13. Oumou SangareMoussolou

I played with Rokia Traoré for a while, playing some traditional Malian music. That changed my perception of music, and joined a lot of dots – it made me understand jazz, hip hop and R&B in a different way, because I could see these very direct connections with traditional West African music. I love the music and singing on this album, but also the percussion is very minimal but so amazing – it made me think ‘wow, it’s possible to do things that aren’t taking up much sonic space but are also propelling the music forward.’ When I was playing with Rokia, she said ‘in Mali, you believe there’s space for everyone in the music,’ and that had a profound effect on me.