“My favorite was David Gilmour,” says
Bagayoko. “I don’t play like him, but I love
the way he phrases. And I think I play a little
bit like Eric Clapton. I also love Alvin
Lee for his speed. I really tried to play like
that.” Bagayoko never quite got there, but
what he did achieve was a unique, seamless
blend of blues-rock and the modern pentatonic
styles of Malian electric pop. On the
traditional side, Bagayoko’s chief role model
was not a guitarist, but the late, legendary
Bambara musician Bazoumana, who used
to rivet the nation of Mali with his live
broadcasts of epic songs, accompanied only
by his ngoni ba, a large and deep-toned pentatonic
lute.
After strapping on his James Trussart Steel-
Caster—customized with three pickups to
produce Strat-like tones—Bagayoko takes his
medium pick and starts riffing in Bazoumana
mode. Sticking to the low strings, he works
an F major pentatonic scale over a G tonic.
This “Dorian” pentatonic scale, with no third
degree, sounds vaguely bluesy, but distinctly
Malian. As he heats up, Bagayoko executes
fast pull-off and hammer-on riffs using mostly
the 3rd and 5th frets and the open notes on
the D and A strings. Then, he shifts to higher
positions, developing fast rhythmic phrases
over a pulse that remains slow and serious,
like a slow blues.
Bagayoko’s first instrument was a djembe
drum, so like many great African axmen, by
the time he came to the guitar at age 14, he
already had a highly developed sense of
rhythm. His earliest guitarist role models
were trailblazing West African players such
as Zani Diabate, Djelimady Tounkara, and
Kante Manfila, but by the mid ’70s, while
accompanying Manfila and the great singer
Salif Keita in Les Ambassadeurs, Bagayoko
was tackling everything from Cuban and
French pop to traditional adaptations, and
lots of rock and funk covers. (Bagayoko’s
first cover was James Brown’s “Hot Pants.”)
When he met and married his wife and they
became the duo Amadou and Mariam,
Bagayoko’s focus narrowed as he perfected
his characteristic fusion of Bambara music
and blues-rock.
After showing off a bit of the two-finger
picking technique he uses when playing
acoustic, Bagayoko takes his pick and strums
the accompaniment to the song “Masiteladi”
(from Welcome to Mali), a driving Em-G-A
chord progression using first-position voicings.
As Bagayoko flies into an improvised
solo, he takes full advantage of the open
strings available in the E minor pentatonic
scale before moving up the neck with his
hammer-on and pull-off riffs. Because he
typically plays through a Fender Twin Reverb
or one of several Vox models, his sound has
a harder edge than that of many West African
guitarists, who tend to favor the Roland
JC-120. Catching the spirit of the stage,
Bagayoko throws his head back and rips into
the high frets, pushing so hard his playing
dissolves into a blur of stray notes and laughter.
“I’m still trying to play like Alvin Lee!”
he says with a smile.