Songwriter Markus James has been visiting Mali for years, exploring the relationships between its music and his beloved American Blues. In the language of the Songhai of northern Mali, a toubab is a white man. When James visited Timbuktu to write and record new songs with three traditional Malian musicians, the resulting fusion became the subject of the documentary film "Timbuktoubab," a colorful, loving memoire of musical camaraderie and interchange between peers and paragons.
In the film, James' warm relationship with calabash player Hamma, kamale n'goni player Solo, and njarka violin virtuoso Hassi unfolds through anecdotes about the development of songs and videos. Parallels of legend and philosophy, as well as paths of divergence reveal themselves before the camera, offering a rare insight into the music and culture of Mali.
"After 'Nightbird', which was made in a (the) studio down in Bamako, we started meeting up in TB2. Solo and I would travel up there, with Hamma and Hassi coming in from their villages which are in that region. and when we started to play together, it became apparent that this was not going to be like 'Nightbird', it was going to be a group sound, and it was going to have the sound of the adobe walled rooms we were playing in.
"And then Hamma started singing, and the whole dimension of lyric ideas came in. This has been endlessly amazing for me, to find myself playing something like "Wabissimila" with the great Hamma Sankare, and to realize that we wrote this song together from a simple blues-type riff, and now he's singing some philosophical ideas from his ancient culture (and the Songhai is as far back as it goes, they're thought to be the first people to settle down and build houses, right there in the Niger River delta region).
"The next year when we started getting ready for our first concert in Timbuktu, Solo and Hassi used stick-on pickups and plugged into these very funky old amps we borrowed from the local musicians guild, amps and a PA that are used for virtually all gigs up there (the PA mixer features faders that are frozen in place from so much sand in the air)...at that point the whole thing started to sound like an old blues band playing in a club, and with Hassi wailing on his njarka through an overdriven amp, it even started to tend towards the psychedelic, which I loved. His Njarka started to remind me of a blues harp played through an amp. But really, most gigs up there sound that way: speakers are blown, things are overdriven. It's just different from the quiet atmosphere of recording with just a couple of acoustic instruments in a house. These first songs are the sound of the houses we recorded them in, except "sun is risin", which Hamma, Hassi and I recorded outside under a nice tree, because they said that would be better for the Jimbala rhythm (because the Jinn love natural beauty and are drawn to the river, trees, etc)." -- Markus James 05/04
The new recordings from the film 'Timbuktoubab' are a set of pre-released tracks only available as downloads. Markus talks about these new songs: 'Wabissimila': "Writing with Hamma and Hassi is always interesting. Often they will respond, or provide a resolution to what I'm singing about. I told Hassi I was singing about someone on a journey, maybe who was lost in the desert, or in life, maybe they're starting to imagine they're seeing things or hearing people talking to them, they don't know if they're going to make it. Hassi thought for a moment and said 'Wabissimila', which means 'Welcome' ....'you made it...you're OK now, welcome in'...and then Hamma started singing 'welcome to Niafounke, welcome to Timbuktu, Gao, Kidal'...naming places around the edge of the Sahara....this song has really changed a lot from this initial version... now we play it faster and Hamma sings it an octave higher, really belts it out, and now he's singing to people from all over : 'welcome from Bamako, Morocco, France, America...welcome, welcome'...when we played this on our tour, in Dire, Goundam, Toya this last January, people could easily get into it because it's a universal expression, and represents a custom of hospitality. I really like Solo's rhythmic Kamele'N'goni playing on this version."
'Sun is Risin': "is the 'jimbalah' rhythm that Hamma talks about in the film, and we recorded this outside, under a tree. those birds are what you hear every morning and evening in the trees around Timbuktu."
'Hey Gabriel': "has Solo Sidibe playing Calabash, in a different style from Hamma. Solo doesn't use sticks, and he plays with a ring on one finger."
'Hayame': "Was recorded live in one take, and Hamma starts spontaneously talking about life, how we should pay attention to life, and he names each of us."
'Far as I can Run /Majirica Samba': "This is the song that Hassi and I were playing outside, by the camel. For me this is about the old image of 'the Rider' - an Angel or omniscient spirit who/'s always there, reminding you that life is passing, that people are always coming into and leaving this world. when I told Hamma and Hassi, they nodded and thought about it then started singing 'we're sending out our best wishes for a good year ahead'. 'Majirica Samba' was included in Afropop Worldwide's 'Year of the Blues' program, 'Blues Reflections', which was an honor".
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