Côte d’Ivoire’s Aly Keïta returns to South Africa for the Moshito Music Conference. Audiences are in for a treat
At the 2009 annual Bushfire Music Festival in Swaziland I witnessed one of the finest musical shows of my relatively short life.
The performance was by a band called Acoustic Africa, which was a name given to a project that brought together South Africa’s Vusi Mahlasela, Mali’s Habib Koite and Côte d’Ivoire’s Dobet Gnahore to collaborate on stage.
Although all three of these stars of African music are legends in their own right, there was another special performer on stage that night who goes by the name Aly Keïta.
Keïta, who was born in Mali but raised in Côte d’Ivoire, is one of West Africa’s most creative musicians and his name is synonymous with his instrument of choice, the balafon.
In fact, if you look up the balafon on Wikipedia, you will find Keïta’s name on top of the list under the section “famous balafon players”.
Although many music fans watching Acoustic Africa on last year’s tour may have been wowed by the sheer magnitude of the performance, I am willing to bet that few had the opportunity to fully appreciate Keïta’s contribution, with the other three dynamic songwriters dominating the stage.
So it is great news for South African audiences that this weekend Aly Keïta returns to a Johannesburg stage for a solo show.
When I ask Keïta — in a limited interview because of the language barriers between us — if he enjoys playing in a big band like on the Acoustic Africa tour or a more intimate show where he is up front, he is diplomatic in his answer.
“I like both ways of performing,” he says. “We say if you have two children you have to love both in the same way, although every child has his own character and energy.”
I ask him what he made of the audiences on his previous tour to Southern Africa and he says the tour made a big impression on him because audiences were so open to his music.
Keïta was born into a family of musicians in Mali and he grew up surrounded by traditional instruments, such as the djembe and the kora, but his favourite instrument became the balafon — which he builds himself.
Keïta says it was the many rhythmic and melodic possibilities that the balafon offers that drew him to the instrument.
“Mali has a rich cultural background. There is lot of different music, culture; there are a lot of stories and traditions,” says Keïta. “I was born into a family of griots who have played music for a long time.
“This is how culture lives from one generation to another generation and I think this is an important reason why music from Mali gets so much attention,” he says.
Having spent the past few weeks sampling the recordings that make up Keïta’s soon-to-be-released second solo album, Farafinko (Contre Jour), I have to say that South African audiences are in for a treat.
Farafinko, which means “African Hope”, follows on from 2007’s Akwaba Iniséné and is a collection of nine solo balafon pieces recorded by Keïta in Belgium.
“This is an album very different to the last one. It includes a lot of personal stories,” says Keïta. “It was a good opportunity to express my feelings and emotions with my balafon.
“The album was recorded in the studio of my record label, Contre Jour, in Belgium,” he says. “It was produced in a family atmosphere with my manager and a sound technician joining me in the studio.”
Keïta’s show on September 3 has been dubbed Africa Unites and is part of the annual Moshito Music Conference, in which the South African music industry gets together to discuss its future and to network.
The gig will be hosted in Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown and will feature Keïta, Mozambique musician Nezio Tembe, South African fusion artist Vuyo Tyolo and Friends of Gito Baloi.
Friends of Gito Baloi is a collective of musicians dedicated to sharing the music and legacy of the late musician.
The show will feature Steve Newman (acoustic guitar), Pedro from 340ml (vocals), Dave Reynolds (steelpans), Tlale Makhene (percussion), Bernice Boikanyo (drums) and Sakhile Nkosi (bass).
The show includes music from Tananas, Gito’s solo albums and the posthumous release Beyond. The show kicks off at 7:30pm and tickets are available at Computicket for R100.
Farafinko will be on sale at the show.