Midnight in Mali

Malian musicians are renowned for their spontaneity. Anyone who has explored Bamakos intimate musical settings - street weddings, courtyard jam sessions and evening concerts at open-air "cultural spaces" where anyone might show up - knows this. And yet the jam session is a side of the music rarely heard in the polished studio recordings that have put this West African musical colossus on the map in recent years. This extraordinary concert, recorded at Bamakos French Cultural Centre on 23rd December 2004, rights the balance, revealing the personalities, humour and improvisational mastery of some of the country’s finest musicians interacting in a once-in-a-lifetime formation. The line-up is remarkable for the calibre of musician present, the range of styles represented and the ease with which the artists traverse borders to make gorgeous, free-flowing music together. Midnight in Mali is that rare occasion when musical giants dare to risk the new, rely on their wits, and freely explore their shared heritage: the majestic, matchless variety of Malian music.