Various Artists
Ancient Strings
Buda Musique, 1970
New Ancient Strings, by Toumani Diabaté and Ballake Sissoko is the most celebrated and successful album featuring the 21-string Manding harp--the kora--in recent years, or perhaps ever. The inspiration for this sublime session, recorded in Bamako in 1999, was for the two young kora lions to revisit material famously recorded by their late fathers in 1970.
With little fanfare, the original recording by Djelimoussa Sissoko, Sidiki Diabaté, and also Batourou Sékou Kouyaté and N'Fa Diabaté, has now been reissued on CD, and a single listen quickly demonstrates why it was the most influential and important kora recording of its day.
There are more and shorter tracks on the original--13, as opposed to the 8 on the sons' expansive revisiting. But whether it's the stately elegance of "Sunjata" or "Kulanjan," or the full-on exuberance of "Ala La Ke" or "Kaira," the fathers deliver genius, subtlety, and spirit, and what's more, they deliver the core of the kora repertoire played as well as anyone ever has. "Asumba," a Serer song, has an austere, meditative quality. Most of these players are from Mali, where the kora playing is more open-ended and relaxed than in the Gambia, but all the great kora families have links back to the Gambia, the instrument's home turf. The elders are technical masters like their sons, and in 1970 the idea of recording kora without grand, griot vocals was far more radical than it is now. These men were truly pioneers, paving the way for their sons, and in fact, a whole new generation of kora players.
The recording is clean and rich. The tracks combine the players in various duos, and there's are some fabulous solo pieces by Batourou Sékou Kouyaté, who may be the most impressive of all. This CD may be a little hard to find, but it is distributed by Allegro, and well worth a hunt. While it may never outsell New Ancient Strings, this remains the greatest kora album ever--a must own for all Manding music fans.
Contributed by: Banning Eyre
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