Read the Mercury‘s complete Big Ears 2016 coverage here. Visit the Big Ears website for the full lineup and schedule and ticket information.
Omara “Bombino” Moctar belongs to the Ifoghas tribe of Tuareg nomads. Descendants of the Berbers, the Tuareg travel and live among a group of encampments in the Sahara, situated along ancient yet still-busy trade routes. Bombino is unfairly handsome and entitled to a wardrobe that—absent the harsh conditions that inspired its design over millennia—seems, if not regal, then perpetually festive. A self-taught master of the electric guitar, Bombino’s success and global notice were surely inevitable. But it was a Spanish documentary film crew who “discovered” him and recorded the songs that became his first album, some dozen years ago.
“No, my life before did not prepare me for being a touring artist,” Bombino types from the road. He speaks no English, and a bandmate facilitates exchanges such as this one by translating to French for Bombino and back to English for us. “I was nomadic for many years, going between Niger, Algeria, Libya, Burkina Faso, but this was a much different style of life than to be a musician, moving all the time, performing every night. It may be easier for me to not be at home because I have never had the same home for very long. But it is still a very tiring life and I miss my family all the time when I am on tour.”
Bombino’s sound is both uncommon and familiar. Bombino learned to play guitar in a region that brought the world and its music to him. Mark Knopfler and Jimi Hendrix were early sources of inspiration. In photos he seems to be capable of spanning a dozen or more frets with his left hand. On his recordings it simply sounds like he has multiple left hands. Azel, Bombino’s third record, will be released while he is in Knoxville for Big Ears.
Among the constants one finds in Bombino’s pet sounds is an almost rapturous positivity. He crafts ascending scales, staggered crescendos, and modulating rhythms to create a music that is universal and uplifting, independent of language or culture.
The roots of Bombino’s attraction to music and desire to make music lie in the plight of the Tuareg, who have been suffering economically and politically since a drought in the early 1990s deprived them of their ancestral herds.
“There has been a lot of progress for the Tuareg people, particularly in Niger,” Bombino says. “Now more than ever in my life the Tuareg people are integrated into the general society of Niger and there is not ethnic tensions between us and other groups. I think this is due to modernization, the long and difficult struggles of the Tuareg, but also because of the art of the Tuareg people, and music is a very big part of this.
“Art is an expression of humanity and when you are demonstrating your humanity you make it impossible for others to view you as anything but human, with the same concerns and emotions as anyone.”
Bombino plays at the Mill and Mine (225 Depot Ave.) on Friday, April 1, at 10:30 p.m.
Chris Barrett's Shelf Life alerts readers to new arrivals at the Lawson McGhee Library's stellar Sights and Sounds collection, along with recommendations and reminders of staples worthy of revisiting. He is a former Metro Pulse staff writer who’s now a senior assistant at the Knox County Public Library.
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