A maverick among Mali’s musicians, Rokia Traoré is shrugging off her label as an African artist. Her most recent album, Tchamantche, savoured more of the American south than the Sahara. For her support act she chose Sweet Billy Pilgrim, a quirky English art-rock group.
When Traoré and her band came onstage, the signalling continued. Malians at the Barbican generally favour traditional robes; Traoré wore white trousers, a black scarf and a blue jacket, which she soon discarded to reveal a sleeveless halterneck. Her drummer and guitarist were bespectacled Europeans; her ngoni player, Mamah Diabaté, wore the kind of pork-pie hat favoured by rap stars.
Tchamantche tends to the slow and atmospheric. Live, the songs hardened up into an aggressive, choppy funk. Traoré is generally a precise rather than forceful singer, and played this off against the music, wrapping a smooth melody in French round the scratchy riffs of “Aimer”. But the diminutive singer belted out “Dianguina”, finding presence midway between Grace Jones and Michelle Obama.
Even her guest was unexpected. Romeo Stodart of The Magic Numbers added liquid guitar to “M’Bifo”, his phrases mirroring Traoré’s singing. Perhaps buoyed by his stint in Africa Express, Stoddart has become his generation’s Johnny Marr, capable of fitting into almost any musical context, singing the end of the song in a bluesy whisper that matched Traoré’s own.
Traoré’s jazzy versatility came to the fore on Gershwin’s “The Man I Love”, starting out with a sly sashay. Here her normally accented English suddenly precisely mimicked Billie Holiday’s Baltimore tones, part ventriloquism, part possession.
For “Dounia”, she played an echoing Gretsch guitar, slowing the music to let it breathe before the band fell in step behind her to give the end of the song the martial swagger of an imperial march.
At the encore, singing “Kotedon” with the band full pelt, she swerved into a song of Miriam Makeba’s and a snippet of Fela Kuti’s “Lady”, its misogyny blunted by some feminist repurposing: African after all, but on her own terms. ★★★★☆
UK tour continues until July, www.rokiatraore.net
