PETIT GORO – DOGON BLUES FROM MALI

PETIT GORO – THE FIRST DOGON POP-STAR FROM MALI
The Malian ethnic group of the Dogon is infamous worldwide for their animal masks and ritual
dances. Their incredible astronomical knowledge – important festivals are oriented to the orbit
of Sirius B, a planet not visible to the naked eye – has puzzled Western researchers for over a
hundred years. But has anyone ever heard of the music of this myth-encircled people?
Petit Goro is the first musician to adapt the traditional Dogon rhythms for a young, modern
audience; he is indeed the first pop star of the Dogon. When he straps on his guitar on one of
Bamako‘s open-air stages, thousands of dancers kick up dust. It‘s a sound that sometimes
seems as if Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside, and the one-chord vamps of Mississippi Hill
Country Blues had found their way to the Niger River. Pentatonic chords. Dogon chants. And the
pull of his band – riding towards trance with bass, guitar, and traditional percussion.
Petit Goro sings about the struggle for his own culture and identity. The popstar is the flagship of
a new movement: young Dogon, faced with the threat – almost every week a Dogon village is
attacked by jihadists – have rediscovered their endangered animist traditions. Everywhere in
Bamako, you see young people proudly wearing their Dogon attire. Petit Goro, however, carries
their message to the world, rocking archaic traditions with an unprecedented Dogon blues.
His new album will be released in May on Trikont.
In July, he will tour through Germany.