Hama Sankare, a Malian veteran who in his home country is widely regarded as the master of modern calabash percussion, in the past, among others, collaborated with Ali Farka Toure and Afel Bocoum, and currently is a member of Mamadou Kelly's backing band Ban Kai Na. With 'Ballébé: Calling All Africans', on which apart from Hama's voice and calabash percussion Cindy Cashdollar's slide guitar, Sekou Toure's bass, Mahalmadane Traore's drums, Yoro Cisse's djourkel and Bouba Cisso's njarka can also be heard, Sankare now also finally presents his solo debut. The majority of the tracks on 'Ballébé: Calling All Africans' sound like rock-solid but perhaps somewhat unsurprising Mali blues, with Hama vocally alternating between Fula and Songhai. That being said, Sankare had American producer David Harrow rework two songs and he really took opener 'Middo Wara' and 'Maliwo Kayergaba' to a whole other level (think Malian tradition meets Western club vibe).