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Boubacar Traore is a harmonious contradiction, a musician whose art and biography are striking not so much for their balance as for their extremes. An idol for the whole west coast of Africa in the 1960s, forgotten in the 1970s, rediscovered in the 1980s, and now touring once again in Europe and, for the first time, in North America in the 1990s.
In the sixties, the people of Mali awoke each morning to his music on the radio. In the evening, they'd dance to it in clubs. They called him Kar Kar, from kari kari, meaning "one who dribbles too much". The name has stuck ever since those soccer-playing days. His big hit, Mali Twist, served as a kind of national anthem for the newly emerging country of Mali, in 1963. In the song he called upon his compatriots to rebuild the country after independence. He was regarded alternately as the Chuck Berry, the James Brown, the Elvis Presley and the Johnny Hallyday of Mali, but because there were no music royalties paid, he rarely had enough money in his pocket for a pack of cigarettes. He turned to other kinds of work - tailor, a salesman, agricultural agent - and his music became something shared only with a close circle of friends. READ MORE…
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