When Malian singer-songwriter Rokia Traore goes west:
1. She heads for the Pacific, specifically the Zellerbach Playhouse in Berkley, California, to play four consecutive shows from October 26th to 29th; none of which should be missed by anyone lucky enough to be on the west coast this fall.
2. She takes traditional Malian folk music in the vein of Ali Farka Touré and Oumou Sangare––––filled with acoustic guitar, ngoni, and balafona; sometimes quietly reflective and other times blazing with percussive rhythms––––and contributes new ideas that simultaneously reflect her roots in Mali’s Koulikoro Region as well as her many formative travels throughout Europe with her diplomat father. Rokia Traore’s unique brand of griot music sounds familiar on levels both aural and cultural, but electrifying its customary instrumentation are vocal harmonies, string sections, intimate classical-chamber drama, and sociopolitical lyrics that speak to her creative fusion of global influences. Her first record, 1998’s Mouneïssa, is strong in its own right but perhaps too understated. Two years later, Wanita would sharpen her arrangements––––and her emotive, elegant vibrato––––into something braver, exemplified on songs like “N’gotolén”. 2003’s Bowmboï might be the best; tense rhythmic changes drive album highlight “Sara”, while “Manian”, a collaboration with the Kronos Quartet, simply must be heard to be believed. A fourth album, Tchamantché, arrived in 2008 and includes a surprise English-language cover of Billie Holiday’s “The Man I Love”. Like fellow Malian songwriter Salif Keita, Rokia Traore redefines the term “world music”––––once a lazy, catch-all genre name for any sounds that happened to represent non-Western modes or ethnicities––––into the only possible description for a sonic palette that defies easy categorizations of place, culture, and lineage.
3. We’d be wise to follow her there. Tickets for Rokia Traore’s four shows at the Zellerbach Playhouse go on sale in September.
