Kémo Condé

Born in Bamako (Republic of Mali), Kémo Condé is from a griot family which have been holding the oratorical and musical art of the great Mandingo Empire for several generations. Melted and hardened to the daily know-how, Kémo Condé has been initiated and used to the exercise of the griotic tradition and the control of the word since his younger childhood.
His Great- grand-parents are originating from Fadama (Area of Kouroussa Republic of Guinea).
He began to appear to the public with his father Ansoumane Condé (Balafon player and famous lyric writer), and his mother Böba Kouyaté (great uncontested griot singer).
It’s to this school of the oral tradition that Kémo learned to control the texts, songs and historical events of the Mandingo epic.
The successive and regular stays of Kémo Condé in republic of Mali by his uncles and aunts residents in Bamako also consolidated and enriched the artistic and cultural formation of the young artist.
At 16 years old, the artist took his autonomy and started his solo career within the private traditional and folk groups which took part in several ritual ceremonies or of popular rejoicings in Mali, then in Guinea. (Siguiri, Kouroussa, Kankan, and then Conakry the capital). The course rich of experiences thus leads the artist in the rows of national instrumental ensemble of Guinea in 1966. His potentialities were wonderful near his late brother Sory Kandia Kouyaté.
A national and international career began for Kémo Condé within this prestigious African traditional formation, this career successively leads him to Alger (first Panafrican cultural festival 1969), Tunis (first world festival of youth 1973), Lagos (second Panafrican cultural festival 1977), Cuba (eleventh world festival of youth 1978), Tripoli (third Panafrican cultural festival 1983) and from 1988 to this day, he made several national and international tours in Senegal, Mali, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, France, Germany, Soviet Union …
The reputation of national instrumental ensemble, symbol of the authentic expression of the cultural inheritance of Guinea, allowed Kémo Condé to meet the greatest musicians groups and traditional and modern artists in the world. His genre, his style, the timbre of his voice and his humility helped him to conquer a whole generation of Guinean and African singers. This album "Soumankoï" produced by Syllart is the synthesis of his multiple experiences lived.

RFI
Radio France International (RFI) has just put on sale a compilation (world music) of the various prizes winner of the price "Découvertes RFI". “Découvertes RFI” is a competition that RFI annually organizes to discover new talents and bring them to better determining the requirements of the international show biz.
On this compilation figures Malian artists like Nahawa Doumbia, Mangala Camara, Rokia Traoré and others. Except Dogoba Seydou, Découvertes RFI has been a springboard for the other Malian artists who won the Price: Amadou & Mariam, Nahawa Doumbia, Magala Camara, Habib Koité and Rokia Traoré.
Let’s finally announce since its creation, three finales of this competition took place in Bamako (1983; 1993 and 1997).

Habib Koité
Habib Koité and his group returned to Bamako after a tour of more than 3 months. They profited from this tour (America-Europe) to finalize their next album live which will soon be released. We will speak about it in our next delivery.

Rokia Traoré
The lady of Beledougou Rokia Traoré is awaited in Bamako for the end of May for the promotion of her next album which release is planned for this summer. In addition to the release of this opus, Rokia plans to undertake a great national tour to present her album and also to prove her maturity.
You will very soon have (beginning of May), a foretaste of this master piece that criticisms of the world music already qualify as the "hit" of the year. Wait and see.