Join us for a concert from Al Bilali Soudan from Timbuktu, Mali. Their performance is an improvisational tour de force of traditional instruments (incl. tehardant and calabash), rhythms, and scales. These traditional instruments are foundational to the development of the style that has evolved into the modern desert blues sound.

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The group members all come from a well-known Tuareg griot family who have performed for generations. Aballow Yattara is the current group leader. Other members of the group are his uncle Aboubacrine Yattara and their sons Mohamed Ag Abellow and Tchiale Ag Aboubacrine.

Abellow and Aboubacrine Yattara began to play the tehardant, a three-stringed fretless instrument that some refer to as precursor to modern banjo, when they were adolescents. Both their fathers were master musicians. His uncle can be heard on the first recordings of traditional music in Northern Mali. Abellow Yattara can be heard on early recordings by Ali Farka Toure, on 1970’s recordings of the Orchestre de Tombouctou, and many Radio Mali broadcasts. He accompanied the vocalist, Khaira Arby, on recordings and on tour. In 2010 he gave a master class at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Hear the interview with Al Bilali Soudan

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