Toumani Diabate

Festival Antigel - Geneva:
www.antigel.ch

Tickets:
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Toumani Diabaté is one of the most important musicians in Africa.  Toumani 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.  He is a performer of truly exceptional virtuosity and creativity - someone who shows that the kora can rival the world’s greatest instruments. 

Toumani was born in Bamako, the capital of Mali, in 1965 into a family of exceptional griots (hereditary musician/historian caste); his research shows 71 generations of kora players from father to son.  The most notable was his father, Sidiki Diabaté (c. 1922-96), a kora player of legendary fame in West Africa - dubbed King of the Kora at the prestigious international Black Arts Festival Festac in 1977, and a continuing inspiration to all kora players to this day. Sidiki was born in the Gambia of Malian parents. He settled in Mali after the second world war, where he became famous for his virtuoso “hot” and idiosyncratic style of playing (echoes of which can be heard in Toumani’s style). After Mali became independent in 1960, Sidiki was invited to join the Ensemble National Instrumental – a government sponsored group formed to celebrate the richness of Malian culture -  along with his first wife, Toumani’s mother, the singer Nene Koita. Sidiki and Nene were much favoured by the first president, Modibo Keita – who gave them the land on which the family house now stands, underneath the presidential palace in Bamako.

This was the musical environment in which Toumani was raised - though in fact, he was self-taught, never learning directly from his father except by listening.  In the 1960s, and more so the 70s, the Bamako music scene was being influenced by sounds from further afield, especially black American music: soul music was particularly popular as was Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Smith, and British rock acts such as Led Zeppelin.  Exposure to these sounds, and Bamako’s modern ensembles, would both be important to Toumani’s musical development.

A child prodigy, Toumani began playing the kora at the age of five, and at that time, the Malian Government was engaged in an active programme of encouraging regional ensembles to represent local traditions. Toumani was recruited to the ensemble from Koulikoro (some 60 kms east of Bamako) with whom he made his public debut at the age of 13 to great local acclaim. In 1984 Toumani joined the group of brilliant young musicians who accompanied the great diva Kandia Kouyate, the best known and most powerful female griot singer in Mali, with whom he toured Africa extensively, still only 19 years old. 

Although not learning directly from his father Toumani took from him the idea of developing the kora as a solo instrument, and then took it to another level.  Toumani discovered a way to play bass, rhythm and solo all at the same time on the kora, a method which would take him to the world stage. Toumani first came to the Europe in 1986 to accompany another Malian singer, Ousmane Sacko, and ended up staying in London for seven months. During this period, at the age of 21, he recorded his first solo album ‘Kaira’.  This was a groundbreaking album – it was the first ever solo kora album and it still remains a best seller and one of the finest albums of kora music to date.  In 1986 Toumani also made his first appearance at a WOMAD festival at which he made a significant impact.


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