In the sixties. The people of Mali awoke each morning to the sound of his melancholy voice on the radio which sang of independence. Kar Kar, he was called "black jacket" and every person in Mali of his generation remembers having danced to his hits "Mali Twist" and "Kayeba" in which he encouraged his compatriots to return and build the country.

He was the Chuck Berry, the Elvis Presley of Mali, but since his music was only diffused on the radio, he didn't have enough pocket money to buy cigarettes. He worked as a tailor, a salesman and an agricultural agent, while at the same time training orchestras in the evenings and singing for his close friends.

In 1987, when television finally invites him into the studio, the Malian people cannot believe their eyes, everyone thought he had disappeared. Two years later, he is dealt a blow, Pierrette, his beloved wife to whom he sings his sweetest songs, dies. Disoriented, with a heavy heart, he leaves for France to work. On weekends, he sings in people's homes. His career takes on a new life. London discovers him, he records two albums there, "Mariama" and "Kar Kar'. He gives concerts in England, Switzerland, Canada and the United States. Studio Bogolan in Bamako, at the "Revue Noire" Initiative, produces his third album, "Les Enfants de Pierrette" ("Pierrette's Children"), with the participation of the big names in Malian music like Ali Farka Touré, Toumani Diabaté and Kélètigui Diabaté.

After a twenty year absence from the stage, Boubacar Traoré has risen from the ashes of his own life. It is so far from obvious that he is still singing and yet he is here as if he had never done anything else. Faithful to his roots, for the recording of this new album (on Indigo), he sought out Baba Dramé, accomplice and childhood friend, in his hometown of Kayes to accompany him on the calabash. On the title song "Sa Golo", they are in the Kayes of the past where magicians in clanging outfits made the night air resonate.

Boubacar Traoré is one of these solid men who reflect the history of a country, the hopes and the despairs of a people. How fortunate that he kept his voice, ant that a song like Soundiata, which inspired an entire generation, be recorded at last. What luck to find this child of Malian Independence matured and, despite all of his misadventures, close to the tiny pleasures of life. Hot a Mercedes or a villa with golden chandeliers for this Malian blues man, but a moped and a concession in the hills of Bamako where he lives with Pierrette's children and where, in the evenings, he takes out his guitar and sings about the world which surrounds him.

Lieve Joris