Toumani Diabaté

The kora is a sublime West African creation of gourd, cow-skin and fishing line, and its greatest living master is Toumani Diabaté. He’s a performer of truly exceptional virtuosity and creativity, effortlessly demonstrating that the 21-string kora is up there amongst the world’s greatest instruments.

Toumani was born in Bamako, the capital of Mali, in 1965 into a family of griots (hereditary musicians) whose lineage stretches back 71 generations, father to son. His father, Sidiki Diabaté was a kora player of legendary fame in West Africa and his mother was singer Nene Koita.

Toumani was self-taught, never learning directly from his father except by listening. He began playing the kora at the age of five, at a time when the Malian Government was encouraging regional ensembles to represent local traditions. Toumani was recruited to the ensemble of Koulikoro (60 kms east of Bamako) with whom he made his public debut at the age of 13 to great local acclaim.

Toumani first came to Europe in 1986, aged 21, to accompany Malian singer Ousmane Sacko. While in London he recorded his first album Kaira, the first ever solo kora album and still a best-seller. This and Songhai, his first recorded collaboration with Spanish flamenco group Ketama, were produced by Lucy Durán.

In 1990 Toumani formed the Symmetric Orchestra, consisting of musicians from countries in the old Mandé Empire, with the  idea of recreating its cultural equilibrium in a modern musical context. Maintaining a weekly residence at the Hogon club in Bamako, the group continued to evolve and grow, culminating in the release of Boulevard de l’Indépendance in 2005.

During the 1990s, Toumani gathered a number of exceptionally talented musicians around him, such as ngoni maestro Bassekou Kouyaté, and balafon (xylophone) player Keletigui Diabaté. He recorded Djelika in 1995 and travelled to Madrid to record Songhai 2.

In 1998 Toumani recorded a kora duet album with Ballaké Sissoko. Their respective fathers had released the 1970s classic Cordes Anciennes (Ancient Strings), so the new album was called New Ancient Strings, in tribute to the original, with the goal of introducing the kora to a modern audience. 

They say that the blues comes from Africa, so it seemed entirely natural that Toumani should collaborate with bluesman Taj Mahal. Their groundbreaking album Kulanjan was released in 1999. This was followed by MALIcool, a collaboration with American free jazz trombonist Roswell Rudd.

Toumani has participated in many other recording projects both at home and abroad: he plays calabash on Ali Farka Touré’s eponymous debut album for World Circuit; he plays on Salif Keita’s albums Papa and Mbemba; he was part of Damon Albarn’s Mali Music project; he featured on Kasse Mady Diabaté’s 2004 Grammy-nominated album Kassi Kasse, and in 2007 played on Björk’s album Volta and appeared with her at the Glastonbury Festival.

Toumani began working with World Circuit in 2004 on a trilogy of albums recorded at the Mandé Hotel in Bamako. The first was the duo album with Ali Farka Touré In the Heart of the Moon (2005), which won a Grammy.  Second in the trilogy was Boulevard de l’Indépendance (2005) by Toumani Diabaté’s Symmetric Orchestra. The third was Ali Farka’s final album Savane (2006). Toumani accompanied Ali on his last concert tour in the summer of 2005 during which they spent 3 days in a London studio recording Ali and Toumani, the follow up to In the Heart of the Moon, which also won a Grammy.

The Mandé Variations (2008) was Toumani’s first solo kora work since his groundbreaking debut twenty years before. Entirely acoustic, it’s amongst the best solo kora albums ever recorded and was nominated for a Grammy. 2010 saw the release of AfroCubism, an all-star group featuring the finest musicians from Cuba and Mali, including Toumani.