Bio:
Born to a Peule mother and a Sonrai father, also a musician. Having studied agriculture, Afel has worked since 1978 as a farmer and agricultural adviser.
His musical career began in 1968. At 13 years of age, Afel Bocoum joined his uncle Ali Farka Toure, also from Niafunke, in his group Asco. Though he left the group in 1978, his collaboration with Ali Farka Toure has lasted some thirty years. In the 1980s, he founded his own group, which he named Alkibar, meaning "Messenger of the great river" in Sonrai.
Afel plays the guitar, composes and sings. Traditional violin and the diurkel (a one-stringed instrument) add their individual voices to calabashes and percussion, creating an interwoven atmosphere of sounds that gently seizes the listener. The principal themes of his songs are forced marriage, homage to characters from local history, odes to nature and work songs. It’s delightful to allow yourself to be rocked by these monotonous chants, slipping like noiseless canoes down the river.
Afel Bocoum sings mainly in Sonrai, his mother tongue, but also in Tamashek, the language of the Tuareg, and in Bambara. His songs evoke the evolution of Malian society, acknowledge women, forced marriage, and respect.
In 1999, Afel produced his first album "ALKIBAR" (World Circuit/Night & Day).
This album was recorded in Mali, during busy Ali Farka Toure (Niafunke) sessions. Afel benefited from the mobile recording studio provided by Ali’s producer (Nick Gold).
Afel wanted to make an album in the spirit of the man he affectionately called "the Boss". With the blessing of the latter, he developed a repertoire and a soft and hypnotic style unique to him. His playing of the njarka or njurkle (one string fiddle and lute), his six chord solos, his increasingly simple melodies, his inspiration that evokes the earth, his conviction that he gives the best of himself to each of his compositions... all these elements are found on Afel’s first album, even if he had already revealed himself on the cult album of his mentor (The Source). His style is accompanied by a certain roundness of sound. His playing is more serene, more confident and less tortured by the meaning of life. Perhaps this is a generation difference.
In 2002, Afel collaborated with the lead singer of Blur, Damon Albarn, on the extremely popular album "Mali Music". The gigs they played together were well received, especially the concert at the Barbican in London in June 2003. Damon also made a guest appearance beside Afel on a larger stage at Roskilde in Denmark in front of 65,000 people.
During 2004 and 2005, Afel and his group took part in the project "Desert Blues" in the company of Habib Koite and Tartit, the Tuareg women of Timbuktu.
This project, expressive of Malian ethnic diversity, travelled to the heart of the Sahara and to Sahel. The three groups joined talents to offer an original repertoire, at the same time a mutual discovery and illustrating the influence of the Sahara on the musical traditions of each of them.
At the beginning of 2006, Afel recorded his second opus "Niger" in the studio of his bass player, Barou Diallo in Bamako, in collaboration with Daniel Boivin.
With Niger, Afel takes us once again to the banks of the great river beside Niafunke, to one of the sources of the Blues... The theme of the songs is, in addition to the river and its surroundings, respect for women, the values of Malian society, and politics.
In this opus, Afel truly assumes the musical heritage of his uncle, Ali Farka Toure.
In spite of his growing success, Bocoum remains gentle and unassuming, modestly directing the energy this recognition brings him towards the welfare of his people and the inspiration they give to his music. In the dancing melodies of the river and the palpitating rhythm of the hard desert wind, there is no doubt that the heritage of Ali Farka Toure is in good hands. With remarkable subtlety and a sure talent, Afel Bocoum has proved that he is a true "Messenger of the great river", and it’s certain he will actively contribute to keeping Malian music at the forefront of the international scene.
"Afel Bocoum returns with a second CD, seven years after Alkibar (World Circuit).
With Niger, he takes us once again to the banks of the great river beside Niafunke, to one of the sources of the Blues...
In this opus, Afel truly assumes the musical heritage of his uncle, Ali Farka Toure."
Contact Information
Record Company:
Record Company:
World Circuit Records
https://worldcircuit.co.uk
The Recôncavo is an almost invisible center-of-gravity. Circumscribing the Bay of All Saints, this region was landing for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history. Not unrelated, it is also birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. —Sparrow
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay. They paid.
MATRIX MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. (that's me left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).