It’s a tale as old as the recording industry: a chance encounter between two master musicians of different styles sparks a thoughtful collaboration, all culminating in an album of consummate musicianship that breaks down a couple more boundaries. In this case, the master musicians are jazz flutist Nicole Mitchell and Malian kora player Ballaké Sissoko, and the chance encounter a 2014 residency outside Paris. The album shows Mitchell and Sissoko’s acute awareness of the dialogues in which their music is entwined and from which it emerges. It is aptly titled Bamako*Chicago Sound System and features musicians from around both places. Near the end of “This Moment”, Chicago/Twin Cities-based vocalist Mankwe Ndosi even asks, “Can the music be our bridge?”
In one sense, of course, the answer here is a resounding yes. Sissoko’s mastery of his instrument comes from his place in a long lineage of Mandinka performers, bearing musical tradition through the generations. Mitchell is renowned for her Black Earth Ensemble, inspired by African American creative expressions from bebop to Butler. Both artists’ well-balanced investments in past, future, and cultural exchange come through clearly as they lead their ensemble on Bamako*Chicago Sound System.
Joining the unequivocally dreamy combination of flute and kora are blissful touches of typically cymbal-forward percussion from JoVia Armstrong and lilting balafon courtesy of Fassery Diabaté. Joshua Abrams and Jeff Parker, on bass and guitar, respectively, ground the ensemble in the present moment, while Ndosi and Fatim Kouyaté embody intercontinental harmony as they sing one after another or side by side.
What this group build, though, is more expansive than any bridge. Bamako*Chicago Sound System activates a network already very much in existence–the diasporic roots of Afrofuturism–with new combinations of familiar sounds that emerge from the group’s unique chemistry. The jeli-meets-jazz sounds of the opening track “Bamako Chicago” sway evenly at first, then loosen up to showcase more freeform sounds, especially from Mitchell, Parker, and Ndosi, whose improvisations build to dizzying heights against the foundation afforded them by the other players.
In “Doname”, bass, balafon, and kora make for an especially strong combination of players; Kouyaté comes to the forefront as she moves between soft and belting in a song preaching discernment between men who look good and men who are good. The quick, light steps of “Kanu” give Nicole Mitchell and Ballaké Sissoko space to flutter around one another’s lines; “Tolotai” leans heavily on bluesier motifs. As its name suggests, “Spicy Jambalaya” contains a little bit of everything: stinging guitar solos, soaring vocables, fiery bass.
“Tara” offers some light balladry before hefty, ever-shifting “This Moment” offers us nearly 15 minutes of the group’s jazziest work, impassioned and poetic. The record ends with two contrasting pieces: the jubilant “Se Wa Kole” and the wistful “Vulnerable”. No one track is too much like the one before, each one the apparent product of a distinct exploration.
Can music be our bridge? Yes, but it doesn’t stop there. Bamako*Chicago Sound System is indeed a system. Nicole Mitchell, Ballaké Sissoko, and their entire party make space and play in it. The production is minimal here, putting us in the room with them as they create together. It’s the truest kind of jazz, all about movement and communication, and Mitchell and Sissoko make for an expert team at the helm of it all.