- Courtest of Sterns Records
- Amadou “Ballaké” Traore
Yesterday one of Africa’s greatest and most dynamic singers and bandleaders, Amadou “Balaké” Traore, died in Ouagadougou, the capital of his native Burkina Faso, at the age of 70. In recent years he was one of the key vocalists in the veteran pan-African salsa juggernaut Africando, but starting in the 60s he was a true journeyman, settling in for spells in Mali, Ivory Coast, and Guinea, among other locales, finding his way within regional styles. Balaké didn’t make a ton of recordings during his career, but the music he released—much of it on the Abidjan-based Sacodis imprint—was delightfully varied, moving easily between Afrobeat and salsa with many stops in between, though he frequently returned to the stuttering warba grooves of Burkina Faso.
Today’s playlist:
