About Us

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 New CD out: 

https://boubacartraoretrio.bandcamp.com/album/live-2

Boubacar Traoré has been playing, dancing and singing on concert stages around the world for over 60 years. Never before have his live performances been captured for a production - until now! 

Boubacar Traoré, known to his friends and fans as ‘Kar Kar’, knows all about the turbulence of a musician's life. Still very sprightly at 82, the guitarist and singer can look back on over 60 years of stage experience and at least four careers. At the beginning of the 1960s, Mali woke up almost daily with his songs ‘Mali Twist’ and ‘Kar Kar Madison’. A military coup in 1968 brought this first career to an abrupt end. He put his guitar in the corner and made ends meet for his family as a tailor and farmer. After the death of his wife, he worked as a construction labourer in France and sang in the evenings for migrants, foreign workers and homesick West Africans like himself. 

Again and again, Kar Kar was considered lost or deceased, but again and again he was ‘found’ or ‘rediscovered’ by journalists or producers. Today, a new, young generation is discovering his Mali blues compositions and his fourth musical career has begun. Those who attend his concerts today are astonished to realise that even 20-year-old visitors sing along to his songs - very confidently! - sing along quietly.

If you would like to find out more about the life and twists and turns of this musician's existence, see the film ‘Je chanterai pour toi’ by Jacques Sarasin.

Kar Kar has been able to rely on a faithful stage partner for 20 years: Vincent Bucher. The harmonica virtuoso made friends with his instrument via the blues. The Afro-American musician Sugar Blue - who also worked in the studio for the Rolling Stones, among others - became his teacher, coach and friend. With his own band ‘Hot'Cha’ or as a soloist, Bucher accompanied many blues greats in the 80s, including Louisiana Red, Eddie Shaw and Jimmy Johnson. Later, he also accompanied French chansonniers such as Charlélie Couture and blues rocker Bill Deraime. At the same time, he became friends with the Madegassan valiha and kabosy player Tao Ravao. This too was a musical friendship and stage relationship that has lasted to this day. This was followed by years of apprenticeship in the metro stations of Paris and extensive travelling through West Africa. There he found parallels to his personal understanding of blues, as well as stage partners in Lobi Traoré and Abou Diarra. Vincent met Boubacar Traoré at a festival in Canada. And some time later, exactly twenty years ago, they performed together on stage for the first time at the Africa Festival in Würzburg. A few concerts later, Traoré stated laconically and beamingly: ‘Il connaît ma musique’ - by which he not only wanted to express that Vincent Bucher had mastered his song repertoire. The guitarist from Bamako and the harmonica player from Paris have now been travelling the world together for two decades. 

The youngest member of the trio, aged just over 30, is percussionist Jeremie Diarra. In addition to the djembe, probably the best-known drum in West Africa, and the doum doum, which is similar to a timpani, he became interested in the calabash. For almost two years now, he has been responsible for a restrained and confidently timed rhythm track alongside Kar Kar.   

Boubacar Traoré  guit, voc 

Vincent Bucher  harmonica 

Jeremie Diarra  perc

No concerts are scheduled

Physical CD command at agency@burokaser.ch

Discography 

"Live! (2024) Bandcamp /“Dounia Tabolo” (2017) / CD+Digital Lusafrica / “Mbalimaou” (2015) Lusafrica /“Mali Denhou” (2011) Lusafrica /“Kongo Magni” (2005) Marabi - Lusafrica /“Je Chanterai Pour Toi” (2002) Marabi- Lusafrica /„Maciré“ (1999) Label Bleu /„Sa Golo“ (1997) Label Bleu