"It is rightly said that when a griot dies, it is as if a library has burned to the ground." - Amadou Hampate Ba
I was completely shocked and grief-stricken last Friday when I learned from Bassekou Kouyaté that Toumani Diabaté had died in a hospital in Bamako. His eldest son Sidiki Diabaté reported later that his father died after a short illness. Toumani Diabaté was only 58 years old. I simply cannot fathom this loss.
Toumani Diabaté was born August 10, 1965 in Bamako, heir to an ancient family of griots. His father was renowned kora player Sidiki Diabaté and his mother was the singer Nene Koita. Toumani started playing the kora when he was five but claimed he never had a direct lesson from his father. He grew up in his family's compound surrounded by Mandé music, listening to his father, his mother, and his stepmother Mariam Kouyaté. The kora was a prestigious instrument in Mandé tradition, but its role was to accompany singing. As with all musical traditions globally, the human voice is most prominent. Toumani would listen to his father's accompaniment, but also to the brilliant "birimintingo", extremely fast kora passages in between sung phrases. A young Toumani would imitate this, but also emulate the singing of his mother and stepmother on the kora. By the age of 20, Toumani had developed an extremely melodic, solo style of kora playing. The kora is capable of magnificent polyphony, and his solo style would pair wonderful bass and accompanying lines to the flowing, improvised, melodies. Toumani accompanied his father and several other Malian musicians to a 1987 festival in London called "Music of the Royal Courts", promoted by the South Bank Centre, London, and BBC Radio 3. Toumani stayed in London for several months afterwards and would record the first solo kora album in 1987 in one afternoon session in London, without any overdubs. This album was released as "Kaira" in 1988 and launched both his musical career and the kora as a solo instrument. In the decades that followed, the kora would become a truly famous African instrument, and Toumani its most famous and acclaimed master. Toumani would tour the world and record many albums which ranged from solo kora to collaborations with Flamenco, Persian, Jazz and other musicians.
I can't believe we lost this supreme master so young. Join me today in exploring his incredible musical career.
| Today's theme was "Toumani" from Toumani Diabaté's Symmetric Orchestra, sung by Soumaila Kanoute as a tribute to Toumani and his lineage. |
| Toumani Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra - Boulevard de L'independance - World Circuit |
| The title track from Toumani's 1988 kora solo debut. A piece of astonishing beauty and peace ("Kaira" is peace in Bambara). Only 22 years old, Toumani demonstrated his incredible talent and innovation in this album. |
| Kaira Toumani Diabate - Kaira - Rykodisc |
| Toumani's next recording project was the New Flamenco collaboration with Ketama who had met Toumani while Ketama was performing in London in October 1987. They recorded their first album in Madrid in 1988. We will hear a couple of pieces from their 2nd album together, recorded in 1994. For this album, Toumani brought balafon player Keletigui Diabate and ngoni player Bassekou Kouyate with special guest, the Mandé singer Kassé Mady Diabaté, one of Mali's greatest singers and a personal favourite. Kasse Mady would appear as a guest on several of Toumani's albums over the next 20 years. He sings a famous song in Mali's Griot tradition, "Mali Sadio". |
| Niani Ketama, Toumani Diabate - Songhai 2 - Rykodisc |
| Mali Sajio Ketama, Toumani Diabate, Kasse Mady Diabate - Songhai 2 - Rykodisc |
| After recording "Songhai 2", Toumani recorded another album of Malian music as a trio with Keletigui Diabate and Bassekou Kouyate on balafon and ngoni. For the title track, Bassekou Kouyate quotes the theme from the "Good, The Bad, and the Ugly"! |
| Djelika Toumani Diabate, Keletigui Diabate, Bassekou Kouyate - Djelika - Rykodisc |
| "Kaira" was not the first instrumental album of kora music. One of the first was 1970's "Ancient Strings", which featured four kora players playing in duets. This included Toumani's father Sidiki Diabaté and Djelimadi Sissoko, the father of Ballaké Sissoko. The Sissoko family lived right next door to the Diabaté family and are also of ancient Griot lineage. Ballaké Sissoko is only three years younger than Toumani, and they grew up together. We hear their fathers playing the famous, sad, Mandé song "Ala La Ke". |
| Ala La Ke Sidiki Diabate & Djelimadi Sissoko - Ancient Strings - Buda |
| Almost 30 years after "Ancient Strings", Toumani and Ballaké followed their fathers with "New Ancient Strings", an astonishing album of kora duets. If you were to listen to only one album of kora music, this would be it. The album was recorded in a single take without rehearsals on the evening of September 22nd (Mali's Independence Day), 1997 by the same team who recorded "Kaira" in 1987. We hear their reworking of "Ala La Ke", which incorporates a melody sung by Toumani's mother Nene Koita. |
| Yamfa Toumani Diabate & Ballake Sissoko - New Ancient Strings - Rykodisc |
| Jazz trombonist Roswell Rudd had a long interest in African music and his friend Verna Gillis, who had a long career producing and recording music around the world, asked him to join her on a trip to Mali in 2000. She introduced him to Toumani and they played a concert together at the French Cultural Centre in Bamako. They ended up recording an album entitled "Malicool" which featured Rudd on trombone with Toumani and several other great Malian musicians including Lassan Diabate on balafon and Bassekou Kouyate again on ngoni. Rudd realized he had to "adjust to the level of the kora not only in terms of intensity but in terms of duration...[and] leave more space than [he] was accustomed to". |
| Bamako Roswell Rudd & Toumani Diabate - Malicool - Universal |
| In 2004, the World Circuit team travelled to Mali with the intention to record three albums at the Hôtel Mandé in Bamako. All three albums recorded were among the most stunning possible! The albums recorded in order were Ali Farka Touré's "Savane" (recorded 2004) , Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabaté's "In The Heart of the Moon" (recorded 2005), and Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra's "Boulevard de l'Independance" (recorded 2005). "Savane" would become Ali Farka's final album, but his final recordings were with Toumani. Ali Farka knew the Diabaté family and had known Toumani since the latter was a child, but professionally they took different paths. Though both were proud Malians, Mali, like almost all African countries, comprises many different ethnicities within its borders. Ali Farka was of Songhai and Peul background from Northern Mali. Toumani was Mandé from the south of Mali. Their musical traditions were different, with both forging new, innovative paths from those different starting points. However, Ali Farka wrote that he had learned a lot from Toumani's father around the time when Toumani was just a baby. This recording session in 2005 at the Hôtel Mandé would be the first real time they made music together. Ali Farka arrived at the studio and told Toumani, who was was already there, they would have no need to rehearse, he was ready to just sit down with Toumani and record music. And this they did! What glorious, beautiful, aching music. Two great masters together at last. Ali Farka Touré would leave this world less than a year later on March 6th, 2006. Toumani wrote that the music they played together, joining their two traditions, flowed so easily and naturally. We hear a couple of beautiful pieces with Ali Farka's guitar, and Toumani's kora. |
| Kala Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate - In the Heart of the Moon - World Circuit |
| Naweye Toro Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate - In the Heart of the Moon - World Circuit |
| The third album from the Hôtel Mandé sessions, Toumani Diabaté's Symmetric Orchestra is vastly different from the guitar and kora of "In the Heart of the Moon". Toumani formed his Symmetric Orchestra in 1992, but this was kept as an Mali-only secret for over a decade. For a decade, they would play every Friday night at the Hogon, an outdoor neighbourhood venue near Toumani's family home in Bamako. Malian musicians passing through Bamako would often join The Symmetric Orchestra on these nights, so the orchestra always featured a very large, ever changing cast of musicians, with the traditional kora, ngoni, balafon etc. with electric guitars, brass and other instruments. This incredible project was finally revealed to the world when "Boulevard de l'independance" was released in 2006. One of the most fantastic albums of African music I have ever heard! A number of singers appeared on the album, such as Soumaila Kanoute who opened today's show. We hear my favourite, Kassé Mady Diabaté, who sings on two songs on this album. |
| Ya Fama Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra - Boulevard de L'independance - World Circuit |
| Though Toumani was at the fore in making the kora a solo instrument, he did not record a second solo album until 2008! "The Mandé Variations" features his solo playing 20 years after Kaira. We hear "Kaounding Cissoko". I'll leave it to Toumani to describe it: "This is Alla la ke as I play it now...I dedicate this one to Baba Maal's late kora player, Kaounding, who died too young...he was related to my father's second wife, Fatou Cissoko. Fatou's father was Kadialy Cissoko, who was the cousin of Kaounding's father. They were both fine kora players...both are now dead...when I think of them, I remember all the great kora players of the previous generation who had another style of playing: my father; Lalo Keba Drame from Gambia, Batrou Sekou Kouyate from Kita; my Gambian great-uncle Amadu Bansang Jobarteh...Jali Nyama Suso from Gambia... may their souls rest in peace. So many important kora players who've contributed to bringing the kora to where it is now, but their time is over..."
I can't believe Toumani is now added to that list as well. I am heartbroken. |
| Kaounding Cissoko Toumani Diabate - The Mande Variations - World Circuit |
| Mandé music is a family affair, one of the world's greatest treasures passed down with each generation. Toumani's eldest son Sidiki, named after Toumani's father, has also grown into a kora virtuoso. They recorded "Toumani & Sidiki" together in London in 2013 in the same studio "Kaira" was recorded 26 years earlier--with Sidiki almost the same age as Toumani was then. Toumani and Sidiki had a very close relationship, unlike Toumani and his father's which was more distant. Sidiki wrote "For me to play with my dad is like a dream." We hear "Tijaniya", a Mandé classic which Toumani said hadn't been recorded in a long time, and that it was a celebration of the pure joy and beauty of music. |
| Tijaniya Toumani Diabate & Sidiki Diabate - Toumani & Sidiki - World Circuit |
| We end this journey with an album recorded live in 2008 at the Barbican Centre in London, but not released until 2021. "Korolen" features orchestrations of Toumani's music performed with Toumani and four other Malian musicians with the London Symphony Orchestra. Kassé Mady Diabaté joined them for a third, and final time, in the closing song "Mamadou Kanda Keita" |
| Mamadou Kanda Keita feat. Kasse Mady Diabate Toumani Diabate and the London Symphony Orchestra - Korolen - World Circuit |
| My tribute does not end there! We finish with Toumani's final album. This album was recorded in 2016, but not released until 2023. I could not believe it when I heard about it, two of my favourite musicians, two absolute masters, from two of my favourite, but very different musical traditions. Toumani Diabaté and Kayhan Kalhor! They had met at a Morgenland festival in Germany in 2016. The festival director suggested they play together and with minimal preparation, just a sound check, they improvised together for 90 minutes! This was followed by a short tour, then this recording was made: "The Sky Is The Same Colour Everywhere". Toumani Diabaté on kora and Kayhan Kalhor on the Persian kamanche, improvising together! This album was released just last year, and I was excited to see what other new, surprising projects Toumani would pursue in the years ahead. Alas, his story is over now, but he left us with so much! Farewell Toumani Diabaté. |
| Wayfarers Of The Legends Kayhan Kalhor & Toumani Diabate - The Sky Is The Same Colour Everywhere - Real World |
| The Path Of No Return Kayhan Kalhor & Toumani Diabate - The Sky Is The Same Colour Everywhere - Real World |
| Sadly we don't have time to hear the whole album today, but can be heard on previous shows:
https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/105/62199.html |
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Wow! What a tribute! Very sad news...
2:07 PM, July 25th, 2024