Two generations of kora players

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I was listening a short while ago to the two versions of the album, “Ancient strings”; the first, recorded by the Malian Ministry of Information in 1970, and featuring duets by four of the top kora players in Mali at the time; the second, recorded by Hannibal Records in 1999, featuring Toumani Diabate and Djelimoussa “Ballake” Sissoko; sons of two of the players on the 1970 recording. It struck me that many of the leading players of both generations are related and that it would be interesting to write something about these players and list as many of their recordings as I know about.

The first generation

Most of the leading players of the generation at its peak when independence came to Francophone West Africa and created the countries of Guinea, Mali and Senegal (and The Gambia a few years later) are dead now. These early masters largely worked in the colonial days (when there was no recording activity that I have been able to discover), and seem to have largely been ignored by the indigenous post-colonial industry, but were taken up by the foreign neo-colonial industry (companies such as Sterns, Rounder, World Circuit, Hannibal and Rogue). At the time of independence, there was great hope and confidence in West Africa; the feeling that Africans could and would stand face to face with the rest of the world and be acknowledged for their own intrinsic worth was widespread. The younger musicians had the confidence to borrow instrumentation and ideas from the west and were encouraged to create contemporary music that would (and did) equal anything that was being produced in the west. But this led to a drop in the popularity of the older musicians.

Mali

The present generation kora players acknowledge that the leader of the previous generation was Batorou (or Batourou) Sekou Kouyate. The Kouyates have traditionally been djeli to the royal house of Keita, descendants of the first Emperor of Mali, Sundiata (13th C), following Balla Fasseke Kouyate, Sundiata’s own djeli.

Closely following Kouyate were his colleagues on the original “Ancient strings” album

Sidiki Diabate;

Djelimadi Sissoko; and

N’Fa Diabate.

Sidiki is, of course, Toumani’s father. Djelimadi is Djelimoussa’s father. The two families lived in adjoining compounds in Bamako (and presumably that’s true for the present generation).

Senegal

Djelimadi and his brother, Soundioulou Cissokho, both originated from The Gambia, as did Sidiki, (though his father was born in Mali). Soundioulou, the main man in Senegal, moved to Senegal and married the great Guinean singer Maa Hawa Kouyate. He didn’t record as a kora soloist but accompanied Maa Hawa almost exclusively. Her daughter, from a previous marriage, married Soundioulou’s and Sidiki’s brother, Buli Sissoko, who remained in The Gambia and has not made any recordings, although in the seventies he toured Europe and Japan extensively.

The other leading kora player of Senegal was Djimo Kouyate, from the Casamance region, who, after a long career with National Instrumental Ensemble of Senegal, moved to Washington DC in the eighties. Alone among kora players of his generation, once in America, Djimo tried to meld traditional kora playing with jazz, not terribly successfully, it must be said, and returned to traditional music in the early nineties.

The Gambia

The leader of the Gambian kora players was Amadou Bansang Jobarteh (Diabate). Born in 1914/15, he was Sidiki Diabate’s uncle. Coming from up-river Gambia, he eventually settled in Brikama, in the west of the country, before moving to London, where he was living in the early nineties.

Closely associated with Jobarteh was Alhaji Bai Konte, another resident of Brikama. It appears from sleeve notes that they, too, were neighbours. They also seem to have been related by marriage; their sons are cousins.

Guinea

Sidikiba Diabate was the infrequently recorded master in Guinea. He was originally from Mali and mostly worked as accompanist to the fabulous Kouyate Sory Kandia.

The second generation

Unlike the kora players of the previous generation, most of the contemporary generation of players have attempted, following Djimo Kouyate’s example, to meld the traditional kora styles with contemporary music of some kind. They have had varying degrees of success; a few have achieved commercial success doing so; others have returned to the traditional music.

Mali

The best known, and probably the best, of the younger kora players is Toumani Diabate. He is the son of Sidiki Diabate. He made his early reputation accompanying his cousin, the equally well known (now) Kandia Kouyate. His recordings for Hannibal and World Circuit have covered both traditional music and fusions with Flamenco, rock, jazz and other forms of Malian music.

Djelimoussa “Ballake” Sissoko, the son of Djelimadi Sissoko, collaborated with Toumani on the “New ancient strings” album, a traditional album.

Fode Kouyate was another who tried to bridge traditional and contemporary music, with considerable artistic success. He died in 1997, aged 39, after making only two albums – one modern, the other traditional.

Senegal

Soundioulou Cissokho’s son, Djeour Cissokho, has made a number of good albums in which Mandinke styles were fused, very well indeed, with contemporary Senegalese Mbalax.

The Gambia

Dembo Konte, the son of Alhaji Bai Konte, is probably the best known of the Gambian kora players. Other local players, however, reckon Kausu Kouyate, who comes from the Casamance region of Senegal, and Malamini Jobarteh, Amadu Bansang’s son, to be Dembo’s superior. Dembo has recorded with them both.

Dembo and Kausu had a brief (and awful) flirtation with Rock, producing one album (“Jali roll”). They returned to traditional music soon afterwards. When I stayed at Dembo’s house a couple of years afterwards, he was adamant that attempting to “go commercial” was doomed to failure and that it was important that the traditions be kept up. Well…

Malamini Jobarteh recorded twice with Dembo, both albums traditional duets of both vocals and kora. These two are better than any of the other Gambian material. He and Dembo also recorded with Alhaji Bai Konte, He doesn’t appear to have recorded by himself or with anyone else, however.

Buli Sissoko’s son, Basirou, moved to Denmark and has not made any recordings, though he has cornered the market in TV appearances there.

Guinea

It’s probable that President Sekou Touré’s policies, which resulted in the creation of the great Mandinke Big Bands, in Guinea depressed the potential of the earlier generation’s kora players. These policies were quickly taken up by Modibo Keita’s government in Mali, to similar effect. After Touré’s death and the closure of Syliphone Records, the Guinean music industry was privatised on the instructions of the World Bank. Two excellent kora players – half-brothers - emerged at about this time: Mory Kante and Djeli Moussa Diawara.

Kante had made his name in Mali, working with Rail Band (Orchestre Rail Band de la Buffet d’Hôtel de la Gare de Bamako) in the mid seventies. In Paris in 1984, be began to record commercial music that was derived equally from the Mandinke Big Band style popularised in Guinea and Mali by Government support and the popular European dancehall music of the day. And enjoyed huge commercial success – the single of Yéké yéké was a huge hit throughout Europe in 1987 and sold over a million copies. Kante is a highly rated kora player but his recordings from 1984 on didn’t provide a great deal of room for it. His latest album is acoustic, but stylistically similar to his earlier, high tech recordings – very interesting.

Djeli Moussa Diawara headed south, for Abidjan, and recorded “Fote mogoban”, a rather more traditional offering than Kante’s work, in 1983. Unlike his brother, Diawara’s work leaves plenty of room for his kora playing, though since 1992 he has been recording in Paris working along similar lines. His kora playing is lush, rather than spare. Recent recordings have moved towards integrating, not terribly successfully, but certainly interestingly, kora playing with Hard Bop.

Tradition

Some interesting points arise out of this mini review. First is the importance of The Gambia and the neighbouring region of the Casamance in the last century or so. So many of the major players have roots there that the songs most frequently played tend to relate to the rulers of the small kingdoms that existed in the late nineteenth century along the River Gambia, and the wars they conducted as each sought to make his small kingdom into a new version of the Mali empire. There is a large element of the tradition that we don’t hear, except from Batorou Sekou Kouyate.

Second, the lack of importance, except in the commercial sense, of Guinea. North-eastern Guinea was the original home of the Mandinke. The capital of the Kingdom of Mali was near Siguiri, in the days of Maghan the Handsome, father of Sundiata, the first Mansa of the Empire of Mali. The work of Sekou Touré, though aimed at securing the hegemony of the Mandinke in the new nation of Guinea, in concentrating on the big bands, possibly did significant harm to the main element of Mandinke traditional music, very little of which has been recorded. So, what we hear from the kora players who have emerged is a kind of localised part of a tradition that once spanned the present day countries of Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire (Mali was a huge and prosperous empire when Europe was just awaking from the dark ages).

And yet one can also argue that the tradition continued into the modern age precisely because of the developments of the big bands, and what has followed, through Kante, Diawara and many other performers, up to the present day. There’s no denying that the big bands were hugely popular in both Guinea and Mali – some are still performing after more than four decides of existence. Their recordings sold well throughout the region, without the need for government support in foreign territories. Tribute bands were created in other countries, as well as bands which were heavily influenced by the big bands. So there’s no doubt that the new music reflected people’s post-colonial needs.

And, if that’s the case, does it matter that the tradition dies? Or if it becomes unrecognisable within a new context? (Questions of some importance to jazz fans, I think.) So one has to ask what the essence of the tradition was; whether that is still needed under the new situation confronting the musicians and their public; and, if so, whether that essence still remains a strong and integral part of the new tradition.

Speaking of the kora players, it’s clear that they had two essential roles. First, they were the repositories of the history of their society. Second, they used that knowledge to show their people the greatness of their society (a most important role under colonial rule) and to show them that they could and should live good and honourable lives, if they followed the examples given by history. Both roles were directed at their patrons, the aristocracy, as well as the general public. (These were, of course, roles that were also filled by players of other instruments as well as the female vocalists.) It’s difficult to envisage a society that doesn’t need at least the second role, and probably also the first, on a continuing basis, but not necessarily performed in the same way.

There’s no doubt that, in the post-colonial era, the Mandinke big bands carried on this tradition. There are about 150 recordings of both long and short versions of the histories of Almamy Samory Touré, Alpha Yaya Diallo, El Hadj Oumar, Soundiata Keita, Dah Monzon Diarra, Tiramakan Coulibaly, Kelefa Sane, Keme Bourema, Bakaridjan Kone and others, some covering the whole of an LP. And this is just the tip of the iceberg; politics, in the form of ethics, history, women’s rights, party and international politics, religion, social issues and the environment, forms the vast majority of the most popular material in many kinds of West African music, to this day; it is rare to find a love song on a pop album made for the West African public (bear in mind that West Africa is not a monogamous society, so love songs, which generally emphasise and bolster monogamy, are pretty well otiose there).

The neo-colonialist labels, however, are divorced from this continuing tradition. Current political issues in West Africa find no airing in the recordings made by those labels – only the “pure” traditional music, or ways in which it can be fused with western forms is of interest to them (though they do license a few recordings made by indigenous record companies). So that, in effect, those musicians who are the putative guardians of the tradition are nothing of the sort; they have been taken over by neo-colonialists for the entertainment or appreciation of western customers. And the real guardians of the tradition are the pop singers and bands. Their music is radically different from that of the kora players, but their job is basically the same as ever.

A discography of the kora players dealt with in this piece is in the next post.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Discography

The first generation

Batorou Sekou Kouyate

Batorou was well known as the kora player accompanying the great vocalist Fanta Damba. As far as I know, he only made three recordings as a kora soloist –

Ancient Strings - Barenreiter Musicaphon (CD Buda Musique) (1970) The prime classic kora album – a work as important in its field as “Kind of blue”.

Keme bourema – Makossa (1975) I haven’t heard this album and don’t know whether it’s purely instrumental or if Batorou sings on it. (Keme bourema was the younger brother of Samory Touré, so this is likely to be a vocal performance)

Sekou Batourou Kouyate et sa cora – Kouma (1976) This is a purely instrumental album and may be the first example of an entire album of kora solos.

Sidiki Diabate

Ancient Strings - Barenreiter Musicaphon (CD Buda Musique) (1970)

Rhythmes et chants du Mali – Sonafric (1977)

Ba togoma – Rogue (1987)

Soundioulou Cissokho

Le couple royal de la musique traditionnelle à Paris - GBR (1975) (with Mahawa Kouyaté)

Folklore du Senegal – Ndardisc (1975) (with Lalo Keba Drame)

Histoire du couple royal de la musique traditionnelle - Volume 1- Bellot (1976) (with Mahawa Kouyaté)

Musique du Folklore et Chants Traditionnels – Ndardisc (1976)

Songs of the griots vol 2 - JVC (Japan) (1992) (with Mahawa Kouyaté)

Djimo Kouyate

Djimo – Music of the World (1982)

Mamaya African Jazz – Mamaya (1988)

Yankadi – Memory of African Culture (1992)

Amadu Bansang Jobarteh

Master of the kora – Eavadisc (1978)

Tabara - Music of the World (1987)

Alhaji Bai Konte

Kora melodies from The Gambia – Rounder (1973)

Gambian griot kora duets – Folkways (1979) (with Dembo Konte & Malamini Jobarteh)

Kora music and songs from The Gambia, West Africa – Virgin (1979)

Sidikiba Diabate

Sidikiba’s only recording appears to be the triple LP set by Kouyate Sory Kandia

L’epopee du Mandingue – Syliphone SLP36, 37 & 38 (1973). All but one of these tracks have been reissued by Syllart on a CD with the same title. The eighth track appears on the Syllart reissue “Tour Afrique de la chanson”. Kouyate Sory Kandia was the only classic djali to be recorded by Syliphone – he had one of the great voices of the century; a voice that could not be denied. But apart from this set, he was usually accompanied by modern big bands, like Keletigui & ses Tambourinis. On this, the band is kora, bala and (probably played by KSK himself, since the player is not credited) bolon. This is completely brilliant stuff; and not just for the voice of the century.

The second generation

Toumani Diabate

Kaira – Hannibal (1987)

Songhai - Hannibal (1988) (with Ketama)

Songhai 2 - Hannibal (1994) (with Ketama)

Djelika - Hannibal (1995)

New ancient strings - Hannibal (1999) (with Djelimoussa Sissoko)

Kulanjan - Hannibal (1999) (with Taj Mahal)

Malicool – Sunnyside (2003) (with Roswell Rudd)

In the heart of the moon – World Circuit (2005) (with Ali Farka Toure)

Boulevard de l’independance – World Circuit (2006) (with Symmetric Orchestra)

The Mande variations – World Circuit (2008)

Djelimoussa “Ballake” Sissoko

Kora music from Mali – Bibi Africa (1997)

New ancient strings - Hannibal (1999) (with Toumani Diabate)

Deli – Label Bleu – (2000)

Tomora – Label Bleu (2004)

Diario Mali - Ponderosa (2005) (with Ludovico Einaudi)

Sakat – Label Bleu (2005) (with Toumani Diabate & Rokia Traore)

3MA – Contre Jour (2008) (with Driss El Maloumi & Rajery)

Chamber music – Universal France (2009) (with Vincent Segal)

Fode Kouyate

Anka wili – Syllart (1993)

Djelia – Celluloid (1996)

Djeour Cissokho

Hommage a pere Soundioulou – KSF (1997)

Unite – KSF (1998)

Guisna – Zoom-Zoom (2002)

Au fond de l’inconnu - Zoom-Zoom (2006)

La nuit nous voit - Zoom-Zoom (2009)

Dembo Konte

Gambian griot kora duets – Folkways (1979) (with Alhaji Bai Konte & Malamini Jobarteh)

Jaliya – Sterns (1985) (with Malamini Jobarteh)

Baa toto –World Record (1987) (with Malamini Jobarteh)

Tanante – Rogue (1986) (with Kausu Kouyate)

Simbomba – Rogue (1987) (with Kausu Kouyate)

Jali roll – Rogue (1990) (with Kausu Kouyate)

Jaliology - Rogue (1995) (with Kausu Kouyate & Mawdo Suso)

Mory Kanté

Mory Kanté et son ensemble - Sako Production (1981)

Courougnégné - Ebony (1981)

N’diarabi - Mélodie (1982)

À Paris - Barclay (1984)

Ten cola nuts - Barclay (1986)

Akwaba beach - Barclay (1987)

Touma - Barclay (1990)

Nongo Village – Barclay (1994)

Tatebola – Misslin (1996)

Tamala – Sonodisc/Next (2001)

Sabou – Riverboat (2004) Though this is an all acoustic album using traditional instruments, it’s pretty well the same kind of music Mory has always played. Damn good, too.

Djeli Moussa Diawara

Foté mogoban – AS Productions/Tangent (1983) (issued on Oval CD as “Direct from West Africa” and World Circuit as “Yasimika”)

Soubindoor. World Circuit (1988)

Cimadan – Celluloid (1992)

Sobindo – Celluloid (1994)

FlamenKora – Melodie (1998)

Kora Jazz Trio - Kora Jazz Trio – Celluloid (2003)

Kora Jazz Trio – Part two – Celluloid (2005)

Sini – RSD (2006)

MG

[Hot Ptah]

Wow! What a fantastic set of posts. There is much to read and study here, and many artists to check out. You should write a book, MG.

This is why I love Organissimo, the chance to learn about something new, by someone who knows so much about it and has a passion for it.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Wow! What a fantastic set of posts. There is much to read and study here, and many artists to check out. You should write a book, MG.

This is why I love Organissimo, the chance to learn about something new, by someone who knows so much about it and has a passion for it.

Thanks HP. I've not the patience to write a book - or the breadth of knowledge. In any case, Graeme Counsel, an Aussie DJ, has written a book, based on his PhD thesis, which is very interesting indeed.

http://www.radioafrica.com.au/

MG

[A Lark Ascending]

Don't know nearly enough about this music to comment in depth - I'm very much an occasional 'cultural tourist' where it is concerned, having only listened through what you term the 'neo-colonialist' packaging of the music.

I think you are absolutely right that a distorted and romanticised view of this music (and World Music in general) has been presented for Western consumption. The term 'neo-colonialist' seems a bit loaded. These are just record companies doing what record companies do anywhere in the world - find a form of music that can find a market and then select from it what might sell. In some cases pure greed is at work; but I'd imagine there are lots of people involved who just like the music, can see others would like the music but have to be a bit cautious in selecting in case they put out things that don't sell and they go under (were Holst, Bartok, Kodaly, Vaughan Williams, Grainger 'neo-colonialists'?).

There is a lot of mythology involved in the marketing - the idea that you are somehow buying into authenticity, heritage etc. But that is equally true of jazz, be it a contemporary musician portrayed as an inheritor of the tradition (and that can be Marsalis or some young Chicago avant-garder) or the endless repackaging of 'the legends', 'the masters'.

To my mind too much time is spent in all musics getting obsessed over 'the tradition' and who really owns it or fits with it. I don't know how it works with West African music but I'd imagine there are many streams coming out. Trying to push any of them into the spotlight as the true path (be it a reconstruction of the music as played 50 years or more ago or what is being played in a downtown bar in 2010) strikes me as questionable.

I'm very guilty of be drawn to the more acoustic, rural sounding ends of many musics. I don't think it is because I'm seeking some short-cut to authenticity. I just happen to like those sounds over more urban, funky, dance based sounds.

Trying to squash it all into a neo-Marxist (couldn't resist that!) analysis strikes me as simplifying something that is likely to be far more complex.

Great post MG - I'm not presuming to challenge your knowledge here as it's music I know little about. But some of your conclusions seem to overlap with discussions elsewhere in music.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Don't know nearly enough about this music to comment in depth - I'm very much an occasional 'cultural tourist' where it is concerned, having only listened through what you term the 'neo-colonialist' packaging of the music.

I think you are absolutely right that a distorted and romanticised view of this music (and World Music in general) has been presented for Western consumption. The term 'neo-colonialist' seems a bit loaded. These are just record companies doing what record companies do anywhere in the world - find a form of music that can find a market and then select from it what might sell. In some cases pure greed is at work; but I'd imagine there are lots of people involved who just like the music, can see others would like the music but have to be a bit cautious in selecting in case they put out things that don't sell and they go under (were Holst, Bartok, Kodaly, Vaughan Williams, Grainger 'neo-colonialists'?).

Yes, neo-colonialist is a bit of a loaded term. You're right that these companies were founded and are still owned by people who love the music. I have quite a bit of their stuff and I'm most grateful for it. One would normally use the term to describe the giants of industry, not small entrepreneurial companies. But the funny thing is, the one giant of the industry present in this region, EMI, through its subsidiaries Mali K7 and JAT Music, is acting exactly like the indigenous companies and not trying to make records for western consumption. To me, the essence of colonialism is taking stuff out of the colony and not putting anything much back in. That's what the neo-colonialist firms are doing.

There is a lot of mythology involved in the marketing - the idea that you are somehow buying into authenticity, heritage etc. But that is equally true of jazz, be it a contemporary musician portrayed as an inheritor of the tradition (and that can be Marsalis or some young Chicago avant-garder) or the endless repackaging of 'the legends', 'the masters'.

This parallel is very interesting to me and the reason why I posted what at first seems fairly marginal material here. Toumani Diabate, Dembo Konte and others are pretty much the Wynton Marsalises of Mande music.

To my mind too much time is spent in all musics getting obsessed over 'the tradition' and who really owns it or fits with it. I don't know how it works with West African music but I'd imagine there are many streams coming out. Trying to push any of them into the spotlight as the true path (be it a reconstruction of the music as played 50 years or more ago or what is being played in a downtown bar in 2010) strikes me as questionable.

The tradition is owned by the people. You and I, I know, share the same view that musicians are serving the people. The thing I find really interesting about this part of West Africa is that most musicians (whether they're innovators or working within well understood boundaries) seem to share that view, too. (Which is not to say that they don't like the adulation or the groupies )

I'm very guilty of be drawn to the more acoustic, rural sounding ends of many musics. I don't think it is because I'm seeking some short-cut to authenticity. I just happen to like those sounds over more urban, funky, dance based sounds.

And I'm the reverse - but neither of us should feel guilty about it.

Trying to squash it all into a neo-Marxist (couldn't resist that!) analysis strikes me as simplifying something that is likely to be far more complex.

Great post MG - I'm not presuming to challenge your knowledge here as it's music I know little about. But some of your conclusions seem to overlap with discussions elsewhere in music.

Yes, I'm definitely on Jim Sangrey's side in all this

MG

[A Lark Ascending]

Yes, I'm definitely on Jim Sangrey's side in all this

MG

I hope you're not going to start posting in cod-Texan! You can take neo-traditionalism too far!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Yes, I'm definitely on Jim Sangrey's side in all this

MG

I hope you're not going to start posting in cod-Texan! You can take neo-traditionalism too far!

Thought it was Clem who used to do that (y'all).

MG

[Van Basten II]

They were names or in some cases first names i was not familiar with, i will have to add them up to my list when i roam the cd store. Great post, don't know if most of this music will be easy to find but it will make the search more exciting.

Regarding the neo-colonial stuff, well as long as the musicians are producing music they are proud to do and play, it does not really matter whether it's purer or not, at least to me. More important is the quality of the execution and if it sounds artistically good to our ears. I'll let specialists figure the rest out by themselves.

[chitownjazz]

Great post,I'm very interested in that original Ancient Strings CD but can't find hide nor hair of it on the web, even correcting the spelling of Batorou to Batrou and checking the Buda Musique web site.

[A Lark Ascending]

The tradition is owned by the people. You and I, I know, share the same view that musicians are serving the people. The thing I find really interesting about this part of West Africa is that most musicians (whether they're innovators or working within well understood boundaries) seem to share that view, too. (Which is not to say that they don't like the adulation or the groupies )

I'm always a bit wary about the term 'the people'. An awful lot has been justified in their name - Lenin and his middle class accomplices invoked a dictatorship in the name of 'the people'; Hitler justified his dictatorship and rode roughshod over the law on the grounds that he was acting for the German people; our own politicians constantly claim that when the follow their own self-interest they are acting for the people.

To say 'the tradition is owned by the people' is to imply that there is a single, defined tradition. I'd argue that the tradition is owned by the person/persons who define the tradition as such...it's a retrospective construction, a particular arrangement of selected pieces of the jig-saw puzzle that fits the perpective or interests or prejudices or special interests of the constructor.

Which is why I'm always suspicious of those who claim to have a particular insight into what the tradition is.

***************

The appeal of the supposedly 'authentic' forms of West African (and other) music is interesting but not surprising. I suspect it is part of a continuity that goes back at least to the industrial revolution. As we become more urbanised and entangled in technology there is this appeal of the supposedly natural (which is often far from that, the English countryside being a classic example). It happens in so many forms from longing for authentic music from the past or in the spirit of the past through to the desire to believe in some eternal truth that lies outside the modern world, possibly locked in the secrets of the ancients (Dan Brown clearly took that one to the bank!).

The present and the future are uncertain; we can't be sure that what we value today will be considered to be valuable tomorrow. Much easier to arrange the past in a reassuring way and convince ourselves that real, eternal values lie there.

I suspect the music that is being freshly minted in West Africa for a domestic audience at present doesn't quite provide those reassurances for a (mainly middle to upper-class) wester audience. Whereas the Toumani Diabate's and Dembo Konte's can be filed alongside Beethoven Quartets or boxed sets of the genius of Lester Young.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Great post,I'm very interested in that original Ancient Strings CD but can't find hide nor hair of it on the web, even correcting the spelling of Batorou to Batrou and checking the Buda Musique web site.

I guess you're in Chicago - so here's one at US AMazon $8.99 used

http://www.amazon.com/Mali-Ancient-Strings-Various-Artists/dp/B000059TAJ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1264263275&sr=1-1

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I suspect the music that is being freshly minted in West Africa for a domestic audience at present doesn't quite provide those reassurances for a (mainly middle to upper-class) wester audience. Whereas the Toumani Diabate's and Dembo Konte's can be filed alongside Beethoven Quartets or boxed sets of the genius of Lester Young.

I agree entirely. I think that, in the forties, the same could be/would be (perhaps was) said of much of the new R&B that was coming out of the ghettos in the US, whereas Prez could be filed alongside the 78 albums of Beethoven

MG

[paul secor]

This parallel is very interesting to me and the reason why I posted what at first seems fairly marginal material here. Toumani Diabate, Dembo Konte and others are pretty much the Wynton Marsalises of Mande music.

MG

Don't think you'll find Wynton recording with Roswell Rudd anytime soon.

Thanks for starting this thread. I have some kora records in my collection but don't have any real background for them. This at least gives me the start of a bit more understanding.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

The tradition is owned by the people. You and I, I know, share the same view that musicians are serving the people. The thing I find really interesting about this part of West Africa is that most musicians (whether they're innovators or working within well understood boundaries) seem to share that view, too. (Which is not to say that they don't like the adulation or the groupies )

I'm always a bit wary about the term 'the people'. An awful lot has been justified in their name - Lenin and his middle class accomplices invoked a dictatorship in the name of 'the people'; Hitler justified his dictatorship and rode roughshod over the law on the grounds that he was acting for the German people; our own politicians constantly claim that when the follow their own self-interest they are acting for the people.

To say 'the tradition is owned by the people' is to imply that there is a single, defined tradition. I'd argue that the tradition is owned by the person/persons who define the tradition as such...it's a retrospective construction, a particular arrangement of selected pieces of the jig-saw puzzle that fits the perpective or interests or prejudices or special interests of the constructor.

Which is why I'm always suspicious of those who claim to have a particular insight into what the tradition is.

Perhaps I put this poorly. To me, traditions are something that people do/use/have reference to/have various kinds of hooks to. We're talking about music, but we could be talking about the kind of pots they use/make, the houses they live in/build or the patterns of cloth they use/make, but in each case the artists who make that stuff, or play it, are a part of the people, most of whom aren't capable of doing so, because their skills lie in other directions. From time to time, one of these artists is going to see the need to change something in what they're doing. This happens, I reckon, more frequently in times of social upheaval than in tines of quietude. But whenever, the innovation has to pass a test, which is, do the people want it like that? Because, if they don't, the innovation will simply disappear. If they do, they'll buy it and it will become the latest part of a continuing tradition. This is very often a commercial test, but not always; when the tradition involves the way people behave amongst themselves, such a test seems unlikely - eg the change from polygamy to monogamy in our society was probably not subject to a commercial test, though I doubt if historians could tell us yea or nay on that

So what I mean by the people owning it is they've (generally) bought it or bought into it.

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

This parallel is very interesting to me and the reason why I posted what at first seems fairly marginal material here. Toumani Diabate, Dembo Konte and others are pretty much the Wynton Marsalises of Mande music.

MG

Don't think you'll find Wynton recording with Roswell Rudd anytime soon.

Ha! Just experienced my first hearing of Rudd on BFT71. Terrific! Will peruse Allen Lowe's thread soon.

Thanks for starting this thread. I have some kora records in my collection but don't have any real background for them. This at least gives me the start of a bit more understanding.

For more background, do check out Graeme Counsel's website I posted a link for earlier. I haven't bought his book yet, but you can download from that site a pdf file of his thesis, which is really very interesting. Graeme has been decorated by the Guinea government recently, for his work on the Syliphone Records catalogue. I doubt that they did so lightly. He's DA MAN!

MG

[A Lark Ascending]

But what if the people don't want it anymore (or want it like that); but some people from elsewhere do want it or want to turn it into something else? Does that invalidate it. Or does it become something else with the potential to have its own validity. If you insist the measure is the original usage (or the approval of the original community) then there is no validity. But if you allow for mutation well beyond the original (say Sophocles to Becket) then it can have validity. Many who argue for the centrality of tradition imply that there is an imperative to make the original usage the measure.

Your second generation kora players are probably (at least in part) adapting what they do to a community outside of the one that gave the music birth. I'm not sure that necessarily makes it weaker - unless you have decided that one essential criteria for validity is that the music retains its roots close to the source community. Which seems to be what Marsalis is doing (or saying).

Edited January 23, 2010 by Bev Stapleton

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

But what if the people don't want it anymore (or want it like that); but some people from elsewhere do want it or want to turn it into something else? Does that invalidate it. Or does it become something else with the potential to have its own validity. If you insist the measure is the original usage (or the approval of the original community) then there is no validity. But if you allow for mutation well beyond the original (say Sophocles to Becket) then it can have validity. Many who argue for the centrality of tradition imply that there is an imperative to make the original usage the measure.

Your second generation kora players are probably (at least in part) adapting what they do to a community outside of the one that gave the music birth. I'm not sure that necessarily makes it weaker - unless you have decided that one essential criteria for validity is that the music retains its roots close to the source community. Which seems to be what Marsalis is doing (or saying).

I think maybe they're joining a different tradition, and possibly it's because they can't sell what used to be done any more. Whereas they CAN be marketed outside as the inheritors of a tradition that's at least 800 years old, which is a good commrcial point.

MG

[seeline]

http://www.coraconnection.com/ - good site for info. + lots of rare recordings for sale.

I seriously have to wonder if some things here aren't a bit overstated - just because certain kinds of recordings are made for non-African audiences doesn't mean that people in W. Africa aren't listening to - and perpetuating - this music. That's equally the case with other djeli (griot) instruments like the ngoni.

So many recordings are made for strictly "local" markets... and they seldom find their way to the West, let alone penetrate the consciousness of Westerners. Folks might want to check the following blogs for info. and some music:

http://wrldsrv.blogspot.com/

http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/blog/ - this blog has a ton of things that might surprise old Africa hands.

http://awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com/

[A Lark Ascending]

Whereas they CAN be marketed outside as the inheritors of a tradition that's at least 800 years old, which is a good commrcial point.

MG

You mean, like jazz (OK, 100 years) or classical music!

I'm interested in this because I saw the whole 'World Music' thing (as a European marketing strategy) emerge from the late 70s, via the pages of 'Folk Roots' magazine (now 'FRoots'). It started as a UK folk-centred local rag in the South East. Its long time editor, Ian Anderson (who I recall seeing playing blues in the mid 70s!), developed a real interest in African and other musics and started to steer it in a more international direction, creating an outcry amongst the hardline UK folkies that still has not stopped. He was there at the centre of the marketing decisions that kick-started the wider interest in this country (I know there were plenty of people with specialised interests prior).

I've been fascinated by the twists and turns he's taken (he can be cantankerous and waspish). At one stage he decided that indigenous musics were at risk from globalised, Americanised mass-culture and actually launched an attempted boycott of American music amongst his readers. I think he eventually saw how foolish this was and over the last ten years has used the phrase 'rooted in a tradition' as his measure for the validity of a music. I've always found it a bit of a shaky concept.

His latest re-write of history is that American music has come out of its commercialised dark ages and that there are now really interesting American groups, rooted in traditions he approves of. Oh, and that the 'World Music' area is going through a bit of an arid patch whereas music rooted in the English folk tradition is enjoying a resurgence.

I admire the bloke for all he's done to open people's ears; but he suffers the arrogance of so many critics in presenting his preferences and notions as some sort of objective reality.

(Hope this is not drifting too far from the intention of your thread.)

[seeline]

My take on Ian is that he's a bit of a crank. Rod Stradling, of Musical Traditions, has his own leanings that way, too. (I had an exchange of emails with Ian over his demonization of the American baseball World Series a few years back. It was interesting and frustrating, too.)

Maybe this is an English thing? (Though I'd be the 1st to say that Alan Lomax had similar tendencies...)

Edited to add: I think some recordings (like the Kora Jazz Trio) are a natural result of collaboration between African musicians who've emigrated to western European countries with their new local peers. Why not?

Edited January 23, 2010 by seeline

[A Lark Ascending]

Big fish in small ponds syndrome in both cases, Seeline!

[seeline]

Big fish in small ponds syndrome in both cases, Seeline!

Which is also true of Lomax, in certain respects (to my mind, anyway).

did you catch my links and info. post above? Lots of great resources!

Edited January 23, 2010 by seeline

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

But what if the people don't want it anymore (or want it like that); but some people from elsewhere do want it or want to turn it into something else? Does that invalidate it. Or does it become something else with the potential to have its own validity. If you insist the measure is the original usage (or the approval of the original community) then there is no validity. But if you allow for mutation well beyond the original (say Sophocles to Becket) then it can have validity. Many who argue for the centrality of tradition imply that there is an imperative to make the original usage the measure.

Your second generation kora players are probably (at least in part) adapting what they do to a community outside of the one that gave the music birth. I'm not sure that necessarily makes it weaker - unless you have decided that one essential criteria for validity is that the music retains its roots close to the source community. Which seems to be what Marsalis is doing (or saying).

I think maybe they're joining a different tradition, and possibly it's because they can't sell what used to be done any more. Whereas they CAN be marketed outside as the inheritors of a tradition that's at least 800 years old, which is a good commrcial point.

MG

Having thought about this a bit over dinner, I'm inclined to be a bit more positive. Dembo Konte, certainly, has joined/is joining western society. Though of course, he spares an amused smile for the floundering attempts of tourists who stay in his home to cope with Africa - including me And there are always two meanings to this, as is true in the US. But one can see his recordings for Rogue and Sterns are much better payers as adverts, linked with mentions in the Rough Guide to West Africa, than they are a source of direct income from royalties.

MG

[JSngry]

When the business needs the music in order to be able to survive, things are as they should be. When it gets to be the other way 'round, something's gone wrong somewhere. And when it gets all balanced out, well, enjoy it while it lasts.