African Music lost one of the Titans last week in the death of guitarist Amadu Babayoko, who recorded alongside the American rock star, and played at Barack Obama’s Nobel concert, becoming a national icon of Mali at home.
Together with his wife, singer Mariam Dumbia, Bagayoko composed the duos Amadou and Mariam.
When Babayoko passed away last week, she was 70 years old due to complications from malaria infection. The 66-year-old and his wife were scheduled to perform all over Europe next month. And while their fame has declined in the US since the peak of global success, they are large celebrities in Europe and West Africa, and their music has influenced a generation of artists.
We asked Bagayoko’s relatives and friends about Amadou & Mariam’s favorite songs and the importance of his guitarist and his music (a blend of blues riffs, guitar solos, and Jembe).
“Tubarakono”
Keyboardist Chick Tidian Sek, who knew Bagayoko because the guitarist was 14 years old, was on the nearby Ivory Coast for a concert when Babayoko passed away.
Seck held a concert with the song “Toubala Kono,” which he wrote with Bagayoko, whom he called “brother.”
But he couldn’t do it, he said in an interview, adding, “I would have collapsed.”
The spare reverberating guitars make a circular riff, and the song revolves around loneliness.
“Mogoya”
Sambabayoko is the only one of the three children, Bagayoko and Dumbia, to embrace a music career. He toured with his parents, was in Paris, hosted a concert planned in France when Bakayoko passed away.
His parents were particularly proud of how their songs were appealing to the younger generation, he said in a phone interview with Bamako, the Mali capital and family home, that visitors were coming to pay tribute this week.
His favorite song is “Mogoya.” He composed his parents for him to perform with him. In the song, while he plays guitar with his father, his mother sings about his daily life in Mali, promising that people often cannot maintain.
“It’s always been an honor to play with my parents, but this was our last collaboration,” said Sam, 45.
“I’ll think of you.”
Mali’s famous musician and singer Idrissa Soumaoro met Mr. Bagayoko in 1973. At age 19, he joined the band Les Ambassadées du Motel des Bamaco.
He immediately said, “Amadow is bright and ambitious.”
Later that decade, Sumaolo trained Bakayoko and Dumbia at Marian National School for the Blind, where they deepened their friendship. (Mr. Bakayoko was just as blind as his wife.)
At school, Sumaolo said he spent hours listening to the blues in the rehearsal room and worked on the tone of what Sumaolo called “a research piece he’s never done with other musicians.”
Soumaoro chose “I Think About You,” a love song released by the duo in 2005, and said the couple’s love is “part of their success.”
“In it, Amadou sings, ‘I think of you, and don’t abandon me,'” Sumaolo, 75.
He added: “I hope Mariam has the power to bring life.”
