Festival : Segou, Mali

Malik Drame plays Bara music on bonkolo at a Bamana festival in Segou Mali. Funky!

Bonkolo predates Djembe for the Bamana people. Today, in Mali, ancient rhythms like Bara get played on djembe, too. It’s good to get an idea of the origional instrumentation for these rhythms.

The ergonomics of bonkolo tend to result in a minimalist solo style. This video demonstrates how simple soloing with lots of space can often be very funky.