As a young guitarist and songwriter, Omara Moctar AKA Bombino is already a heavy-hitter on the Tuareg music scene, riding high on world-wide status with folks like Tinariwen and All Farka Toure. Bombino has been touring the world over with his debut album, Agadez. OKA contributor, Semper Azeez-Harris caught up with Bombino in London before his crew crossed the pond to embark upon the North American leg of the tour.
Semper Azeez-Harris for Okayafrica: We were there in the audience when you performed on the famous ‘Later with Jools Holland‘ show in London (video below) what was that like for you?
Bombino: That was incredible! It was really a new experience for me – I have never played like that on television before such a large audience around the world. It felt like a dream.
OKA: How would you describe your sound, is it a mix of traditional and new?
B: Yes, my music is a mix of traditional and modern music for sure. I build all of my songs on the ancient Tuareg rhythms, which to us are the pulse of the desert. Sometimes the chords and melodies that I write on top of that are new and influenced from American rock, but it is always in the same rhythmic structure as our traditional music. I would describe my music as Tuareg rock, blues, and folk music. It is music of the vast Saharan Desert, quite simply.
OKA: How is the Agadez tour going at the moment and what have been the highlights?
B: The tour has been wonderful, all year long really. We have been to over twenty countries and seen a great many new things for us. Some highlights were playing in Israel — the people were so cool there — and in Japan. I have never before seen traffic jams just of people walking in the street! Also playing with Stevie Wonder in Los Angeles, Tinariwen in Minneapolis, Fools Gold in Paris, Juju in London — those were all very special shows that I will always cherish.
Stream Bombino’s debut album Agadez
OKA: How did your journey into music begin and indeed why?
B: I was very passionate about music since I was a young boy. There were guitarists coming and going in my house all the time as a child, and then when my family fled to Algeria I got to play the guitar for the first time. I was about twelve years old. I cannot say why I have always loved music — it is just something that is in my heart and makes me happy.
OKA: Who were your musical inspirations and why?
B: My biggest inspirations are Ali Farka Toure, Tinariwen, Jimi Hendrix and Dire Straits — Ali Farka and Tinariwen were heroes of our people when I was growing up — everyone looked up to them as the music masters that were carrying our culture and introducing it to the outside world. So I have enormous and eternal respect for them as my mentors. I got my rock influences from Jimi Hendrix and Dire Straits – watching video clips of them playing when I was a young teenager in Algeria and Libya. They opened my eyes to things on the guitar I had not imagined before, and I learned how freeing it could be to play the guitar.
OKA: How have the political troubles that Niger has faced affected you and the music you create?
B: My music is about my life and the lives of the Tuareg people of Niger. I write songs about the hardships we have all faced, about our pain and struggle for freedom, about being torn apart by war and missing your loved ones. I am not the kind of artist that just writes song like “baby, i love you, let’s go dancing” and stuff like that. My songs come from the heartaches of love – for people, for land and for peace.
OKA: Where is Niger musically and what should we be celebrating?
B: We should be celebrating the fact that Niger is free again and the Tuareg people have returned in peace to their land in Agadez. It has been two years of peace after many years of conflict. I am just hoping that this peace can continue for many years to come.
OKA: Where do you see African music in the next five years?
B: African music will be in five years like what it is now — a reflection of how the societies think and feel and the influences from outside that they are embracing. Maybe there will be more electronic music in Africa, I don’t know. But in any case, it will always be a balance between preserving our traditions and leading the way of an evolved society.
OKA: What are you working on currently?
B: I am working on my new album that we will begin recording early next year.
OKA: When can we expect your next project?
B: I think the new album will be released in the fall of next year.
OKA: Tell us a bit about Agadez, The Music and the Rebellion, the award-winning documentary that you appear in, and which highlights the Tuareg culture (trailer below).
B: This is a real masterpiece. Ron Wyman, the filmmaker, did an incredible job of showing Tuareg life as it is, not as someone from outside imagines it or wants it to be. It is a real window into life in the desert. It captures the beauty of the desert and also our struggle to survive in it. I hope many more people will see this documentary so that they can better understand our lives and our struggles.
You can purchase Bombino’s latest album Agadez, here. Catch one of his amazing performances here.
Fusing the distinct sounds of Western blues and rock with traditional Tuareg music, Bombino is a figure of African guitar alongside the likes of Tinariwen and Ali Farka Touré. Raised during a period of resistance and rebellion, his music reflects both the strife of warfare and a great sense of hope and optimism for the Tuareg people. The story of Bombino and his people’s struggle for self-determination was told in the moving film Agadez, the Music & the Rebellion, and his Cumbancha album Agadez. Catch Bombino on his upcoming North Amercan tour dates!
A selection of Jean Rouch‘s rare ethnographic films will be screening at MOMA in NYC Wednesday Oct. 26 at 4pm. Rouch is one of the pioneers of documentary filmmaking, and his lens on native peoples continues to shape the dialogue of ethical do’s and don’ts in anthropological studies. See a small sampling of his work from 1958 above (via Shadow and Act). Be sure to catch this screening of films he recorded in the West African countries of Mali and Niger between 1946-1951:
In the Land of the Black Magi: 1946–47. France. Directed by Jean Rouch. Rouch’s earliest surviving film, which depicts the Sorko of Niger on a hippopotamus hunt. 12 min.
Initiation into Possession Dance: 1948. France. Directed by Jean Rouch. Ritual possession dances among the Songhay of Firgoun, Niger. 22 min.
The Magicians of Wanzerbé: 1948. France. Directed by Jean Rouch. “Screened at the first ethnographic film conference of the Musée de l’Homme, [this film] depicts rituals of Songhay magicians who are descendants of Emperor Sonny Ali from the village of Wanzerbé, Niger, [including scenes of] the Wanzerbé market, children’s games, Mossi the magician, dance of the magicians, and sacrifice made to the village mountain spirit” (Rouch). 29 min.
Cemetary in the Cliff: 1950. France. Directed by Jean Rouch. Rouch records funeral rituals among the Dogon on the cliffs of Bandiagara, Mali, centering on a sacrifice to the spirit of the water, the return of the cadaver, and the interment of the body in the cemetery. 18 min.
The Men Who Make it Rain: 1951. France. Directed by Jean Rouch. “Rain rituals with possession dances among the Songhay and Zarma of Simiri, Zermaganda, Niger” (Rouch). The spirits speak through the voices of the dancers they have chosen, including the spirit of the wind, goddess of the cemeteries, the rainbow, master of the lightning, master of the thunderbolt, and master of the thunder and the rain. 28 min.
For more information on the screenings, click here.
Musical mediator and Niger born guitar wizard, Bombino, is a rising international star of Tuareg Rock N’ Roll. Already well recognized in his country via years of bootlegs, and more formally, his band Tidawt, Bombino will release Agadez, on April 19th on Cumbancha Discovery. Agadez, a solid 10 songs of the most pleasant futurized-Berber rhythms, is the potential product of the recently released documentary by film maker Ron Wyman, entitled, Agadez, the Music and the Rebellion. The film captures Tuareg culture in the Sahara deserts, and features how Bombino’s musicianship translates into his role as a social leader and advocate for peace. The film already has a number of accolades including, “Official Selection at International Film festival South Africa 2010,” and “Official Selection London International Documentary Film Festival.” Check out previews of the film here, and make sure to download the new single from Agadez, “Tar Hani (My Love)”
You’re in luck New York! Another free show. Check out Etran Finatawa on August 1st, 2:00pm at Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Hailing from Niger, Etran Finatawa have created their own genre of music, nomadic blues, by being the only group to ever combine the cultures of the Wodaabe and Touareg people. Be sure to check out their latest album, Tarkat Tajje/Let’s Go, released in March 2010.
Interview: Bombino ‘The Next Generation of Desert Blues’
As a young guitarist and songwriter, Omara Moctar AKA Bombino is already a heavy-hitter on the Tuareg music scene, riding high on world-wide status with folks like Tinariwen and All Farka Toure. Bombino has been touring the world over with his debut album, Agadez. OKA contributor, Semper Azeez-Harris caught up with Bombino in London before his crew crossed the pond to embark upon the North American leg of the tour.
Semper Azeez-Harris for Okayafrica: We were there in the audience when you performed on the famous ‘Later with Jools Holland‘ show in London (video below) what was that like for you?
Bombino: That was incredible! It was really a new experience for me – I have never played like that on television before such a large audience around the world. It felt like a dream.
OKA: How would you describe your sound, is it a mix of traditional and new?
B: Yes, my music is a mix of traditional and modern music for sure. I build all of my songs on the ancient Tuareg rhythms, which to us are the pulse of the desert. Sometimes the chords and melodies that I write on top of that are new and influenced from American rock, but it is always in the same rhythmic structure as our traditional music. I would describe my music as Tuareg rock, blues, and folk music. It is music of the vast Saharan Desert, quite simply.
OKA: How is the Agadez tour going at the moment and what have been the highlights?
B: The tour has been wonderful, all year long really. We have been to over twenty countries and seen a great many new things for us. Some highlights were playing in Israel — the people were so cool there — and in Japan. I have never before seen traffic jams just of people walking in the street! Also playing with Stevie Wonder in Los Angeles, Tinariwen in Minneapolis, Fools Gold in Paris, Juju in London — those were all very special shows that I will always cherish.
Stream Bombino’s debut album Agadez
OKA: How did your journey into music begin and indeed why?
B: I was very passionate about music since I was a young boy. There were guitarists coming and going in my house all the time as a child, and then when my family fled to Algeria I got to play the guitar for the first time. I was about twelve years old. I cannot say why I have always loved music — it is just something that is in my heart and makes me happy.
OKA: Who were your musical inspirations and why?
B: My biggest inspirations are Ali Farka Toure, Tinariwen, Jimi Hendrix and Dire Straits — Ali Farka and Tinariwen were heroes of our people when I was growing up — everyone looked up to them as the music masters that were carrying our culture and introducing it to the outside world. So I have enormous and eternal respect for them as my mentors. I got my rock influences from Jimi Hendrix and Dire Straits – watching video clips of them playing when I was a young teenager in Algeria and Libya. They opened my eyes to things on the guitar I had not imagined before, and I learned how freeing it could be to play the guitar.
OKA: How have the political troubles that Niger has faced affected you and the music you create?
B: My music is about my life and the lives of the Tuareg people of Niger. I write songs about the hardships we have all faced, about our pain and struggle for freedom, about being torn apart by war and missing your loved ones. I am not the kind of artist that just writes song like “baby, i love you, let’s go dancing” and stuff like that. My songs come from the heartaches of love – for people, for land and for peace.
OKA: Where is Niger musically and what should we be celebrating?
B: We should be celebrating the fact that Niger is free again and the Tuareg people have returned in peace to their land in Agadez. It has been two years of peace after many years of conflict. I am just hoping that this peace can continue for many years to come.
OKA: Where do you see African music in the next five years?
B: African music will be in five years like what it is now — a reflection of how the societies think and feel and the influences from outside that they are embracing. Maybe there will be more electronic music in Africa, I don’t know. But in any case, it will always be a balance between preserving our traditions and leading the way of an evolved society.
OKA: What are you working on currently?
B: I am working on my new album that we will begin recording early next year.
OKA: When can we expect your next project?
B: I think the new album will be released in the fall of next year.
OKA: Tell us a bit about Agadez, The Music and the Rebellion, the award-winning documentary that you appear in, and which highlights the Tuareg culture (trailer below).
B: This is a real masterpiece. Ron Wyman, the filmmaker, did an incredible job of showing Tuareg life as it is, not as someone from outside imagines it or wants it to be. It is a real window into life in the desert. It captures the beauty of the desert and also our struggle to survive in it. I hope many more people will see this documentary so that they can better understand our lives and our struggles.
You can purchase Bombino’s latest album Agadez, here. Catch one of his amazing performances here.