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Genre:

Traditional Mande

Instrument:

Cora

Articles:
What is a kora?
On "Djelika"
Interview

On the Internet
On Taj Mahal/Kulanjan
Music samples

Biography

He is one of the most known and progressive kora musicians in Mali, hhe kora is a 21-string cross between a lute and a harp.
Toumani Diabate was born in Bamako, into a family or kora players. His father, the late Sidiki Diabate, was known as the “king of kora”. Toumani has further developed his father’s style, something of a national symbol in Mali after the album “Ancient Strings” from 1970. This was the first album in Mali to feature pure kora music. In 1987, at only 21 years of age, Toumani made his debut as a recording artist with the “Kaira” album, that is still a strong selling kora album in Mali.
Toumani Diabate descends from a long line of musicians, and took up the kora from a young age and taught himself how to play. He developed a style of playing that, while being strongly rooted in the Malian tradition, was also open to a wide range of other influences. He has subsequently sought out other musicians from around the world who are willing to experiment, even performing a concert in Amsterdam with a classical harpist. His 1989 debut "Kaira" made history, full of breathtaking improvisational flourishes, it made him a star in his homeland and a sought-after performer internationally. In the same year, "Songhai", a highly acclaimed collaboration between Diabaté and musicians from Spain and Britain, also released an album.
Over the next six years Diabaté performed at festivals and concerts all over the globe, doing much to broaden the appeal of the music of Mali in general and the kora in particular. In 1995, he released "Djelika", named after Diabaté's daughter, on which he led a group of musicians featuring Keletigui Diabaté, a veteran master of the xylophone-like balafon, and the ngoni, a miniature guitar-like stringed instrument, player Basekou Kouyate.

The album features astonishing interplay between these three musicians, with support on some tracks from UK bass player Danny Thompson and Spanish-born flamenco jazz bass player Javier Colina, both of whom had previously played with Toumani in "Songhai". "New Ancient Strings" featured Diabaté and fellow kora player Ballake Sissoko performing a series of magical duets. The same year's "Kulanjan" was a wonderful collaboration with American roots music giant, Taj Mahal, featuring fellow musicians Sissoko, Baasekou Koyate (ngoni), Lassana Diabate (balafon), Dougouye Koulibaly (kamalengoni), Kasse Mady (vocals) and Ramatou Diakite (vocals). A relaxed and accomplished set, the album topped the Best Of The Year poll for many blues and African music writers and the global tour undertaken to promote it garnered similar praise.

Relevant artists:
Baaba Maal
Mory Kante
Rokia Traoré
Mansour Seck
Sekouba Bambino

KAIRA
Hannibal/Rykodisc/1991

SONGHAI
Hannibal/Rykodisc/1991

SONGHAI 2
Hannibal/Rykodisc/1994

DJELIKA
Hannibal/Rykodisc/1995

NEW ANCIENT STRINGS  
Hannibal/Rykodisc/1999

This album is a sort of “continuation album” of the above mentioned “Ancient Strings”. “Ancient Strings” was recorded by Toumani’s father with Djelimadi Sissiko, who is the father of Toumani’s colleague on “New Ancient Music”. Sissiko is also an accomplished kora player. The sons continue where their fathers left off. Many of the tracks on this new album are new versions of those their fathers recorded 30 years ago, and illustrate how the music is developing. This album was recorded in Bamako one evening in 1997, in the marble salon of the Palace of Congress, in one take and without extras. This is a delightful disk – two koras in beautiful and dynamic collaboration. The playing is melodious, the sound is buxom, and there’s nothing for you to do but sit back and enjoy. Lyrical and masterful.

KULANJAN  
Hannibal/Rykodisc/1999

This is really the American blues man, Taj Mahal’s disk, but Toumani Diabate plays an important role in Taj Mahal’s search for his roots. Taj Mahal made an earlier guest appearance on Ali Farka Toure’s “The Source”. The combination of American, acoustic blues guitar and kora is interesting and furthermore the instruments complement each other well. This becomes neither blues nor West African music, but something in-between. For the most part, Taj Mahal works on the West African premise; he is the only American there. The whole thing works very well, as on Taj Mahal’s American songs, such as “Queen Bee”, “Ol’ Georgie Buck”, and “Catfish Blues”. The track “Fanta” is a fine experiment sung in French with a combination of barrelhouse piano and xylophone, that for a few minutes breaks the melancholy mood. On the whole the album is stamped by an easy and pretty atmosphere. And there is still no doubt about where the blues originates.

JARABI - Best of  
Hannibal/2001

This compendium CD contains 10 songs from Toumani Diabate’s hitherto 6 released CDs, from “Kaira” in 1987 to the aforementioned “Kulanjan” and “New Ancient Strings” from 1999. The disk is pure acoustic with predominantly traditional material. These are also the best tracks on the CD. The cora playing is buxom and lyrical, and this is due to either the pure cora pieces or collaboration with other traditional instruments. The opening track is for example an exciting collaboration with guitar and balafon respectively. Several “crossover” songs are also good, from the aforementioned “Kulanjan” with Taj Mahal and “Songhai 2” with the Spanish flamenco group, Ketama. In general I’m not really sure what I feel about these “crossover” projects. Certainly both blues guitar and flamenco complement the cora, musically speaking, but for me it grates a little too often. I prefer a modernising of style and arrangements over song blending. To my mind Toumani Diabate stands on his own two feet, but these tracks convey the other side of a certain variation. A couple of them are reasonably successful, by the way, such as “Guede Man Na” from “Kulanjan”, and “Mali Sajio” from “Songhai 2”. But three of the hybrid songs fall out of the frame of an African album with “the best of the master of cora”, I feel. All in all there is still much lovely traditional music here; it’s a nice disk, despite certain minuses.

IN THE HEART OF THE MOON  
World Circuit/2005

Ali Farka Touré hasn't recorded new material since "Niafunke" in 1999, so this is a long awaited disk. Ali refuses to let himself be ruled by the commercial trends of the recording industry, so the fact that this is an accoustic recording totally in his own (and Toumani Diabate's) manner is not surprising. Ali and Toumani Diabate have always known to set their own standards. In fact, this record is a sort of internal Malian cross over project. Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabate are both from Mali, but come from two totally different traditions, from the North and the South of the country respectivly, so joining forces on the same album is not an immidiately obvious step to make. Very impressing then, that they went into the studio in the fashonable Hotel Mandé in Bamako without rehearsing! The album was recorded in a few hours during only 3 days! When you hear the relaxed atmosphere on the record this fact seems almost unbelievable. The repertoir origins from both artists' early material. For Ali that means from the 1950'ies and 60ies. There is a flow in this music that only two master musicians can achieve, everything sounds just right. The main ingredience consists of Ali's blueslike rhythmic pattern in the bottom, created by his accoustic guitar, on which Toumani Diabate improvises with his kora. Or the other way around. It works very well indeed, and is pure enjoyment (sic) for your sences. Ry Cooder is carefully backing on guitar and thumb piano, Sekou Kanté and Orlando Lopez(!) on bass and Joachim Cooder/Olelekan Babalola on percussion. It is difficult to highlight outstanding tracks, as the quality overall is superb, but my personal favorite would be the blues "Ai ga bani" where Ali leads and Toumani is "backing" on kora. Magnificent.
If you are looking for music that you can dream yourself away to, this is it. "In the Heart of the Moon" gives you that timeless African feeling.

BOULEVARD DE L'INDEPENDANCE  
World Circuit/2006

Toumani Diabate goes rock'n'roll? Not quite, but this is Toumani Diabate in a new fashion! Of course he has collaborated with a lot of different people before, like Taj Mahal and Spanish flamenco guitarists in Ketama. Still the first track on the album comes as a shock: What is the old kora master doing here? Making a musical revolution? No. He stays in the Mande tradition, but this "extended sound" with electric instruments plus brass section is new to Toumani Diabate. I thought, in fact, I put the wrong CD on, this first track sounds very much like a track from Sekouba Bambino's "Kassa" album, in fact I thought the singer was Sekouba! But no again, this is Soumaili Kanoute and the comparassment is not at all a bad compliment. Anyway the song is terrific opening, a homage to Toumani, and a song to announce to the audience that the kora master is here. The second, the title track, brings around a calmer atmosphere, based as it is on an old Maninka song, beautifully performed on the kora.
There are several of these old songs on the album, like the beautiful "Wasso", about the fall og the Mandinka empire in 1867.
The Symmetric band is Toumani's "Pan African" band, with musicians from Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Guinea. The band is huge, consisting of altogether 50 musicians, including brass and string sections. This, of course, gives conductor Toumani the possibillity of varying the music a lot. What Toumani does here, in collaboration with Nick Gold and Jerry Boys from World Circuit, is close to some of Ibrahima Sylla's ideas of modern West African music, a funky combination of tradition and modernity. But there is also a difference: Sylla makes more use of studio technology, "Boulevard-" is nearly an accoustic recording, a sort of "live in the studio act". The sound on this recording is superb, you almost feel as you're there, on the spot. Very organic.
This record has everything, it is probably Toumani Diabate's most powerful achievment to date.

THE MANDE VARIATIONS  
World Circuit/2008

The tracks that master kora plyer Toumani Diabate has chosen for this album represent a wide spectrum of kora music, from old classic, centuries'-old tunes like "Djourou Kara nany" to newly composed tunes such as "Ali Farka Touré", which is improvised in the studio. The music is also played on two different instruments, one traditional with fishing line strings, mixed with harp strings and one modernized kora, with a special "Egyptian tuning", developed by Toumani himself.
Whatever tuning or instrument, this is a beatiful album. The first time you play it, it may sound as if this is "too much", somehow. The kora is the only instrument, and 8 tracks may seem a bit monotous at first. Well, only if you don't listen properly. For this is an album you really need to listen to. It is not something you just put on as background music. You need to follow Toumani's three layers of music, the bass in the bottom, the melody and then on top, his improvisations. Then you will start to feel the real qualities of this musical tradition, the hypnotizing atmosphere, the almost philosophical character of the music. So sit down, sit back, let this African peace and calm fill your soul.

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