Esprit de Kora

Toumani Diabaté - Dou Dou

I am having a marriage vow reaffirmation ceremony today, but I'm timing this to go up at midnight Saturday to honor a recently-departed superhero.

He didn't perhaps live the longest life, but as we know it's the quality of what you do when you're here and not the quantity of the time you're given in which to do it.

The tradition of Mali bestows its music, like a living heirloom and consciously, down the generations of families. Today's practitioner was the apotheosis of that (at least so far! because as we'll see, it goes on), in that he was the 71st (!!!) generation of his family to play.

His sons Balla and Sidiki (named for his dad, who was 70th!!) are the 72nd (OMG so many exclams!!!!!!) to carry on in the family name, which is as revered in West African music as any on that long, long list.

A transcendent and fearless visionary, you could easily say that he was the first to really mainstream the kora -- that's the instrument you see him holding in these shots --  and bring it to the world both on display in traditional Malian music, as well as extended into the myriad collaborations with far-flung and diverse artists for which he was so beloved.

Sure, he passed away and his physical body ended July 19th after a short illness. Lemme tell you from recent and entirely fucked up experience: physical bodies are way overrated, and honestly the older they get the more dire trouble they provide, trust me.

But if the litmus test of life and living -- where time isn't so much the currency, but the use of it -- is what someone does in whatever time they have, it would not be an exaggeration to say that he lived as tremendous and impactful a time as any human could live or expect to live.

A lifetime of the most beautiful and intense musicmaking, helping represent your part of the world into a whole new spot in the pantheon of musical regions? Well, we can check that box.

Forging a new status for your chosen instrument, bringing a thing and the centuries-old tradition it inhabits, which not everyone knew about, into a brighter light of recognition, usage and appreciation? Take that on down to the savings-n-loan and cash the check on that one too.

Being able to travel the globe, spreading the seed of all of this and integrating your instrument and sounds into the broader firmament, in the process creating unprecedented hybridization and ideas that enrich us all with some of the most gorgeous music that will ever be made? Big, giant check I wish more towering artists like Toumani Diabaté could live to cash before they go in the box. you know?

Anyway he'd have been 59 today, and that's way too young no matter what accomplishments can be pointed to and what plaudits can be laid, like a bouquet of forever flowers, on the grave of the deceased.

What's great is that people such as he did and started other people on doing stuff that, in their purest and most cliché-free iteration as he transmitted the message and its meanings, can never really die.

So in honor of that, here's some truly tasty treats from this overbeing of music in the flesh and transmitting on the FM dial in Europe.... as usual I was just gonna do the 2010 one until things got happily out of hand.

Toumani Diabaté
European broadcasts

1999-2014

1.
Toumani Diabaté & Ballaké Sissoko

unidentified venue

Bremen, Germany

(possibly) summer 1999

01 Korobali

02 L'arme de l'orphelin

03 Cheikhna Demba

04 Kita Kaira

Total time: 40:02

Toumani Diabaté - kora

Ballaké Sissoko - kora

1999 bootleg CD (label unknown) "Live At Bremen" 

sourced from a master off-air FM broadcast and capture of indeterminate origin

very slightly remastered by EN, August 2024
252 MB FLAC/link below

2.
Toumani Diabaté

The Barbican

London, UK

6.2.2010

01 Sambou Ya Ya!

02 Wale

03 Ruby

04 Sabu Yerkoy

05 Dou Dou

06 Elyne Road

Total time: 49:49

Toumani Diabaté – kora

Fode Lassana – balafon

Samba Touré– guitar & vocals

Fodé Kouyaté – drums

Ganda Tounkara – ngoni

Mohamed Koita – bass & vocals

Aboubacar Diabaté - djembe & percussion

Sekouba Kandia Kouyaté - vocals

Fanta Diabaté - guitar

master off-air FM capture direct to digital

slightly retracked, with volume increased +2 dB throughout, by EN, August 2024
288 MB FLAC/link below

3.
Toumani Diabaté & Sidiki Diabaté

unidentified venue

Bremen, Germany

probably early July 2014

01 Sidiki Song

02 Kaira

03 Rachid Ouiguini

04 Dr. Cheikh Modibo Diarra

05 Tijaniya

06 TD speaks

07 Bagadaji Sirifoula

08 Lampedusa

Total time: 1:12:52

Toumani Diabaté - kora 

Sidiki Diabaté - kora

2014 bootleg CD (label unknown) "Live At Bremen" 

sourced from a master off-air FM broadcast and capture of indeterminate origin

retracked and very slightly remastered by EN, August 2024
415 MB FLAC/direct link to all 3 broadcasts

I know there's all kinds of music on here and I try to keep it as eclectic as the often-pathetic ROIOverse (and its pitiful underrepresentation of artists like this) will allow, but I ain't lying when I say I will never, ever post anything here more aesthetically beautiful or sonically sumptuous than these three performances. Maybe as, but not more.

I will take a few days off to recover from everything that's been going on, and see you all on the 20th, when we'll welcome The Boys back to town with something that literally could not be more different, at least in the musical sense. But in spite of it all I wanted to take today to make sure to pay homage to Toumani Diabaté, and look forward, with the rest of Earth, to the next 72 generations of the magical music of Mali.--J.

8.10.1965 - 7.19.2024