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The kora is a stringed instrument used extensively in West Africa. A kora typically has 21 strings, which are played by plucking with the fingers. It combines features of the lute and harp.
Damon Albarn is an English singer, musician, songwriter and record producer from Whitechapel, London. He is the frontman and main lyricist of the rock band Blur and the co-creator and primary musical contributor of the virtual band Gorillaz.
The music of Mali is, like that of most West African nations, ethnically diverse, but one influence predominates: that of the ancient Mali Empire of the Mandinka. Mande people make up around 50% of Mali's population; other ethnic groups include the Fula (17%), Gur-speakers 12%, Songhai people (6%), Tuareg and Moors (10%).
Guinea is a West African nation, composed of several ethnic groups. Among its most widely known musicians is Mory Kanté - 10 Cola Nuts saw major mainstream success in both Guinea and Mali while "Yeke Yeke", a single from Mory Kanté à Paris, was a European success in 1988.
The music of Niger has developed from the musical traditions of a mix of ethnic groups; Hausa, the Zarma-Songhai, Tuareg, Fula, Kanuri, Toubou, Diffa Arabs and Gurma and the Boudouma from Lac Chad.
A griot is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician.
Toumani Diabaté was a Malian kora player. In addition to performing the traditional music of Mali, he was involved in cross-cultural collaborations with flamenco, blues, jazz, and other international styles of music. In 2006, the London-based newspaper The Independent named him one of the fifty best African artists. In its obituary, The Times described him as "a bold and innovative musical visionary".
Mamar Kassey is a jazz-pop-ethnic band from Niger. It is named after Askia Muhammad I, a legendary warrior who extended the Songhai Empire into the Sahara.
Alhaji Bai Konte (1920–1983) was a jali from Brikama, Gambia. His grandfather, Jali Ndaba Konteh, was a Konting player who originally brought his family to Brikama from the Kankaba region of Mali. Bai Konte's father, Burama Konte, was also a celebrated kora player and composed several important pieces in the repertoire. Burama Konte, composed the anthem of the 19th century Senegambian hero Mansumaneh Yundum, Yundum N'ko. It was from that piece that the anthems of Sheriff Sidi Hydara and Nyansu Mbasse originated. Burama Konteh was a well-known kora player of his generation. Bai Konte was a regular on Radio Gambia and Radio Senegal's joint program called Chossani Senegambia in the 1970s. He and other griots such as Jali Nyama Suso and Alhaji Abdoulaye Samba used to play live music during the show. Bai Konteh had narrated many epics on that show including the epic of King Abdou Njie and his griot and advisor Ibra Faye. Prominent broadcasters of that show included Alhaji Alieu Ebrima Cham Joof, Alhaji Assan Njie and Alhaji Mansour Njie.
Sona Jobarteh is a Gambian multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer. She is from one of the five principal kora-playing griot families of West Africa, and is the first female professional kora player to come from a griot family. She is the cousin of the celebrated kora player Toumani Diabaté, and is the sister of the diaspora kora player Tunde Jegede.
Abdoulaye Diabaté is a singer and guitarist who was born to a griot family in Kela, Mali in 1956. He has at least twenty years of experience in contemporary and popular music.
Lucy Durán is a British ethnomusicologist, record producer and radio presenter. In the 1980s, Durán worked as a curator at the British Library National Sound Archive. She joined SOAS University of London in 1993, and is Professor of Music with special reference to Africa and Cuba, in the School of Arts. She is the daughter of Spanish composer and civil war veteran Gustavo Durán and the sister of poet Jane Duran and author Cheli Duran.
Seckou Keita is a kora player and drummer from Senegal. He is one of the few champions of the lesser-known kora repertoire from Casamance in southern Senegal.
Ballaké Sissoko is a Malian player of the kora. He has worked with Toumani Diabaté and Taj Mahal, and is a member of the group 3MA with Driss El Maloumi and Rajery.
Mamadou Sidiki Diabaté is a prominent Mandé kora player and jeli from Bamako, Mali. He is the 71st generation of kora players in his family and a son to Sidiki Diabaté.
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Kavita Shah is a vocalist and composer from New York, NY. She has been hailed by NPR for possessing an “amazing dexterity with musical languages”.
Africa Express is a UK-based non-profit organization that facilitates cross-cultural collaborations between musicians in African, Middle Eastern, and Western countries. It seeks to help African musicians break beyond the perceived stigmas and prejudices of the term world music, while presenting a positive impression of Africa to counter against common media images of war, famine, and disease. Notable events that Africa Express has been involved in include performances at the 2012 Olympics, the Glastonbury Festival, the BBC Electric Proms, Denmark's Roskilde Festival, a tour of Syrian refugee musicians, and concerts in such places as Mali, the Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, and France.
New Ancient Strings is a studio album by the Malian musicians Toumani Diabaté and Ballaké Sissoko, released on 22 June 1999 by the British label Hannibal Records. The album comprises eight instrumental duets composed by Diabaté for kora, a stringed instrument of West African music. Diabaté and Sissoko are esteemed as the best and the second-best kora players of their generation, respectively. Their duets were recorded in a single live take within a marble hallway of Bamako's conference centre on the night of 22 September 1997, coinciding with Mali's Independence Day.
Africa Express Presents... Terry Riley's In C Mali is a studio album released by Africa Express, a UK-based non-profit organisation. The album is a recording of Terry Riley's minimalist composition In C, with playing from Malian and Western musicians. It was released through Transgressive Records on 24 November 2014.
References
- 1 2 "A Keeper of History". NBC News Learn. 2020-05-01. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- 1 2 "Musical Explorers NYC: Malian Traditional". Carnegie Hall. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- 1 2 "Meet Yacouba". Yacouba Sissoko. 2022-03-11. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ↑ "Yacouba Sissoko – Full Interview". Music Time in Africa (Voice of America). 2024-03-06. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
- ↑ "Siya (Digital Download)". Yacouba Sissoko. 2023-05-17. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
- ↑ "Duwa Wu, Blessing, by Yacouba Sissoko". Bandcamp. 2023-05-19. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
- ↑ "Media". Yacouba Sissoko. 2022-03-11. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ↑ "Atropolis on working with the Kora, and the challenges of cross-cultural musical collaboration – Dutty Artz". Dutty Artz. 2015-02-25. Retrieved 2024-04-21.