“Bara” means work in Bambara. “Every job has its value!” sings Massa Dembele. Every job deserves respect, including that of musicians. Dembele, born in 1989 in Nouna, comes from a griot family; during his childhood, he often witnessed how griots were not sufficiently valued by society for their work as musicians, historians and storytellers. In Burkina Faso, musicians often cannot make a living from their work. ‘Massa is a ngoni player – that is his work,’ he sings in ‘Bara’. In Germany too, as Massa sings, many jobs are not respected and are looked down upon, even though they are often hard and strenuous.
A Massa Dembele – “Bara” (Acoustic Version)
AA Massa Dembele – “Bara” (Bassito Remix)
“We recorded a few overdubs for Massa’s album at my studio,” explains Christoph Twickel, founder of Not OK Records. “He produced the album in Burkina Faso with local musicians and wanted to re-record his ngoni parts in two or three places. When we were done, he said: ‘I’ve got a bit of time left, let’s quickly record a song. In half an hour, he laid down two ngoni tracks and four vocal tracks – done. An amazing song! So simple, yet so cleverly arranged and catchy. ‘You can do something with this,’ Massa said to me.”
That’s how this single came about: on one side, Massa Dembele solo, just with his instrument. On the other side, a remix for the dancefloor, with rhythm guitar, synth bass, a funky beat, 108 BPM. Bassito is the DJ and producer alias of Not OK label founder Christoph Twickel.