Alex Wilson, pianist and "Anglo-Cuban" producer and famous for his memorable mixes of soul and salsa, tells us that he took a risky decision back in 2004: "spending all my money on recording a song with two musicians I'd only just met." I'm talking about vocalist Kandia Kouyaté and kora player Madou Sidiki Diabaté, whose music I stumbled upon one day". With a Central African heritage, Wilson is a Brit (Belper, 1971) and has lived in four different countries including Sierra Leone, and was an electronic engineer before becoming a musician. His career started in 1993 with a series of separate Latino jazz and salsa pieces until he was to blow apart the Latin music scene with the success of Afro Saxon. He then went on to make two more discs on Candid Records. But in 2004 he recorded in Mali the song Remercier les Travailleurs with his friends, and would then go on to set up his own production company. His relationship with them would continue, naturally, but it would not be until four years later, when he would be named resident composer at the prestigious Aldeburgh Music in Suffolk that he could start on the initiative now known as Mali Latino. However, what Wilson was looking for at the beginning (African songs with a Caribbean rhythm) has now turned into something more complex and ambitious. One day, Wilson was visiting Diabaté at his home and asked him about singers. Diabaté answered that as well as just a voice, it would be interesting to get a co-director on board: someone to bring together African, Latin and European ideas. This is where the balafon player Ahmed Fofana would get involved. Fofana, from Côte d'Ivoire, is a composer, arranger, multiple instrument player and has a keen sense of the lyrical thanks to his ancestors, all of them griots. He had even played along with Cuban and fusion groups. The format would be made up of two mixed sections: melody (kora, balafon, guitar, piano and Hammond organ) and percussion (djembé, congas, timbales and minor percussion), plus the classic salsa wind section (two trombones) and African voices. In this way, the slower pieces have a mandinga spirit about them, whereas the faster songs sound like a Willie Colón from Bamako. In total, 13 musicians with three natural leaders. And is there one star which shines brighter than the others? Well, yes there is. Despite all the efforts made to make Mali Latino equal and democratic with regards to status, the star still has to be Madou Sidiki Diabaté. The younger brother of Toumani Diabaté was already a star before this album, which is better than almost all Afro-Latin mixes in the past. He has played the kora since the tender age of three, and is part of the seventy-first generation of kora players in his family. In fact, his family even says he's the best player! His wide repertoire and technical excellence mean that the word "virtuoso" doesn't quite manage to sum up everything he is. He's the star that brings a smile to the dream of Alex Wilson. Mali Latino is on the Future Beats list of Gladys Palmera.
