Note: Due to visa issues, Toumani and Sidiki Diabate will not be performing at this show.
Toumani Diabaté is a musical giant. The Malian kora player has collaborated with Björk, bluesman Taj Mahal, guitar wizard Ali Farka Touré, Gorillaz/Blur polymath Damon Albarn.… The list goes on, and the breadth of Diabaté’s influence extends around the globe. As for depth, Diabaté is a musician in West Africa’s griot tradition, the 71st generation of an unbroken family line. These are solid reasons to perk up your ears.
But the intangible reasons to get into Diabaté’s music are so much more fun. The kora is an ancient African harp—it looks like a massive lute—from which Diabaté coaxes twinkly and serene sounds in one instance, and fiery, explosive, rhythmic runs the next. Albarn describes him, with eyes-wide awe, as “a volcano.”
Diabaté brings his sizzle to BAM this week as part of the excellent Nonesuch Festival, joined by his son, Sidiki, a griot and master musician in his own right and a hip-hop star back home in Mali. The father and son just cut a gorgeous disc together, Toumani & Sidiki, which you’ll hear from at this show.
It’s worth noting that the album came about largely as a response to the political climate in Mali. The country just emerged from a grim period of jihadist takeover, wherein a ban on music was imposed in its northern regions. Accordingly, the album’s songs are named for places and people who the Diabatés feel upheld the country’s honor and real spiritual values, but they express weighty concerns with levity and joy. The pair will be joining a fellow Malian superstar, singer-guitarist Rokia Traoré, at this show. Some enchanted evening for sure.—Sophie Harris