Meeting Baba Diabaté

Today, on a bimble-by-foot around Essaouira’s medina, or mogador, I spotted Baba Diabaté tightening the head of a drum. I took this photograph of him in action and we chatted a bit about instrument making.

On returning to the riad we are staying at, I was delighted to find his music on Bandcamp.

This also led me to follow up on who recorded it. I always find labels a good conduit for musical exploration. In this case, it’s two people (Max and Amando) who go by the name of Nulla Cruising, and are overloading in a beast of a truck that doubles as a mobile recording studio.

From what I can tell, they do this with a great spirit and approach. They seem to live in the communities as they travel and artists seem to receive any money arising from the recordings. I also loved the details on musical instrument design in the video of theirs I watched. I’ll be checking out more of their videos and their recordings on Bandcamp.

What a lovely journey a chance meeting with Baba Diabaté has taken me on today…