Cultural Dessert

Toumani Diabaté

6 May 2008

For nearly 400 years, from around 1235 to 1600, the Mandé Empire covered a massive area, extending (at its peak) from central Africa (today's Chad and Niger) to West Africa (today's Mali and Senegal). With no written tradition, the archivists of the Empire were the 'griots' - hereditary musicians whose songs chronicled history and tradition. The Malian kora virtuoso Toumani Diabaté, who we saw performing at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester last Saturday, claims to be able to trace his lineage back through 71 generations of kora players. The kora is the West African 21-string harp-lute built from a large calabash cut in half and covered with cow skin and Toumani Diabaté is the outstanding kora player of his generation, described by BBC Radio 3 as "on a par with Glenn Gould or Rostropovich - the sort of musician you only encounter once or twice in a lifetime". His new solo album, 'The Mandé Variations', sets out to make a case for Malian griot music as 'African classical music' - equivalent to Western or Indian classical music. It was fitting, therefore, to see him in a classical concert hall where the (amplified) delicacy of his playing received rapt attention and concentration from a packed audience. Toumani's technique is amazing - using only four fingers (the thumb and index finger of both hands) to pluck the strings, he manages to generate the most intricate effects, tunes, accompaniments and rhythms. You really need to see him live to convince yourself it is only one person playing! The pieces from 'The Mandé Variations' build slowly and quietly - each lasting around 10 minutes and certainly bear comparison with the steady, repetitive development within an Indian raga. The kora is more an equivalent of a harp than of a fretted instrument such as the sitar, requiring the most amazing dexterity. I had heard many recordings of Toumani Diabaté and had been impressed but not moved: seeing him live I was gripped - perhaps because the concert hall atmosphere allowed me to give the music the concentration required to understand, appreciate and be entranced by it. Toumani is a regular visitor to Manchester as his uncle has lived there for 20 years and I was delighted to hear that they will both be rooting for Manchester United in the forthcoming European Cup final! Toumani himself lived briefly in London in 1986: I loved the piece 'Elyne Road' which is based on his time in London and built around a quote from the UB40 song 'Kingston Town'. A magical evening.

Labels: Albums, Concerts, Music

posted by Robin Simpson @ 4:00 pm