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Kanté
Manfila, one
of Africa's greatest guitarists, has died. He will be remembered as the chef
d'orchestre of Les
Ambassadeurs Internationaux, where his collaborations with Salif Keita
propelled West African music to the forefront of the African music
scene, thanks to songs such as "Mandjou", "Seydou Bathily", "Ntoma", and
"Primpin".
Manfila was born in 1946 in Farabanah near Kankan. He is not of the Mandé griot
heritage, as many journalists have assumed, but of Mandé blacksmith
lineage.
Such heritage, however, does not preclude the learning of
musical instruments
of the griots, and from the age of eight Manfila began to play the balafon
before moving to the acoustic guitar. Among his relatives are many
prominent musicians. His cousins include Kanté
Facelli, arguably Guinea's pre-eminent guitarist and the co-founder Les
Ballet Africains, and Sandaly "Balakala" Kanté,
the lead guitarist with the Horoya Band and then the 22 Band. He is also
related to, and often confused with, Kanté
"Soba" Manfila, the lead singer of Balla et ses Balladins, and
Kanté
"Dabadou" Manfila,
the lead singer of Keletigui et ses Tambourinis. When he was 14 he moved
to Abidjan, thus avoiding the restrictive
atmosphere which dictated the arts during Guinea's
Cultural Revolution under Sékou Touré. His musicianship developed rapidly and he
played in orchestras (Rythme de la Bia and
Independence Jazz) and had formed his own
group
while still in his teens.
He
first recordings were 45 rpms
on the
local Djima label, recorded in the late 1960s. In 1972 he moved to Bamako where he
joined Les Ambassadeurs du Motel as the lead singer and lead guitarist.
Shortly after, Salif Keita left the Super Rail Band and
decided to join
the
group. There was much talk of potential rivalry between these two
frontmen,
but this was far from the truth. Recognising and respecting each other's
talents created a deep bond, and the two worked closely together on the
arrangements and lyrics of songs. Les Ambassadeurs du Motel
grew to become the
chief rival of the Super Rail Band, and it
took a popularity competition
to decide who was the best in the
public eye.
The
Malian government asked that each group write a song to promote
a new
literacy campaign and then perform it at a concert where the audience
would decide the winner. The result from Manfila and Salif was "Kibaru",
a 26 minute opus. On the night of the performance, and what a gig that
would have been, both bands were declared winners. Les Ambassadeurs du
Motel enjoyed a great popularity thereafter in Bamako, and released
several long play recordings. In 1976 however, Manfila, Salif, and many other
members of the group left Bamako for Abidjan, where they formed Les
Ambassadeurs Internationaux. The reasons for moving were largely
financial, peppered with increasing
disatisfaction with the military regime of Moussa Traoré.
Abidjan was the centre of a booming music
industry which was reaching its peak.
Manfila's and Salif's first recordings, however, were not with their
orchestra, but were acoustic sets: two albums of traditional music
titled Dans
l’authenticité volumes 1 & 2.
Released on the Badmos label,
the LPs
feature
Salif singing
traditional
griot songs to
the accompaniment of Manfila's balafon and arrangements. These
recordings are
magificent in
their own right, though it was with their
orchestra Les
Ambassadeurs Internationaux that the fame
arrived. Within a year of arriving,
Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux had become the most popular group in the city.
The group's first recording was the album "Mandjou". The title track is
without doubt one of the greatest African songs recorded (a video of the
song is here).
A homage to the Touré clan, and in particular to Pres. Sékou
Touré, it
blended traditional Mandé melodies with jazz, a feat largely achieved
through the skill and leadership of Manfila. His guitar solo in the song
illustrates not only his balafon background, but also
references the
deep riches of Mandé
music.
One can only sit back and admire his ability to transpose and
transform his tradition. As a guitarist, his role in modernising Guinean
and African music was enormous. In an interview with Lucy Duran ("Kante
Manfila", Folk Roots,
volume 100,
October 1991, pp 20-26) Manfila states that he was "the first Guinean to
apply the chordal progressions of the guitar "methodique" to traditional
Mande music". Such is his legacy that a generation of musicians were
influenced by him. Les
Ambassadeurs Internationaux released a total of 6 LPs and in doing so
they advanced Mandé music
and modernised it. All of their recordings have been
re-released on compact disc.
In 1982 Salif left Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux and
moved to Paris.
Manfila stayed in Abidjan and continued to perform, though times had
changed and in 1985 he, too, emigrated to Paris. Among his first solo
recordings were Musicale
Mandingue and Tradition, both
on the Tangent label operated by Albert Lourdes of Société
Ivoirienne du Disque. In
the 1990s he released three CDs under the theme of "Kankan blues",
recordings which saw him continue his exploration of Mandé musical
traditions in the diaspora. He also collaborated with Salif on the album "Amen", which he
described as a recording which sought to recreate the feeling of Les
Ambassadeurs Internationaux.
Recently, his early Djima recordings were re-released as "Clash
Mandingue", thus bringing his music to new audiences. In
2005, Mali’s president honoured Manfila with one of the highest awards,
the Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mali, for his role in the
development of Malian music during the 1970s.
His passing is a great
loss and I extend my sympathies to his friends and family.
A discography of Kanté
Manfila's vinyl recordings can be found in the Guinean
vinyl discography page. His recordings with Les Ambassadeurs
Internationaux can be found here.
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