‘Ségou to Lagos’ by Solomane Doumbia | “With this album, Solo pays tribute to Tidiani Koné and brings afrobeat back to his other homeland, Mali”
Exclusive track premiere of ‘Ségou to Lagos’ by Malian artist Solomane Doumbia, taken from his upcoming album, ‘Ségou to Lagos,’ out February 17th via Mieruba.
Solomane Doumbia is one of those great artists who created the golden age of Malian music. Life has not always been easy for Solo, but his brilliant musical intuition has never failed him. For a long time, he was Salif Keita’s percussionist and arranger on some of his albums. He has accompanied him on all his tours, from his beginnings in Abidjan where they met until 2013.
‘Ségou to Lagos’ is the track that gives the album its name. The song takes up a melody from the Wasolo folklore and it is the track, and in particular the drums (played by Nathaniel Dembele, ex Songhoy Blues) that refers most directly to Fela’s afrobeat. Some would indeed say that Afrobeat was born from the crossing of Highlife (Nigeria) and the Folklore of the Wasolo (Mali-Guinée-Côte d’Ivoire). It is the only track on the album without Djely Ngoni but there is the voice of Mahamadou Sidibé aka Niarela Papou that takes us straight back to Mali. The lyrics in Bambara speak of a theme that accumulates the different countries of West Africa, immigration, and asks those who have left to return home, to the source. The wind instruments were recorded in Berlin by Fabian Engwicht and Oliver Fox (Omniversal Earkestra).
The album was mostly written and recorded in January 2020 in Bamako. The recordings took place at night, Solo would take his guitar and start playing riffs. Then he would go to the computer to compose the beats that would have been interpreted and enriched by Malian musicians directed by Solo.
This opus “Ségou à Lagos” is above all a tribute to another great artist, Tidiani Koné. Like Solo, the work and life of the great Tidiani Koné are little known to the general public, but it was he who first built a bridge between the music of Mali and Nigeria and who inspired and arranged the rhythms that made up Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat.
Solomane Doumbia owes part of his inspiration to Tidiani Koné and this album, this tribute, brings afrobeat back to his other homeland, Ségou, Mali.
Headline photo: Solomane Doumbia in his courtyard in Baco-Djikoroni, Bamako (November 2022)
Mieruba Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Bandcamp / YouTube / SoundCloud
J’ai écouté 1 titre de solomane Doumbia vraiment cet album a été très bien réalisé,