Mali's Rokia Traore trades tradition for rock

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — Award-winning Malian singer Rokia Traore, acclaimed for her fresh treatment of traditional sound, trades a bass guitar and drums against the African rhythms of a calabash and balafon in her latest record.

"I'm definitely modern," Traore told AFP ahead of a summer tour in July and August taking in festivals in France, Belgium and Hungary.

Five years after cutting "Bowmboi", which included collaborations with the Kronos Quartet that enriched her already modern Malian sound, her just-released "Tchamantche" carries a strong touch of rock and blues.

"The sound, the orchestration with three electric guitars, a bass guitar and drums and an n'goni (a lute-like Malian instrument) has nothing to do with the rhythms of balafon-calabash-n'goni", she said....

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