Lobi Traoré was born in 1961 in Bakaridianna, on the left bank of the Niger, some twenty kilometres from Ségou. He's the son of Samba and Nana Djiré, both singers in the "komo" secret society.
Lobi then became an "initiated" 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; this is why the Bambara say: "When you join the komo, you never leave".
When you mention the word "komo" to Lobi Traoré, his expression goes blank as if he hadn't heard you and there's no point insisting! he can not and must not speak of the komo ! He took his footsteps in this traditional family of artists and has an approach of music which is evidence which can not be called in question.
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. (Mali includes many ethnic groups and in each musical formation there are often several singers, each addressing their own ethnic public, be they bozo "fishermen", peuhl "shepherd people" or Songhai, "they are from the Timbuktu region"). 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 famous for its beer, 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.
When blues from Bamako meets blues from Chicago...
During his last tour in May 96, Lobi Traore invited Vincent Bucher with his harmonica for a jam on the stage of the New Morning in Paris. And it sounded as if they always played together. "Immersed in a superb dialogue, the guitarist-vocalist and the amazing harmonica player weaved a heart-rending music, like a furious wind that would have been captured by the Sahel desert". This meeting has now given birth to a trio with a calebash player to give the tempo. 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 (his words) 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.
Vincent Bucher started playing harmonica when he discovered the blues at the age of 16.
He first played in the streets and subway corridors of Paris where he met the afro-american harmonica player Sugar Blue who invited him on stage. With his first band Hot Cha, he set up the Chicago Blues Festival tours (Hot'Cha played with Luther Allison, Jimmy Johnson, Eddie Shaw, ...). He also toured in duo with bluesman from Mississipi Louisiana Red. In the 80's he accompanied french bluesmen Patrick Verbecke, Paul Personne and Bill Deraime. In the meantime he opened up to new blues latitudes (Madagascar, Africa, West Indies) through his regular collaborations with Tao Ravao, Soul Razafindrakoto or Marcel Bloud. Vincent Bucher has always longed for these musics from different origins but with common roots. This new trio project will be a new step forward in this way, for a singular meeting between blues from Chicago and Bambara blues.
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