The sudden death of Malian musician Toumani Diabaté, last Friday, July 19, in a hospital in Bamako, has caused a worldwide shock in the circuits of ethnic sounds or world music, In the past, the kora master was considered one of the most important African artists in history. “My dear father has gone forever,” his son Sidiki Diabaté, also a musician and the successor to his father’s teachings, announced on Facebook. Toumani, who would have turned 59 in August, suffered complications from his kidney disease, which forced him to undergo dialysis.
Reactions have come intermittently over the past few hours, with a trickle of messages of condolence being issued by other great African musical figures, from Youssou N’Dour to Oumou Sangare and Salif Keita. Many of the participants in the 29th edition of the La Mar de Músicas festival in Cartagena (Murcia), where Diabaté had participated on up to five occasions, dedicated their performances to the deceased artist. Particularly heartfelt was the tribute paid to him by the Brazilian singer Arnaldo Antunes, who performed on Saturday at the Polytechnic University of Cartagena and who in 2011 had shared a beautiful album with Toumani and the guitarist Edgard Scandurra, At the Belt Curve.
A renovator of the ancestral music of his country, an incomparable virtuoso in the handling of the kora —that kind of harp or lute with 21 strings on a gourd body— and a continuator of the tradition of the griotsthe storytellers and guardians of oral tradition, Diabaté leaves behind an immense legacy that ignores geographical and stylistic boundaries. Among his admirers and occasional collaborators are Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz), Icelandic singer Björk, blues guitarist Taj Mahal, jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, banjo wizard Béla Fleck and trombonist Roswell Rudd, a simply impressive list. Since his debut with Cairo (1988), referred to as the first solo kora album in history, Toumani credits a scattered, eclectic and outstanding discography, most often made up of collaborative works. These could be the five most relevant:
Songhai (1988). With Ketama and Danny Thompson
Pure sound alchemy, a prodigious and magical idea forged by Madrid producer Mario Pacheco, founder of the label Nuevos Medios and promoter of the so-called “new flamenco”, a visionary who died in 2010 and to whom the City Council has still not granted a street. Pacheco, who had already recorded the first two albums of the Carmona family (Firstfrom 1985, and The kif pipe, two years later), he sensed the symbiosis between flamenco and African music and arranged the meeting at a party organized in London by the ethnomusicologist and BBC eminence Lucy Durán, daughter of Gustavo Durán (the “Commander Durán” who led the defense of Madrid by the Republican army). When Toumani unsheathed the kora, Antonio Carmona felt a shock: “That’s a solea in African!” To round out the alliance, the British Danny Thompson, bassist of the legendary jazz-folk group Pentangle, joined the line-up as a glue. The result, with pieces such as Caramel, Syrup o I sing me, is already part of history. There would be an excellent sequel in 1994, Songhai II, with Navarrese Javier Colina taking Thompson’s place on the double bass.
New Ancient Strings (1999). With Ballaké Sissoko
A memorable duet between the two greatest kora geniuses Mali has ever known and a work of enormous historical significance. The fathers of both, Sidiki Diabaté and Djelimadi Sissoko, had recorded a revolutionary album as a duet in 1970, Ancient Stringswhich marked the awakening of interest in the kora among musicians outside the African tradition. The heirs of both wanted to repeat the move, updated in terms of styles and recording techniques, at the initiative of the aforementioned Lucy Durán. The recording took place at the Palais des Congrès in Bamako, live and in a single take, on September 22, 1997, the national independence day in this West African country. The technical part was handled by the British engineer Nick Parker, who was “moved” by the “hermetic acoustics” of the place. Toumani signs the eight pieces, of which two are adaptations of those created by the parents of both musicians almost three decades earlier. It was a short-lived alliance: Sissoko and Diabaté distanced themselves because of jealousy and rivalry, although they knew how to maintain a tense cordiality between them. “I consider him a great musician who has done a lot to spread this instrument. And I can never be against someone who spreads the kora,” Ballaké told this journalist in August 2023, during his visit to the Música no Claustro festival in Tui (Pontevedra).
In the Heart of the Moon (2005). With Ali Farka Touré
Simply one of the most relevant albums in the history of the world music, The two artists, who barely knew each other before, met at the Mandé Hotel in Bamako and decided to improvise without prior rehearsals, “to allow the music to flow.” The idea was to be inspired by the melodies of the Songhai and Bambara peoples, with some forays into the music of the neighbouring Republic of Guinea. To round off the spell, Gold called on some of his most trusted musicians, particularly guitarist Ry Cooder; his son, percussionist Joachim Cooder; and Cuban bassist Orlando Cooder. Cachaito Lopez. Ali Farka was never able to be photographed with the Grammy trophy: he would die shortly after, on March 6, 2006, just after completing his swan song, the album Savannah.
Independence Boulevard (2006). Toumani Diabaté’s Symmetric Orchestra
The most ambitious project, and certainly the most striking and accessible to Western ears in Toumani’s entire oeuvre. And, once again, an intersection facilitated by the magician Nick Gold and with the Hotel Mandé as the setting for this overwhelming sonic spell. Diabaté plays the kora here, but above all he acts as musical director at the head of the Symmetric Orchestra, a legendary institution in Mali with which he had been playing every Friday for a decade at the Hogon, one of the most reputable clubs in the city. “The Symmetric represents the spirit of equality and creativity in this Mali where democracy arrived in 1992,” wrote Diabaté 18 years ago, “and together we can be inspired by the spirit of the griots but freed from the obligations that tradition dictates.” Thus, from the perspective of eclecticism and with almost fifty musicians under his baton, a resounding, beautiful, plural and fascinating work was born, in which even Pee Wee Ellis, James Brown’s musical director, appears, in charge of the saxophone and brass arrangements. The album opened with a piece entitled Toumania tribute by singer Soumaila Kanoute to the entire musical legacy of the Diabaté family.
Toumani & Sidiki (2014). With Sidiki Diabate
The perfect closure to the circle. Toumani had dreamed of recording such an album with his father, Sidiki seniorbut he died before being able to materialize that idea. Almost two decades later, the pieces finally fell into place with the contribution of the next generation of Diabaté: Sidiki junior He was then an uninhibited twenty-something who had already mastered the intricacies of the kora (a technically very difficult instrument) but was also familiar with the contemporary language of hip hop. The work is in any case limited to the traditional repertoire, with improvised recreations based on classical pieces that are well known in the family environment. The great novelty is the composition Lampedusawhich father and son conceived as an elegy to the nearly 300 migrants who died off the Italian coast in late 2013 when the barge they were trying to reach European soil on sank. Produced by Nick Gold and Lucy Durán, again, with Toumani playing on the left channel and Sidiki on the right.