Mawa Traoré | en

Lobi Traoré (1961 – 1 June 2010) was a Malian musician. He was born in the village of Bakaridianna, on the Niger River close to Ségou and died in Bamako. His singing has been described in The Economist as "flat, strangely penetrating tone, somewhere between rap and blues". His breakthrough album, Bamako, produced by Ali Farka Touré, was released in 1994. It was voted one of the best rock albums of the year by Libération and one of the best world music albums by Le Monde. Discography Bambara blues (1992) Bamako (1994) Ségou (1996) Duga (1999) Mali Blue (2004) The...

Rokia Traoré (born 24th January 1974) is an award-winning Malian singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Traoré was born in Kolokani, Mali as a member of the Bambara ethnic group. As her father was a diplomat, she travelled widely in her youth travelling to Algeria, Saudi Arabia, France and Belgium. As a result of this travel, she was exposed to a wide variety of influences. The Bambara also had a tradition of griot performing at weddings although members of the nobility such as Traoré are discouraged from performing as musicians. Traoré attended lycée in Mali when her father was stationed in Brussels...

Boubacar Traoré (born 1942 in Kayes, Mali) is a renowned singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Traoré, nicknamed "Kar Kar" ("the one who dribbles too much" in Bambara, a reference to his soccer playing), first came to prominence in the early 1960s. He had taught himself to play guitar and developed a unique style that blended blues, Arab music, and kassonké, a style native to the Kayes region. He was a superstar in Mali and a symbol of the newly independent country. His songs were immensely popular and he enjoyed regular radio play. However, he made no recordings, and since there were...

Moussa Traore is a master djembe player from Mali, West Africa. He currently lives in Boston, MA, where he teaches when he is not traveling and teaching all over the country and world. He has a traditional viewpoint and much to offer Western students of music about the spirit of African music. He has spoken of the need for Westerns students to dismiss notions of right and wrong music. He encourages students to be NOT students but actual participants in the spirit of the community. At any given moment the spirit of the music and the community is evolving and...

The name Mawaca is inspired by the singer-shamans (mawaka) of the Hausa ethnic group from northern Nigeria, who resorts to the magical power of the sung word to attract the power of the spirits. The group researches and recreates music of diverse ethnicities around the globe seeking connections with Brazilian music. They are seven female singers, interpreting songs in more than ten languages: Brazilian indigenous languages, Spanish, Bulgarian, Finnish, Japanese, Hungarian, Swahili, Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Yoruba and Portuguese. Their music features a variety of instruments: accordion, violoncello, flute, violin and soprano sax, bass, in addition to percussion instruments like the...