Artist Biography by Thom Jurek
Oumou Sangare is an internationally renowned award-winning singer, composer, business pioneer, and activist who champions women's rights in her native Mali and throughout Africa. Sangare's style is wassalou, a popular musical genre derived from folk traditions in the rural southwestern part of the country; that style has brought her international stardom.
Sangare was born in Bamako, the music and arts capital of Mali. Her earliest and most profound musical influence was her mother, Aminata Diakité, a migrant from the rural region, south of the Niger River. She was a sogoninkun, a professional singer most often hired for weddings and other ceremonial occasions. Sangare accompanied her mother often and by age ten was signing with her to help feed her family -- her father had abandoned them. Sangare began to sing on her own professionally at 13, and by the time she was 16, she was asked to join the Malian traditional group Djoliba Percussions as its lead vocalist. She toured Europe with the band and upon returning to Bamako, began writing and developing her own take on wassalou music with assistance from the migrant community.
Rich, deep, and mellow - Oumou Sangare's voice is like a premium cup of coffee. Interestingly enough, coffee was once used to stimulate monks to prayer by some brilliant Coptic abbott. Similarly, Sangare's music has a contemplative quality to it. The music is simple enough: a basslike instrument, the low rumble of a drum.
In 1989, she took what she knew and traveled to Abidjan and encountered producer/promoter Ibrahima Sylla at his now legendary JBZ studio. He was impressed by the young artist and released her debut offering, a cassette titled Djama Kaissoumou, produced by Amadou Ba Guindo, leader of the National Badéma Du Mali. Its single, 'Diaraby Nene,' became a major domestic hit and spurred on sales of over a quarter million copies. It was picked up by Nick Gold's World Circuit label (through the intervention of Ali Farka Toure) and reissued as Moussolou ('Women') in 1990; it exploded all over Europe and Asia as well as on the continent of Africa. Despite her sudden stardom, Sangare kept close to her Bamako roots. She issued the album Bi Furu independently a year later before returning to World Circuit for its major international release of Ko Sira in 1993. While remaining firmly in the wassalou style, the album was even more militant as its songs addressed feminist themes in lobbying against polygamy and enforced marriages that were widespread among West African women. In 1995, she did an international tour with Baaba Maal, Femi Kuti, and Boukman Eksperyans. She also gave birth to a son. Her next offering, Denw, in 1996, was issued by her homeland's Mali K7 SA on cassette. Sangare's breakthrough to U.S. audiences was 1997's Worotan; it received wide American distribution due to World Circuit's distribution deal with Nonesuch and WEA. Sangare toured the world's stages as a headliner, but the separation from her child, who was too young to travel, proved difficult. She essentially stepped away from music at her peak, but Sangare had invested her money well. She began running a hotel (Hotel Wassoulou in Bamako, which featured her own performing space), a farm, and other businesses. She provided for her family, and gave much-needed jobs to Malians. Even so, her profits went back into activism. In 1998 she received the Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters award in France. While major compilations appeared -- notably World Circuit's two-disc Oumou in 2004, she performed at festivals only occasionally. Sangare was never far from music, but it did take a back seat to her many other activities -- including launching her own car, the 'Oum Sang', manufactured in China, for her company Gonow Oum Sang. In 2006, Sangare re-emerged after a decade's absence from recording with Seya. It reached number six on the World Albums Charts in the U.S. and number one in several African and European countries. She undertook a select international tour that took her to several European and African nations. Kounadia was issued in 2012 but offered little in terms of fresh material. Her performances continued to sell-out virtually everywhere she performed. In 2016, Sangare inked a deal with the French indie label Nø Format and went back into the studio. She worked in Paris and Stockholm with French trio A.l.b.e.r.t. as her basic backing band and producers, and a slew of guest performers on African folk instruments. The set's first single, 'Yere Faga,' featuring Afrobeat drumming legend Tony Allen, was issued internationally in February of 2017, followed by the full-length Mogoya in May. For anyone following developments in West African music during the 1990s, Oumou Sangare was impossible to overlook. Her wonderful debut album Moussolou kicked off the decade in style and was a huge hit at home and abroad.
Sangare's vibrant electro-acoustics take on the infectiously funky pentatonic Wassoulou sounds of Southern Maliand this wonderful mix soon resulted in a deal with the infamous World Circuit label. This deal effectively introduced her to a spellbound international audience who soon saw her as a new world music diva. Her live performances emanated style and grace. She had the vocal power and tone of a griotte, but instead of singing obsequious praise songs to wealthy patrons, her lyrics often challenged long held traditions, in particular championing women's rights.
Ko Sira (1993) and Worotan (1996) amply sustained her reputation, although they also made it clear that she wasn't in any hurry to jettison her beloved Wassoulou roots in order to 'cross over'.
However, the promise of these years wasn't really fulfilled. Extensive touring within Africa, (where her biggest audience has always been) and a decision to devote more time to her family meant that the impetus of her career dissipated somewhat. She did record a follow-up album called Laban, which was released in Mali in 2001, though not on World Circuit. This compilation is their attempt to put her back in the spotlight.
Oumou combines 8 tracks released on CD for the first time, with twelve taken from those first three albums, and remastered. Of the 'new' tracks, the hypnotic chant of 'Mogo Te Diya Bee Ye' is the only out-take; apparently, when la Sangare goes into the studio she generally only brings what songs she needs. There's also a radical remix of the ballad 'Djorolen', successfully reinvented as eerie loping Wassoulou trip-hop. The remaining six are songs from Laban which have been given the World Circuit treatment by label founder and producer Nick Gold.
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He has reshaped Boncana Maiga's production by removing some synth and string parts, replacing some programmed percussion with live musicians and adding the flute of 'Magic Malik' in a couple of places. Comparing these with the originals, I have to say Gold's changes are improvements.
![Oumou Sangare Moussolou Rare Oumou Sangare Moussolou Rare](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126339391/164985853.jpg)
Lucy Durán's sleevenotes shed new light on the stories behind each song, and the sequencing of the material has obviously been very carefully thought through, with the desired effect of making a mix of new and older work seem fresh, contemporary and vital. Not that this kind of music loses its power with age.
What remains to be seen is whether people who've already got all of Sangare's early albums will want to buy large bits of them all over again in order to hear her latest material.