African music lost one of his titans last week with the death of Amadou Bagayoko, a guitarist who recorded with American rock stars, played in the Nobel concert for Barack Obama, and became a national icon in his home, Mali.
With his wife, singer Mariam Doumbia, Mr. Bagayoko composed the duo Amadou & Mariam, who reached international renown in the 2000s and 2010s with successes like “Beautiful Sunday.”
Mr. Bagayoko was 70 years old when he died last week, complications of malaria infection. He and his wife, who are 66, were to perform across Europe next month. And although their renown Europe and West Africa, where their music has inspired generations of artists.
We asked Mr. Bagayoko’s parents and friends their favorite songs from Amadou & Mariam, and the meaning of the guitarist and his music – a mixture of blues, guitar and djembe – mixtures.
‘Toubala kono’
Cheick Tidiane Seck, a keyboarder who had known Mr. Bagayoko since the guitarist was 14, was in neighboring Ivory Coast for a concert last week when Mr. Bagayoko died.
Mr. Seck opened the concert with “Toubala Kono”, a song he wrote with Mr. Bagayoko, whom he called a “brother”.
But he couldn’t finish performing it, he said in an interview, adding: “I would have collapsed.”
With only a spare guitar and reverbrant making circular riffs, the song revolves around solitude, a feeling that Mr. Seck said had haunted him since the death of his friend.
‘Mogoya’
Sam Bagayoko is the only one of the three children of Mr. Bagayoko and Mrs. Doumbia who have embraced a musical career. He had done a tour with his parents and was in Paris to organize their concerts planned in France this summer when Mr. Bagayoko died.
His parents were particularly proud of how their songs continued to call on the younger generations, he said in a telephone interview in Bamako, the capital of Mali and the family’s home, where visitors came this week to pay tribute.
His favorite song is “Mogoya”, which he composed so that his parents could play with him. In the song, he plays the guitar with his father while his mother sings daily life in Mali and promises that people often manage to keep.
“It was always an honor to play with my parents, but it was our last collaboration together,” said Sam, who is 45 years old. “I will never see or hear my father’s guitar anymore.”
‘I’m thinking of you’
Idrissa Soumaoro, a well -known musician and singer in Mali, met Mr. Bagayoko in 1973, when at 19, he joined the group Les Ambassadors du motel de Bamako.
He quickly saw that “Amadou was brilliant and ambitious,” he said.
Later in this decade, Mr. Soumaoro formed Mr. Bagayoko and Mrs. Doumbia in a national Malian school for the blind, where they deepened their friendship. (Mr. Bagayoko was blind, just like his wife.)
At school, Soumaoro said they would listen to blues for hours in a rehearsal room, working on tones in what Mr. Soumaoro called “research work like I have never done with any other musician”.
Mr. Soumaoro chose “I think of you”, a love song that the duo published in 2005, saying that the love of the couple “was also part of their success”.
“In this document, Amadou sings:” I think of you, does not abandon myself “,” said Soumaoro, who is 75 years old. “He did not abandon her, but the sad reality is that he left her.”
He added: “I hope Mariam will have the strength to endure life.”
