Pages tagged “world circuit”

• • Decrease
  • Reset
  • Increase
  resize
• print
• send

Toumani Diabaté: The Mandé Variations

Mali’s reigning musical magician uncorks another genie from his bottleIf the only reason Western pop fans know anything about Malian music or genius-level kora player Toumani Diabaté is because of world-beat hitchhikers such as Blur’s Damon Albarn (whose 2002 Oxfam benefit release Mali Music includes collaborations with Diabaté and several of his master-level countrymen), then shame on us all.  The kora is a 21-string harp fashioned from an African bottle gourd, cut in half and then fitted with cow skin to create a resonator. Players at Diabaté’s level of accomplishment are capable of making the instrument sound as much like...  read more