Le Mali 70

Director: Markus Schmidt (Germany). Year of Release: 2022

A group of people stand in a semi-circle. They are mainly white men with too much facial hair (how much is too much facial hair? Pretty much anything more than the sign that you forgot to shave). A couple of them even wear man buns. Most of them are holding a brass instrument in front of them – there is a drummer and percussionist at the back, and an impressively insistent bass player whose playing is high up in the mix, driving the music forward.

The music they are playing is largely Afrobeat, though they occasionally stray into “too many notes” jazz territory. After they’ve been playing for a while, a Black man wearing African clothes steps up to the mic and starts singing. It really is pretty good. Berlin’s Universal Earkestra is visiting Mali to try to meet some of the musicians who have inspired their music. If they can get to play together, even better.

Le Mali 70 contains several interesting snippets of information about how this kind of music developed in Mali. It was the soundtrack to the liberation struggles which led to independence in 1960, and inspired much of the decade’s music. Just 8 years later, a military coup crushed both the social and musical revolution. In the 50+ years since, as Malians have suffered different levels of repression, musical expression has slunk back into the background.

On a number of occasions, comparisons are drawn with Cuba – both as one of the countries which supported newly liberated Mali (which declared itself socialist), and as the producer of a similar sort of music (it’s true. Much of the music we hear has a Cuban beat to it). One of the musicians that we see and hear calls himself a Guevarist. This is a throwaway remark, but it would have been interesting to know more about how the music and musicians were affected by political radicalism.

Although we hear a lot of inspirational Malian music, this film – by a German director – is mainly about the German jazz musicians. Well, it is and it isn’t. A poster for the film promises that “A Berlin big band sets out on a road trip together with legendary musicians from Mali”, but to be honest we hear precious little from the Germans. We see them, first in a Berlin bar, then in picturesque African landscapes, but we rarely see how they are affected by their experiences.

I think this is a weakness, as it’s never entirely clear why the cameras are following this particular journey. On one level it’s obvious why the Germans are here – they are clearly great fans, and talented players, of the music, and the chance to meet their idols must have been truly exciting for them. Or at least, this is what we must assume. As the film eschews interviews and rarely shows the men talking to each other, we can only passively observe.

I have mixed feelings about the travelogue scenes of Europeans sitting in boats watching African women carry pots on their heads. Everything that we experience of Malian life is mediated through the eyes of Western tourists. Similarly, it’s not always easy to understand what the Germans are bringing to the musical party. Certainly they are grest musicians, but it feels a bit touristic if not colonial for the cameras to focus on Westerners playing African music.

I am reminded of 2 comparable projects. First Buena Vista Social Club, who we now best know from the Wim Wenders film, but started as a voyage of discovery by US-American guitarist Ry Cooder. Here too, there was the danger that the central story would not be the spectacular Cuban musicians, but the Western director and musician who “discovered” them. It is to Cooder’s eternal credit that he let the Cubans take centre stage in the resulting film and soundtrack.

While its certainly true that the Germans do not dominate Le Mali 70, their relationship to their African compatriots feels complicated. The inevitable album will almost certainly be by the Universal Earkestra, with the Malians as backing vocalists and musicians. And there’s a very fine line between going to Mali to make new arrangements of traditional songs of historical importance, and cultural appropriation,

At one point, at least one of the Malian musicians threatens to down tools, as a result of one of the Germans rearranges a 50-year old Malian song, changing the clave – the rhythmic pattern which typifies Malian (and Cuban) music. To the Africans, it just sounds wrong. I lack the musical knowledge to recognise if the change really destroyed the tune, but I’d have liked the film to explain more here – to show what had been changed and what difference rgus made.

In the end, the problem is resolved. One of the African singers says “it’s all jazz”, and the Germans are given carte blanche to rearrange the music however they see fit. Which brings me to the second comparison – Paul Simon’s Graceland, which utilised the sounds from Black South Africans still living under apartheid, and produced music which despite its township rhythms could only be have produced by Simon.

This is not the place to go deep into whether Graceland broke the cultural boycott (the South African musicians’ union thought not), more to ask if Western musicians using rhythms from the Global South can be legitimate. I think in Graceland’s case it was – the music produced transcended the best aspects of music from the Global North and South. It also provided a platform for Simon’s collaborators like Hugh Masekela and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

With Le Mali 70, I’m not so sure. The film’s music is breathtakingly good, and Mali looks beautiful. At the same time, I was left with a bitter taste in the mouth that this is only marketable because of the Western presence. Are there really no Malian musicians who could have done this? There is a slight insinuation that young Malians are too busy being repressed, but the lack of apparent interest in what is happening in the country means that we can’t really be sure.

This is a film which shows the best and worst of obsessive musicianship. It is a sheer pleasure to watch the many scenes of musicians coming together to collaborate and produce phenomenal sounds. But the preoccupation with the music sometimes comes at the expense of context. Maybe it’s enough that a film inspires you to go out and find out more for yourself, but I for one would have preferred to know more not just about what was happening but why.