THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The legendary Mali desert-blues artist Samba Touré is back with the album Baarakelaw (The Workers) — the followup to his highly acclaimed 2021 album Binga, which received ecstatic, career-defining reviews.
Baarakelaw is a vivid mix of traditional northern Malian Songhoy music, blues-rock tracks with psychedelic overtones, ballads and love songs. It weaves the sounds and styles Samba has loved and mastered during his more than three-decade musical journey. The songs deal with a central theme: The trials and tribulations of those who work street jobs in a dusty, bustling West African city like Bamako.
Each song is a tribute to those who work small, demanding jobs in a dusty, bustling West African city like Bamako: street water sellers, itinerant tailors, housekeepers employed by families. These jobs are essential factors of social cohesion in Mali (and elsewhere), demonstrating on a daily basis that in a difficult situation, everyone needs each other.
At the end of 2023, Samba recorded Baarakelaw in Mali’s capital city. Making the album was difficult because the recording took place at a time when the Malian energy crisis, which the country had been experiencing for over a year, was getting worse. It had become impossible to work in a traditional studio, as none had generators and electricity was only available for a few hours a day. Power blackouts were totally random, and could strike early in the morning, in the afternoon or in the middle of the night. Thus, whenever power was available, the musicians, who were constantly on call, gathered together as quickly as possible to continue recording at the home of Samba’s manager.
Once recorded, the mixing and production was entrusted to Mark Mulholland (Tamikrest, Alba Griot Ensemble), who finished the job in France. Mulholland brought in an ensemble of musicians to add various sympathetic textures: additional guitars, banjo, harmonica, drums and synthesizers.”
