10. Idrissa SoumaoroDjitoumou
He’s one of the blues guys in Mali. Not everyone knows him but one of his tracks [‘BèrèBèrè’] was on [the movie] Black Panther, with Ali Farka Touré. I’ve had this record seven years now and I still listen to it. It’s one of those records you don’t get bored of. His sound is different to Salif [Keita], to all the male artists in Mali. There’s something very different in his style. He’s quite modern but at the same time, traditional.
Is it true that he’s the head of the Malian music board or something like that?
Yes, he teaches music, he’s very important, a great composer. But the world doesn’t know him. He doesn’t like travel, he’s afraid of planes. He always told me that he cannot understand how I go on planes all the time. Sometimes you have to go to your audience. If you don’t go to them first, they’re not going to come to you, so he prefers to teach the young generation at the university.
