Djelimady Tounkara's Sigui

It was when I first became obsessed with the music of Mali that I realized how little information is actually available online. Despite the hype, the World Wide Web remains mostly advertising copy in English, and the only places you can really see multicultural globalization at work are porn sites. If you want to seek out meaningful facts about other cultures and continents, your best bet remains the local library in 2012. Even then: Slim Pickens.

When it comes to African music, that tide has been turning slowly over the past 20 years, thanks in large part to the work of musicians like Ry Cooder, Bela Fleck, or Bill Frissel -- all of whom are white, established musicians with a spotlight to share. Music critics are so far incapable of taking in the music without reflexively comparing it to Mississippi blues (or even, bizarrely, Techno) and so the artists remain in the exotic top shelf of World Music, where CD purchases are a cultural signifier, intended to be seen not heard.

And, well, shucks. That's the ecosystem you get when your culture is less than an inch deep, and at least the money pipeline keeps Vieux Farka Toure and Tinariwen touring in the US. At the end of the day, I'm grateful that it's fashionable to simulate an appreciation for African music. There's a lot of money in Faking It.

Bill Frisell, of course, is anything but. A musician of remarkable range, he's a seamless fit here. He's also unafraid to step out and make the song his own, and the result is probably the best rendition of Sigui this cracker has ever heard. The drummer is especially insane, his dynamics and beat juggling had me rewinding at a half-dozen points when I first watched this. (There is also a lesson to be appreciated in how attentive the violin player is: tuned in like a fucking hawk. Dig it. Her responsiveness is pure Bruce Lee, you won't see it at first.)

My introduction to the unparalleled sound of Djeimady Tounkara came through this Super Rail Band track, Kongo Sigui. I was old enough to recognize he was taking full advantage of the slapback delay in that beautiful & slippery intro, but his articulation and behind-the-beat phrasing still amazed me.



At the time I was really studying the Super Rail Band catalog, because they're one of the finest examples of Mali compositional theory for a kid raised on rock to wrap his head around. These are big-band, electric-amp arrangements of traditional melodies, bridging the gap between a Saturday night hotel bar and the ritual celebration of Mande music. They also fucking rock.

I later found out that Djeimady is even more amazing on the acoustic guitar when a good friend & mentor passed me a burned CD of Big String Theory, which approximately melted my skull.



It was some of the most geometrically perfect music I'd ever heard, a sweet spot between classical and folk and the aching high notes of the Qawwali Arabic devotional jams I'd been into for a few years prior.

It was also Bajourou that first gave me a taste for the fact this is Desert music. (Side note: if you haven't already, check out this classic David Byrne lecture on Architecture in Music. There's always a stage.)

Which brings us back around to what, exactly, a "Sigui" is. The name refers to a Dogon ritual that's practiced once every 60 years, involves three months of purification and preparation, and gets conducted entirely in a secret language that remains forbidden outside of the chosen few who are charged with perpetuating this tradition. This is a pattern you will find everywhere once you dig into Mali music -- these waters run deep.

It may be an academic point, but I want to clarify that the Dogon are not "the" indigenous peoples of Mali. This is something you see repeated a great deal, especially in connection with the legends of Sirius and the Nommo. The Dogon are themselves the product of geography, with a history shaped by the incredible Bandiagara Enscarpment which kept them separate from the Mande and Songhai empires that shaped the rest of Mali.



I'll do us both a considerable favor and not even pretend to summarize or explain the mythosphere at work here. Just listen. That's Oumou Sangare in a Sigui context...and here's Oumou Sangare doing trip hop in a London studio. The next Sigui comes around in 2027. Here's a toast to both of us being around for it.



Related: Guitar Atlas: Africa, by Banning Eyre

The Nommo will be back eventually.