Bamako is the first recording of the OGJB Quartet, a cooperative group that features four long established leaders in modern improvised music, saxophonist Oliver Lake, cornetist Graham Haynes, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Barry Altschul. Each is also a composer and a master on his chosen instrument. Ever since its first performance at the Winter Jazz Festival in New York City in 2016, the OGJB Quartet has been hailed as one of the most creative cooperative groups working today. Two of its members, Lake and Altschul, are among the original creators of this music going back to the 1960s while even the other two, Haynes and Fonda, have been a strong presence ever since the 1970s. All four members of the group have contributed compositions to this recording that also features two collective improvisations.