Toumani Diabaté


Toumani Diabaté was born in Bamako five years after independence. His father Sidiki Diabaté was considered the king of the kora and, by the age of five, Toumani was strumming the instrument with assurance. Eight years later he began playing solo in the elite circles of Mali. At 19, Diabaté arrived in Europe for the first time as part of an orchestra performing the rich traditional music of his homeland.

Two years later, the precocious musician recorded his first international album Kaira which was immediately acclaimed for its virtuosity and pioneering style. “Toumani delivers fluid, holistic mood pieces, always maintaining bass, accompaniment and solo lines,” oozed one chronicler. While the focus was on traditional songs, it was clear that Diabaté was keen to show the influence music from the West also had on his playing.

A second album, Songhai, featured previously uncharted territory by combining Diabaté’s silky kora with the flamenco playing of the Spanish band Ketama. The purists in Mali tututted his audacity, but this did nothing but drive the musician to new peaks of innovations. In 1992 he created the Symmetric Orchestra project Shake the whole world, an album that was only released in Mali and Japan. It featured some of West Africa’s most outstanding musicians, an exchange that had taken root in Diabaté’s club the Hogon.

Indeed, this high-spot of Bamako nightlife includes a weekly concert by Diabaté and artists like Senegal’s Moussa Niang and Malian Soumaila Kanouté. 14 years later his Symmetric Orchestra were to bring out the brilliant Boulevard de l’Indépendance, produced by Nick Gold, always one to flair a promising new talent. In between times Diabaté worked with Taj Mahal on the critically-acclaimed “Kulanjan” project which set out to unravel the links between Malian and American music. He also released “New ancient strings” with Ballake Sissoko, a homage to both their parents who had made a Seventies classic “Cordes anciennes”.

2005 marked the kora player’s historic collaboration with Ali Farka Touré. Released a year before the great Malian bluesman passed away, In the heart of the moon won universal praise for its effortless marriage between the electric guitar and Diabaté’s 21 strings. The Grammy award it took in 2006 was just reward for this acoustic album that does honour to Mali’s music traditions harking back to the Mandé Empire.

Boulevard de l’indépendance does not have the spare or spectral atmosphere of In the heart of the moon. Instead the World Circuit release is an energetic album that balances graciously between modern and traditional styles. After a decade of performing together the Symmetric Orchestra’s songs reveal the maturity of seasoned artists who move smoothly from dancy electric rhythms to acoustic interludes. And, dominating the conversations between a strong horn section, powerful percussions and tight string arrangements is Diabaté’s classy kora playing.

The Malian’s follow-up release The Mandé Variations is one of the most daring instrumental albums from Africa ever. The eight tracks revisit certain classic themes and throws in innovative improvisations that broaden the range of Toumani’s 21-string instrument. The 42-year-old is alone throughout the recording, and there are no overdubs. In it, Toumani pays homage to the greats that have marked his musical education, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix. His ability to make his kora swing and rock are also an ultimate homage to his own ability to impose this emblematic instrument on the 21st century.

February 2008. 


Daniel Brown