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During her childhood, she fed on the seemingly trance-like rhythms of Upper Niger, the sharp beat of the chants of the stars of the National Ensemble, the syncopated style of Lamissa Bengaly, the renowned balafola from Kénédougou, the bittersweet voices of the singers from Wassoulou... to learn their vocal and Instrumental techniques. In 1998, she realised "Mouneïssa". This first album gave rise to astonishment and revealed to music-lovers a vocalist of magical talent, open to both ancestral traditions and the diverse Influences of the life of a wanderer. We find her peaceful atmospheres, touched with an almost surreal concern, so typical of Sahel songs.
If the historical singers, such as Hawa Dramé, "Young" Fanta Demba or the "première" Amy Koïta remain her references, Rokia innovated many new ways of singing that brought to her style a personal stamp. To the flights of the djelimoussos with their striking high notes, dizzying descents and Arabic intonations, she prefers a more intimate phrasing, finely bordered with barely hushed murmurs, lit up by the effects that confer light and depth to her voice. Herein lies the challenge of Rokia Traoré: make an authentic, innovative music, without giving in to trends. The surrounds herself with a team trained in time honoured school of tradition. Her musicians essentially use local Instruments (balaba, n'goni, karignan, yabara, djembé…), but her voice remains free to depart from established aesthetic canons.
The sounds that circulate in her mind are transformed through her vocal chords into melodic cells that express emotion, bearing aloft an image lost in space or time. Here is the secret of any singer: creating his or her own language - a musical idiom from a sometimes mysterious source and that touches our very hearts. Thus, (Château de sable", the only track in French (the others being performed in Bamanan, Rokia's mother tongue) does not clash with the musical color of the whole. The artist was very adamant about this point and consequently developed her work on sonorities so that they transcend the meaning of words to acquire a sort of independence with respect to the employed language. "I sang my language in their language," Rokia was to say, who drew her dense musical writing from the warmth of a tale steeped in poetry. "Yaafa n'ma" a call for humility in the guise of a ballad evokes the power of life and death through syllabic phases that recall the art of the bel canto. "Yéré uolo", sung in a typically Bamanan style, is skilfully arranged with a perfect dosing of voice and instrumentation and its lively airs force Rokia to keep pace. Inspired by an Indian raga, "Souba" is a hymn to sharing, requiring a light voice over a minimal accompaniment. Rokia Traoré has given to the music of Mali and world music at large the tender and ineffable beauty of flawless singing. Luigi Elongui |
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P
04/03/2004 |
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Rokia
Traoré
This
newly acquired recognition prompted her to evolve vocally and perfect
her arrangements, "Tonalities that are foreign to my language
call out to me, suggesting surprising melodies, the singer explains.
Sometimes I pretend I'm a rocker singing In Bamanan! What's important
to me is to choose the right modulation with respect to the intensity
of the note while preserving its delicacy, which gives all the color
to my singing." 
In
this second album, she returns to the acoustic orchestration of "Mouneïssa"
(joined by an electric bass on four pieces) and pursues the experience
of the preceding recording, uniting the groaning timbre of the great
Sometimes
melancholic, sometimes shimmering, Rokia Traoré's
voice reflects the unfathomable destiny of the human being, singing
a poignant ode to the dignity of women ("Mouso Niralén"), trembling,
whispering or pulsating like a little drum, reminding us of the foundations
of the philosophy of the ancients ("Wanita").