Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté comes from a long family tradition (seventy-one generations in a patrilineal line) of griot musicians and first appeared on Ba Togoma, an album by his father's ensemble. He followed that with Kaira, recorded in an afternoon in London and has gone on to work in a variety of cross-cultural settings (a combined group known as Songhai with flamenco group Ketama and the versatile bassist Danny Thompson, Taj Maha, jazz trombonist Roswell Rudd, Björk, and Brazilian players Arnaldo Antunes and Edgard Scandurra).
Those ventures, of course, are in addition to explorations of African themes with Ballake Sissoko, Ali Farka Touré and his own Symmetric Orchestra. Outstanding. File under: Malian Kora Master
In the music library: Djelika Kaira Lamomali The Mandé Variations
Symphonie Mandingue - Live Toumani & Sidiki
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