I really hope I can go to this. Spectacular musician.
At the HotHouse, March 21st.
HotHouse - The Center for International Performance and Exhibition
Toumani Diabaté is one of the great figures in African music. This super-charged, traditional meets modern dance-band album unites the two sides of his remarkable musical personality - the virtuosic traditionalist and the restless innovator. Recorded in a series of all night sessions at Mali's Hotel Mandé, it packs the fruit of ten years experimentation into some of the densest, punchiest, most richly textured music you'll ever hear. ... Toumani Diabaté plays the kora, a harp unique to West Africa with 21 strings; and more than any other kora player, it is Toumani who is responsible for bringing this instrument to audiences around the world. Not only is he a performer of truly exceptional virtuosity and creativity - some one who shows that the kora can rival the world's greatest instruments; but he also plays a vital role as band leader, teacher, musical conservationist and composer at home in Bamako, capital of Mali where he was born and has lived all his life.Toumani's music has an expressiveness and beauty that takes the powerful ancient traditions of Mali's griots to new heights and into new territories. He is at the vanguard of a new generation of Malian griots who are constantly looking for ways of modernizing this tradition while still honouring it. He founded, built, finances and directs a music school in Bamako where dozens of Malian children from different social backgrounds learn to play traditional instruments and to dance. There is no doubt that his music reflects a profoundly positive image of Africa, and makes an impact on the world market, thus inverting the usual power role between the local and global. Music, in effect, is Mali's greatest resource, as Toumani amply demonstrates.
Ketama/SongHai with Toumani Diabate on kora. A legendary fusion with Danny Tompson, Toumani Diabate and Ketama
Great great stuff. I often listen to New Ancient Strings when I'm out shooting photos. Or while I'm doing dishes.
That's a great album, isn't it? I also like the Songhai albums with Ketama and Danny THompson, and the first Diabaté album I ever bought, on vinyl no less, Kaira.