Mali: Idrissa Soumaoro’s album Diré tops World Music Charts Europe

Diré, which has held on to the first position for a second month, leads another five African or Afro-influenced albums in the top 20.

The album, released on 22 September by Malian independent record label Mieruba, pays tribute to Diré, the town where Soumaoro met his wife and where his first daughter was born.

According to Bandcamp, “the 10 highly original compositions of the album are based upon traditional music of Mali, but Idrissa’s life experiences, travels, education, collaborations and personal musical career have led him to compose and perform music with other influences.”

“My inspiration generally comes from donso n'goni, a Bambara instrument played by and for hunters throughout Mali,” Soumaoro said. “This is a pentatonic instrument similar to [the one used to play] the blues exported to the Americas by black African slaves. I’ve also spent so much time playing a variety of music that also reflects rumba, salsa, Bambara blues and a few derivatives of jazz, country, soul and R&B. I have looked for, and hope to have found, my own form of expression from these influences.”

Bandcamp added: “Throughout the album, his strong, clear voice sings in French, Bambara and English. It rides seamlessly upon a complex rhythmic sea of distinctly West African stringed instrumentation and percussion with accents of flute and balafon. There are keyboards in a few songs, but these, happily, do not dominate the music as we hear so often in today’s music. This album presents the music of a mature artist who has been there, done that and returned to celebrate his country, his roots and his dreams in a flawlessly produced collection of songs of love, reassurance, fatherly advice and hope.”

Also in the top 10 is RWA (The Essence) by Moroccan singer Malika Zarra at No 3 and Babi by Malian singer Al Bilali Soudan at No 6.

Produced by her own D. Zel imprint, RWA is a term from the Amazigh (Berber) language meaning essence. “It originates in the act of people from a tribe gathering together to help somebody by extracting oil collected from that person’s land,” Zarra told JazzDeLaPena. “It’s about bringing people together to extract an essence [and] to pay tribute not only to where I was born but also to all the people I met in the places where I lived and grew.”

In 12th position is Sahel by Nigerien guitarist Bombino after it dropped from eighth, while Gogo Hip by Tanzanian-Polish collective Sinaubi Zawose & Pamoja Zanzibar debuted at No 16. Gogo Hip is the product of collaborative effort between Tanzanian folk-fusion musician Sinaubi Zawose and Pamoja Zanzibar, a conceptual group founded by Tanzania-based Polish musician and producer Radek ‘Bond’ Bednarz.

Gogo Hip hopes to act as a bridge connecting past and present generations, delivering a new and unique blend of traditional and contemporary Gogo music with powerful messages sang in Swahili and Gogo dialects.

Shapes of Silence by Brussels-based Belgium-Tunisian group Aleph Quintet rounds up the top 20 at the No 18. Aleph Quintet is a group composed of five musicians from different backgrounds “who have come together to create a free-flowing conversation between the worlds of jazz improvisation and harmony, music of the Maghreb, Gnawa rhythms, Arabic classical and Sufi music.”