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Sayon Sissoko: A Malian Master Dies
An unsung hero of Malian music died in Bamako this past July. Sayon Sissoko is not a name most Afropop fans will recognize, but if you've listened to much Malian roots music, chances are you've heard his precise, intricate musicianship. Sayon played the ngoni, the Malian spike lute, on many West African traditional and pop recordings. There are lots of brilliant ngoni players in Mali, but Sayon was the musicians' choice. Baaba Maal recruited him for the legendary, acoustic Baayo album in 1991. Two of the hottest West African albums on the market this fall---Salif Keita's Moffou and Djelimady Tounkara's Sigui---both feature Sayon's excellent playing prominently. Sayon's death followed a three-month illness, and it is particularly sad as both Salif and Djelimady will be touring in the United States this fall, and Sayon would certainly have been part of at least one of those tours. As it is, American audiences never got a chance to see this amazing artist on stage, but thankfully, Sayon's work is preserved in countless recordings of West African music. I first met Sayon in 1995 when I arrived in Bamako, Mali, to begin my guitar apprenticeship with Djelimady Tounkara. Djelimady immediately swept me into a performance he was arranging with the singer Fode Kouyaté, a performance where we would be one of about 15 groups playing for some 10,000 people in a stadium! Sayon was in the group, and I'll never forget his confident, reassuring presence with his ubiquitous dark glasses and ngoni. We became friends right away, and I spent priceless hours with Sayon and his family at his house playing music. I was constantly amazed by his endless variety of ingenious variations on Manding traditional songs, and it was a privilege to learn from him. Sayon makes a few appearances in the book I eventually wrote about my Mali experience, In Griot Time: An American Guitarist in Mali. Perhaps most memorably, he gives an amazing account of how he and other musicians got stranded in the midst of warfare in Brazzaville, Congo, during an ill-fated tour with Wassoulou singer, Sali Sidibe. Sayon carried on the great tradition of his ngoni-playing father, Samba Sissoko. He was a masterful interpreter of tradition. He was also a musical adventurer. When my banjo-playing colleague, Dirck Westervelt, came to Mali, he wanted to find ngoni players interested in completing the banjo-ngoni circle by learning old-time, Appalachian songs. Sayon was intrigued by the project and embraced it with gusto. Sayon was also a brilliant guitarist, and I'm pleased to say that when the Afropop team visited Mali in January, 2000, our friend Bonnie Raitt had persuaded Fender to donate some guitars for deserving musicians. I myself played a lovely, sky-blue Telecaster during that trip, but when we left, that guitar went to Sayon. We would never have guessed that he had only a few years left in which to play it, but there's no doubt he made great use of it in the time he had. In the rich world of today's African music, many of us have a hard enough time trying to keep track of the marquis names, let alone all the talented side players. Afropop Worldwide is proud to take this opportunity to recognize one of the greats. Thank you, Sayon Sissoko. May you rest in peace!
Contributed by: Banning Eyre
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