Rokia Traore

Every once in a while someone comes along to give a push to a country's music. In Mali, West Africa, right now that someone is singer and songwriter Rokia Traore, whose sophomore album, Wanita, (Indigo) has just been released.

"She's part of a new generation," observed music journalist and African music expert Banning Eyre. "She's of the country, but she's also spent a lot of time outside it, and that gives her a unique perspective."

At 26, Traore is indeed part of a new generation. She burst upon the scene just three years ago when she won the 1997 Radio France International African Discoveries, played the Music Festival of Angouleme, which was only her seventh concert, and then immediately recorded her debut, Mouneissa, and came under the wing of guitarist Ali Farka Toure, whom she described as "both a moral and professional guide in my first steps."

Ironically, she'd never set out to become a professional singer. Instead, Traore said, "It happened by chance, meeting people who were in the business. When I was a teenager, I was just writing for myself, with no idea of being a professional one day."

"I feel more inspired by acoustic and traditional instruments. I know their colours."

Growing up with a diplomat father, she saw far more of the world than most Malians, living not only in the capital, Bamako, but also in Belgium, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia, which exposed her to a wide range of music, and left her with a wide range of music idols, from Tina Turner and Ella Fitzgerald to Joe Zawinul and Mali's own Kandia Kouyate.

Starting singing lessons at 12, and making her debut as a backup vocalist with a rap group, she began writing her own songs as a teenager. Traore's voice sets her apart from the griottes and Wassoulou women who are Mali's best-known female singers. As on "Wanita" she's soft and lyrical, with nuances of jazz in her styling, and she admitted that "I'm not based on power and volume; I'm looking in a totally different direction."

She doesn't perform on the wedding and party circuit which provides the griottes with their income, playing only concerts.

Lyrically, too, she breaks the mold, as on "Chateau De Sable," ignoring the traditional praise songs. Instead she looks for a new role for women in a rapidly-changing society, which has brought her a progressive audience at home.

"The women who follow me or feel close and want to get in touch with me are those who want to be very independent," she explained. "They go to university, or work, and have achieved real independence. However, the majority of women in Mali really don't understand my lyrics or the direction I'm taking."

And even though, to many Western ears, her music might sound quite Malian, she's introduced some radical shifts. She not only fronts a band, but also plays guitar onstage. Her musicians play traditional instruments, but in unusual combinations. She was the first to utilizie the xylophone-like balafaon and ngoni (a type of lute) together. "I feel more inspired by acoustic and traditional instruments. I know their colors, and I feel comfortable with them. Putting them together to create a unique orchestration serves my moods."

Unlike many other singers, she's eschewed electric instruments, because. "I want to show that with traditional and acoustic instruments you could do something different."

Songs such as "Mancipera," about not needing to marry, keep Traore outside the Malian musical mainstream, even though she's become a star there. She acknowledges she's become a musical role model for "some younger female singers who've come to see me and who are trying to create their own personal styles."

But, said journalist Eyre, "she might prove to be a transitional figure. She stands between the past and the future. For now, though, she's unique."

This article first appeared on Sonicnet.com

Rokia Traore

"I feel more inspired by acoustic and traditional instruments. I know their colours."

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