Artist Description

Lobi Traoré was born in 1961 in Bakaridianna, on the left bank of the Niger in Africa. He's the son of Samba and Nana Djiré, both singers in the "komo" secret society.

Lobi then became an "initiated" into the komo society, directly at birth. Generally in komo, men become true adults quite late. Before circumcision, the adolescent joins the "komo", and for three or four months undergoes tests of character such as leaping across fire, passing through a forest inhabited by lions and hyenas, or going a whole day without food and water.

In the second phase, the true initiation, both his knowledge and behaviour are subject to scrutiny before he is allowed to enter into the mystery of the "komo". He gives his word never to betray the secret society or to reveal its mysteries.

At 16, he crossed the river and arrived in Ségou to join a folk group as a Bambara singer. He then left for Bamako and played in another similar outfit before meeting his first musical master, who gave him a guitar.
Three years later he discovered the Djata Band, Zani Diabaté's orchestra, then the rage in Bamako; this was one of the first Malian orchestras to tour France in the early eighties, to sing the Bambara repertoire.

When Lobi Traoré started his solo career he played for weddings and in bars. It's at the Bozo, an important live music venue (now closed) in Bamako, that the public discovered and appreciated his Bambara blues in the early nineties. Since then he has recorded three albums and toured extensively in Europe, Canada and Africa. He also met the Paris blues harmonica player Vincent Bucher who accompanies him often and has helped him develop the material for Duga album.

Lobi Traore plays his mesmerizing ballads and sings his songs in honour of the ancient Bambara kings in the bars of Bamako. His melancholic, orphan songs (as he calls them) make him a bluesman without his realising it. In 1994 he gathered a group of percussionists (calebasse, bongolo, djembe) around him, pushing his music even further towards an ever more exciting mix of traditional and modern sound.

He toured with this band in Europe (Germany, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and France) and Africa between 1994 and 1996. He recorded his first album "Bambara blues" in 1991, then "Bamako" (1994) and "Segou" (1996) under musical direction of Ali Farka Touré.

Then, when Joep Pelt met Lobi Traoré,inventor of the Bambara Blues, the crossing of their guitar necks was an instant match. Their album I Yougoba, recorded in Bamako, is due to be released in the US this month, combining their swinging mix of funk, soul, rock and afropop.