35f Diplomacy Pays
Les Ambassadeurs were among the very greatest of the golden era of West African bands, fronted by the voice of Salif Keita. Now they’ve reformed and visit the UK this summer. Graeme Counsel tells their story.
I
n the 1960s and 1970s, West African music was dominated by big-band orchestras. From Senegal to Burkina Faso to Benin, groups like Bembeya Jazz National, Orchestra Baobab,
and Orchestre Poly-Rythmo were at the forefront of new styles of music which combined the old and the new. It was a ‘golden age’ of West African music, creat- ed in an era when the region was emerg- ing from 75 years of colonial rule. Music and culture were being celebrated by the newly independent African governments as a way of moving forward and leaving the colonial era behind.
In the cases of Guinea and Mali, orchestras were created by government policy, the musicians were paid a wage and their musical instruments and equip- ment supplied. These new orchestras were encouraged to adapt local musical styles into their new songs and so the ancient epics of West Africa, as sung by griots for centuries, were modernised to an orches- tra setting of electric guitars and brass sec- tions. This idea of looking at the past for inspiration was popularised by groups such as Orchestra Baobab in Senegal, the Super Rail Band in Mali and, through their seminal 1968 recording Regard Sur Le Passé, Bembeya Jazz National in Guinea.
These legendary orchestras were among the most famous of their day, but they all were eclipsed by one group – Les Ambassadeurs. If ever there was a super- group from West Africa, it is Les Ambas- sadeurs. Featuring an international all-star line-up of some of the best musicians in the region, they were a sensation through- out West Africa and they released several of the most important African music recordings of the 1970s and 1980s. And now, after 30 years, Les Ambassadeurs have re-formed, and with a line-up featur- ing original members including Salif Keita and Amadou Bagayoko (of Amadou & Mariam fame) it is a tour not to be missed!
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