Album: Jatigui Year: 1985
Tata Bambo Kouyate is one of Mali's most famous female singers, born to a well known family of Jalis, hereditary musicians of the Manding people. This style is part of the Griot/Jaliya tradition of West African music. Tata's fiery, frenetic voice has made her quite famous in Mali.
This album consists of praise songs to (and named after) Tata's special friends and benefactors. These are the Jatigui, who in former times were kings and warriors, but today they are Malians of wealth and aristocracy, who have sponsored Malian musicians with incredible acts of generosity in exchange for songs about them, much the way a patron of the arts would commission an artist for a painting. This album was recorded in Paris, sponsored by Baba Cissoko, arranged on guitar, balafon, violin, kora, ngoni, and the Fulani flute.
This song in particular, Mama Batchily, is the name of one of Mali's most powerful merchants, a Fulani of the Jokarami clan, who has made his fortune in trading cloth, in Paris and Zambia. It's based on the Manding classic "Toutou Diarra" which is played frequently on Radio Mali to advertise Batchily's business enterprise.
