Recorded in the home of Modibo Diabate in Bamako, Mali, this song, to me, is a testament to the beauty of music. It highlights what likely a lot of the musicians featured on Indie Shuffle take for granted, access to recording equipment, maybe if that's even just a laptop.
My understanding around the details of how "Sabu Ye Mogo Yala" came to be may not be entirely accurate. The 2009 blog post about how this recording came about is written in Portugese. What I can understand from the Google translation is that a couple of Italians set out with equipment and recorded/filmed Diabate along with 7 other musicians in one of their homes. The YouTube video you see is just one of the byproducts.
What stood out to me from the blog post was this:
The mainstream and everyday music circuit in Africa does not live in concert halls or on festivals but... on the streets, and in Bamako this happens especially on birthdays, weddings or other private celebrations. The idea was therefore to ask musicians to play privately for us in their homes, and record them.
It's such a foreign concept to a lot of us, especially considering the meteoric ascent of Spotify, along with other streaming platforms as a primary, if not solitary, medium of accessing music. I just can't imagine my day without having heard this song.
I also can't help but wonder, what happens to traditional music if streaming takes over? Does that help the local musician? And in Mali?
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