Greetings all. It's wet and dreary in Virginia and I'm thinking of sunnier days in Mali. Here's a solo kora track off my new demo CD, recorded one hot night in January.
Also, I've been doing more and more contemporary African music radio shows on WTJU of late. My last show (of W. African electric epics) was on Radio Tropicale on Wed. 26 June. If that sounds interesting to you, feel free to check out the Tape Vault (WTJU.net/vault) where you can listen to old shows, free of charge, for up to two weeks. You can also stream shows live as they're happening; I'll try to figure out a widget to put up on this blog to let you know when my next show is.
Have a great week.
Showing posts with label kora. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kora. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Monday, March 19, 2012
Unscheduled Interruption
Hi! We're back after an unscheduled interruption due to malaria. This was my first experience with that most ubiquitous of African maladies and, as advertised, it was unpleasant. Thankfully, my host mother is a doctor, so she was able to recommend her favorite anti-malarial, write a quick prescription, and send someone off to the pharmacy in short order. Three days later, I was feeling much better and ready to face Mali's increasingly-hot hot season once more. In fact, I'm going to leave off talking about the weather in future posts (it's both miserable, and sadly predictable); feel free to assume that it will continue unbelievably hot here until at least the end of May.
On the other hand, I had a fascinating Saturday visiting one of the living legends of Malian music, Djelimory "N'fa" Diabaté. N'fa is the last living member of what I think of as Mali's "Big Four" kora players of the last generation. Owners of the exquisite, highly-recommended kora CD "Mali: Cordes Anciennes" will be familiar with this group, which includes Batrou Sékou Kouyaté, Sidiki Diabaté, Djelimady Sissoko, and the aforementioned N'fa. I've spent a lot of time listening to this CD since I arrived in Mali with my kora teacher, Toumani Kouyaté, and it's still breathtaking 40-some years after it was recorded. I've managed to track down additional recordings from two of the four, Batrou Sékou and Sidiki, but Djelimady' and N'fa's recordings have been a little harder to find. I plan on making a run on ORTM (L'Office de Radiodiffusion et Télédiffusion de Mali) later this week, and I now know that N'fa made at least ten, and maybe a dozen, solo kora recordings, which should be in their archives. Paying for copies of recordings at ORTM is a long-established, if legally dubious, practice. Unfortunately, it's also the only way to get certain recordings, which I've been unable to find in America, on the internet, or on Mali's legal and black CD/tape markets. Stay tuned for more exciting dusty archives updates!
Anyway, it's been my pleasure to explore "Cordes Anciennes" with my kora teacher, who has demonstrated quite conclusively (to me, at least) the ways in which these pioneering four kora players, arguably the first "great" Malian kora-ists, influenced the following generations. Certainly their children have carried on the tradition: Sidiki Diabaté's son, Toumani, is the best-known kora player in the world (and to my mind the finest), and Djelimady's son, Ballaké, is among Mali's top kora players. The sons, Toumani and Ballaké, even recorded a tribute album to their fathers called "Nouvelles Chordes Anciennes" ("New Ancient Strings," after their fathers' "Ancient Strings") which is also highly recommended. Both Toumani and Ballaké have introduced the kora into the World Music scene with cross-overs with international musicians (Taj Mahal, Béla Fleck, and the flamenco band Ketama for Toumani, and the French cellist Vincent Segal for Ballaké), in addition to their own well-received work.
Meanwhile, N'fa's son, Mamadou "Djelikejan" Diabaté, has lived in the U.S. for over a decade now, and won a Grammy award for his kora playing in 2010. Mamadou is one of the best kora players in the U.S., and tours regularly; I've seen him perform several times with my old n'goni master, Cheick Hamala Diabaté, at the late, great Prism Coffee House. Another son of N'fa, Djibril, was also a professional kora player and close friend to my kora master, Toumani Kouyaté, but sadly passed away last year.
Batrou Sékou Kouyaté did not leave any professional kora-playing offspring, but his eldest son, Balla, is a well-known kora maker and artist of vibrant, colorful kora paintings and village scenes. He also built my first kora, which was shipped back to America in a custom-made wooden case strongly reminiscent of a child's coffin. Oddly enough, I later learned that another of my traditional music teachers, the late Mike Seeger, also used to carry around his instruments in a wooden coffin-case...
Uh, that's a little off-topic, but I can definitely recommend Balla as a maker of high-quality koras. He also still lives in the compound in the Hippodrome neighborhood where Batrou Sékou once lived, which is pretty cool to visit as a kora nerd... Coincidentally, Batrou Sékou's youngest son, Drra, is also studying kora and often visits my teacher, Toumani, for lessons. Bamako's a small town...
However, the influence of the "Big Four" past kora masters hasn't been limited simply to their offspring. They helped shape the Malian kora repertoire with their versions of classic Malian songs like "Kulanjan," "Mamadou Bitiki," "Ala l'a Ke," and "Kaira," all of which remain standards. Even more importantly, their individual playing styles were, and remain, sources of inspiration for all kora players. Of particular interest are the blistering, perfectly placed "roulement"-style improvised solos of Sidiki Diabaté and the pioneering work of Batrou Sékou Kouyaté in playing solos and an accompaniment pattern at the same time. Sidiki wasn't the first to feature quick, downward scalar runs in his playing, but both his skill and the frequency with which he used them elevated them to a new level. Likewise, Batrou Sékou wasn't the first to play a solo over an accompaniment pattern on the kora, but his skill in doing so laid the groundwork for future generations of kora players (notably, his are the only solo kora tracks on "Cordes Anciennes;" the others are duets). The perfected versions of both of these techniques can be heard in the playing of Mali's best kora players, notably Toumani Diabaté, Ballaké Sissoko, and my own master, Toumani Kouyaté.
On a personal note, it has been one of the great pleasures of my time here in Mali to dissect and analyze the playing of Mali's greatest kora-folaw (Bm. "kora-players") and understand, for example, the enormous effort that went into the making of the complete package with which the world was presented in Toumani Diabaté's seminal CD, "Kaira." The savage, youthful-yet-restrained beauty of "Kaira," to my mind the greatest solo kora album ever, was the product of years of practice combined with the brilliant synthesis of many kora techniques, all filtered through the mind of a remarkable, driven, musician. For years, I approached each the five tracks on "Kaira" as finished, indivisible, unanalyzable. Now, after five months' worth of intensive kora study, I can at least understand how "Grand Toumani" (Toumani-ba) constructed his style, even if I can't imitate it. Kora music, evidently, isn't magic, just lots and lots of work and practice!
So, to wrap up this week's blog post, a few anecdotes from the last remaining "Old Master" of the Malian Kora, N'fa Diabaté. Batrou Sékou Kouyaté, the eldest of the Big Four, apparently learned kora from a Gambian named "Alou" (last name unknown), providing more evidence for what I had long suspected, that the kora is relatively new to Mali (more on the history of the Malian kora in a later post). Second, the first Malian National Orchestras of the 1960's (The Orchestre National "A," "B," "C," and the Ensemble Instrumentale), while prestigious, really didn't pay very well. Lastly, "all kora players are hugely egotistical" in N'fa's opinion.
And on that note, see you next week!
On the other hand, I had a fascinating Saturday visiting one of the living legends of Malian music, Djelimory "N'fa" Diabaté. N'fa is the last living member of what I think of as Mali's "Big Four" kora players of the last generation. Owners of the exquisite, highly-recommended kora CD "Mali: Cordes Anciennes" will be familiar with this group, which includes Batrou Sékou Kouyaté, Sidiki Diabaté, Djelimady Sissoko, and the aforementioned N'fa. I've spent a lot of time listening to this CD since I arrived in Mali with my kora teacher, Toumani Kouyaté, and it's still breathtaking 40-some years after it was recorded. I've managed to track down additional recordings from two of the four, Batrou Sékou and Sidiki, but Djelimady' and N'fa's recordings have been a little harder to find. I plan on making a run on ORTM (L'Office de Radiodiffusion et Télédiffusion de Mali) later this week, and I now know that N'fa made at least ten, and maybe a dozen, solo kora recordings, which should be in their archives. Paying for copies of recordings at ORTM is a long-established, if legally dubious, practice. Unfortunately, it's also the only way to get certain recordings, which I've been unable to find in America, on the internet, or on Mali's legal and black CD/tape markets. Stay tuned for more exciting dusty archives updates!
Anyway, it's been my pleasure to explore "Cordes Anciennes" with my kora teacher, who has demonstrated quite conclusively (to me, at least) the ways in which these pioneering four kora players, arguably the first "great" Malian kora-ists, influenced the following generations. Certainly their children have carried on the tradition: Sidiki Diabaté's son, Toumani, is the best-known kora player in the world (and to my mind the finest), and Djelimady's son, Ballaké, is among Mali's top kora players. The sons, Toumani and Ballaké, even recorded a tribute album to their fathers called "Nouvelles Chordes Anciennes" ("New Ancient Strings," after their fathers' "Ancient Strings") which is also highly recommended. Both Toumani and Ballaké have introduced the kora into the World Music scene with cross-overs with international musicians (Taj Mahal, Béla Fleck, and the flamenco band Ketama for Toumani, and the French cellist Vincent Segal for Ballaké), in addition to their own well-received work.
Meanwhile, N'fa's son, Mamadou "Djelikejan" Diabaté, has lived in the U.S. for over a decade now, and won a Grammy award for his kora playing in 2010. Mamadou is one of the best kora players in the U.S., and tours regularly; I've seen him perform several times with my old n'goni master, Cheick Hamala Diabaté, at the late, great Prism Coffee House. Another son of N'fa, Djibril, was also a professional kora player and close friend to my kora master, Toumani Kouyaté, but sadly passed away last year.
Batrou Sékou Kouyaté did not leave any professional kora-playing offspring, but his eldest son, Balla, is a well-known kora maker and artist of vibrant, colorful kora paintings and village scenes. He also built my first kora, which was shipped back to America in a custom-made wooden case strongly reminiscent of a child's coffin. Oddly enough, I later learned that another of my traditional music teachers, the late Mike Seeger, also used to carry around his instruments in a wooden coffin-case...
Uh, that's a little off-topic, but I can definitely recommend Balla as a maker of high-quality koras. He also still lives in the compound in the Hippodrome neighborhood where Batrou Sékou once lived, which is pretty cool to visit as a kora nerd... Coincidentally, Batrou Sékou's youngest son, Drra, is also studying kora and often visits my teacher, Toumani, for lessons. Bamako's a small town...
However, the influence of the "Big Four" past kora masters hasn't been limited simply to their offspring. They helped shape the Malian kora repertoire with their versions of classic Malian songs like "Kulanjan," "Mamadou Bitiki," "Ala l'a Ke," and "Kaira," all of which remain standards. Even more importantly, their individual playing styles were, and remain, sources of inspiration for all kora players. Of particular interest are the blistering, perfectly placed "roulement"-style improvised solos of Sidiki Diabaté and the pioneering work of Batrou Sékou Kouyaté in playing solos and an accompaniment pattern at the same time. Sidiki wasn't the first to feature quick, downward scalar runs in his playing, but both his skill and the frequency with which he used them elevated them to a new level. Likewise, Batrou Sékou wasn't the first to play a solo over an accompaniment pattern on the kora, but his skill in doing so laid the groundwork for future generations of kora players (notably, his are the only solo kora tracks on "Cordes Anciennes;" the others are duets). The perfected versions of both of these techniques can be heard in the playing of Mali's best kora players, notably Toumani Diabaté, Ballaké Sissoko, and my own master, Toumani Kouyaté.
On a personal note, it has been one of the great pleasures of my time here in Mali to dissect and analyze the playing of Mali's greatest kora-folaw (Bm. "kora-players") and understand, for example, the enormous effort that went into the making of the complete package with which the world was presented in Toumani Diabaté's seminal CD, "Kaira." The savage, youthful-yet-restrained beauty of "Kaira," to my mind the greatest solo kora album ever, was the product of years of practice combined with the brilliant synthesis of many kora techniques, all filtered through the mind of a remarkable, driven, musician. For years, I approached each the five tracks on "Kaira" as finished, indivisible, unanalyzable. Now, after five months' worth of intensive kora study, I can at least understand how "Grand Toumani" (Toumani-ba) constructed his style, even if I can't imitate it. Kora music, evidently, isn't magic, just lots and lots of work and practice!
So, to wrap up this week's blog post, a few anecdotes from the last remaining "Old Master" of the Malian Kora, N'fa Diabaté. Batrou Sékou Kouyaté, the eldest of the Big Four, apparently learned kora from a Gambian named "Alou" (last name unknown), providing more evidence for what I had long suspected, that the kora is relatively new to Mali (more on the history of the Malian kora in a later post). Second, the first Malian National Orchestras of the 1960's (The Orchestre National "A," "B," "C," and the Ensemble Instrumentale), while prestigious, really didn't pay very well. Lastly, "all kora players are hugely egotistical" in N'fa's opinion.
And on that note, see you next week!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
À l'attaque!
Greetings from Mali!
It's been a busy first week-and-a-bit. I've reconnected with my old kora teacher, Toumani Kouyaté, and had several lessons with him. I've also begun lessons with one of my primary n'goni teachers, Kélémonson Diabaté. Kélémonson is a highly-regarded traditional n'goni player from Kita, the heartland of Mali's Mandé griot tradition. He has also performed with Mali's Orchestre Nationale "A," a government-sponsored griot orchestra.
Some of these terms could probably use some explanation. The kora and the n'goni are traditional instruments of the Malian griot (the French term for the Bambara-language jeli). Griots/jelis are oral historians, negotiators, counselors, musicians, praise-singers, orators, and wedding planners/officiators, among other roles. They all come from specific families (Kouyaté, Diabaté, and Sissoko being some of the most famous); as such, griots are often referred to as a sort of caste. Not every Diabaté or Kouyaté is necessarily a griot, but it's impossible to become a griot if you're not born into one of the families. Also, although griots are not the only people making music in Mali, they're far and away the dominant ones, so there's an interesting power dynamic between these semi-"official" musicians and the non-official "folk" variety. There are also popular rap and reggae artists who are not part of the griot caste, too. I'll try to illuminate the Malian music scene as I go along, but I readily admit to not understanding a lot of what's happening, despite being in the middle of it!
Instrument-wise, the kora is a twenty-one-stringed harp with two rows of strings (see pic below). The n'goni is a four-stringed lute and a probable ancestor of the American banjo (see pic). Modern n'gonis can have as many as eight strings, depending on the player. I'll spend some time laying out each instrument in detail in some later posts. For the moment, I'll just say that as a banjo player, the n'goni makes a lot more sense to me than the kora, but I'm trying to learn both.
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| Kélémonson Diabaté and his n'goni |
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| Toumani Kouyaté |
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| A frontal view of the kora |
My Fulbright project is to study two different playing regional styles of the n'goni, those of Kita and Ségou. I'm most familiar with that of Kita since my first n'goni teacher, Cheick Hamala Diabaté, is from there. However, the Ségou style is also pretty interesting (lots of pentatonic songs, for one thing), and much less well-known than the Kita style. So, hopefully I can make some useful comparisons and bring back some knowledge that no one outside of W. Africa has figured out yet.
In the meantime, there's plenty of work to do. Kélémonson will be in the neighboring country of Guinea for the next week or so, so I'll have time to work on the stuff I've learned so far and maybe transfer some of it to the banjo, as well. I've also organized all of my old field recordings (I have thirty hours' worth or so) by song, so I'm going to sit down and try to drill myself on which accompaniments and melodies go with which song. Next week, I'll post a recording of Toumani playing variations on a traditional Malian melody. Stay tuned!
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| The masters face off |
Questions, comments may be sent to waraden.diabate [at] gmail.com.
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