema play his real role of National orchestra by taking part in all the events of the nation’s life (official receptions, international conferences…). This gave us the opportunity to highlight the experience of the band.”

The discography of the Badema is far to reflect the notoriety it acquired during several tours in Africa and in the world. The first disk “Guédé” was released in 1970. The second “Can 2002” waited until 2001. It’s a wonderful album with varied sonorities which texts inspired speeches at the eve and during the Africa nation’s football competition “Mali 2002”. Unfortunately, this album did not meet the success expectations. Harouna Barry explains that “we have been the firsts to sing for the CAN because our song relates the attribution of the competition to Mali. It gives valour to the spirit of sport: win with dignity and lose with dignity… but some animators and journalists denied us this pioneer role by tempting to shut down our work.” The maestro left to his successor an entire album.
This one has to release it and to remember that he must not deviate from the road that led the Badema to national recognition and international notoriety.
Moussa Bolly

HAROUNA BARRY, ARTIST
The vocation of music

Atypical saxophone player, composer, arranger, Harouna Barry is one of the thinking head of Malian music. After a long career serving the state, he now decided to devote to the youth while helping his companions to live their retirement.

“I’m teacher by formation and artist by vocation” repeats one of the sacred monsters of Malian music Harouna Barry. This confession translates all the passion of the man who can legitimately say that he was born an artist without anyone shooting to vanity because his artistic talent is innate. His trip is totally atypical because he’s not from the lot of the “Cubans” of Mali. But he has nothing to long for from them.
“I have always been attracted by music and I learned how to play several instruments without the help of anybody” said the maestro who spent 35 years serving the nation and who made the fortune and the reputation of the national Badema of Mali. The natural gift of the artist permitted him to teach the instrument to his comrades. Teaching that was made with rudimentary means such as tins, old kettles. He remembers that “some learned to play percussion by beating on their thighs".

The first formation of Harouna Barry was the Askia Jazz, a band created by the students of the school Askia Mohamed in 1960.
In 1962, he creates the Rônier Jazz with the Taras. Teacher of French and geography, Harouna is transferred in Gao at the end of his formation (1964-65). One year layer, he goes back to the land of his ancestors, Kayes. His talent, ingenuity and musical ambition permitted him to illustrate himself and to become the director of the orchestra “the Goffé Star” of Kayes. It’s there that he learned saxophone to take up a challenge. “The ancient always criticized us saying that there were not enough wind instruments in our orchestra. I then decided one day to try the saxophone. My comrades were seduced by the first notes so I never stopped since then” he remembers. Nobody ever teach him how to play an instrument. He says that he has spiritual fathers at the saxophone such as Tidiane Koné (Rail Band), Fela Kuti (Nigeria) and Manu Dibango (Cameroon).
While being the director of the Goffé star, Harouna Barry was appealed to in 1975 by Boncana Maïga and Khalil Traoré to join the band “l’As Marabias” which needed a talented and experimented saxophonist. The band was formed by the Cubans of the Malian music. That’s who they rub shoulders with Boncana, Khalil, Bah Tapo, Baba Traoré, Amadou Bâh, Alou Traoré, Dramane Coulibaly, Issa Falaba Traoré... after a brief passage as the artistic director of the national instrumental ensemble of Mali (1985-1986), Harouna Barry was recalled to direct the national Badema of Mali; responsibility that he assumed until 2001. During this year, he made his rights to retirement prevail after 35 of good and loyal service.

And yet, Harouna is not old yet. Although his 59 years old, he says to everybody that he is only 18 years old. “You get old only in the head and I’m mentally still very young”. Since his retirement, Harouna founded the orchestra “Les Barons" with some of his comrades such as Ferdinand Coulibaly. A band equipped with instruments by the ancient president Alpha Oumar Konaré. “This comforted me a lot. If I hadn’t managed to reconvert myself in this way, I would have become crazy, I wouldn’t have understand to be given up after having work so hard for my homeland” explains the knight of national order of the merit. In his opinion, music brought him the confidence and the esteem of the youth. “Today, I’m able to make any musician move at any hour toward anywhere. It’s extremely important. No fortune can bring to a man such confidence” he said.

Even in his retirement, Harouna Barry continues to put his experience at the service of stars such as Haïra Arby and the youth in a hall that he occupies at the house of the youth (Maison des jeunes). “He’s entirely devoted to youth, polite and available; Harouna teaches a lot of things to lead an artistic career. And he doesn’t ask for anything in return. It proves that he has love and passion for what he does” says a young female singer. “It’s urgent today to initiate the young people to our dances to avoid their prostitution. We are loosing our manner of dancing because of new dances from other where. They are about to suffocate so it’s time to act”. Waiting for the means to realise this project, Harouna is continuing his musical experience with ADS, Soufountera, François Dembélé (promoter of Santoro/Percussion). His prestige is becoming bigger and the maestro largely merits it.

Moussa Bolly