When I had a yen for kora music in the past, I used to play In the Heart of the Moon — the 2005 CD by Toumani Diabaté and guitarist Ali Farka Touré.[1] But last month I caught up with Diabaté’s CD of duets with another kora master, Ballaké Sissoko. Their cooly canonic New Ancient Strings (1999) may be my go-to kora groove going forward.
The sound came through to my son first who heard it at an African art exhibit at the Met in 2020. The music isn’t too museumy though — it’s more cultural than civilizational. Rapper/Writer Donald Glover (AKA Childish Gambino) has tweeted about how he picked up on the CD’s vibe in the open air. Per one YouTube respondent: “GAMBINO SENT ME HERE.” Sender-and-sent surely didn’t take cues from the Don-of-rock-crit, Robert Christgau, who dissed “New Agey” New Ancient Strings as a “dud.” Ears of a clown? Nah…different strokes. (This is America.)
Wiki has dope on the making of the CD — its back story (and reception):
“New Ancient Strings” was inspired by the 1970 album “Ancient Strings,” a landmark kora album featuring the musicians’ fathers, Sidiki Diabaté and Djelimadi Sissoko…Diabaté and Sissoko intended to honour their fathers’ musical legacy while showcasing the significant developments that had occurred in Malian music during the nearly three decades since the recording of “Ancient Strings.” For example, the duo’s kora playing makes use of novel techniques not used by their fathers, and also incorporates stylistic flourishes influenced by non-Malian music, such as flamenco guitar…
Recording took place within a marble hallway between two meeting rooms…The album was recorded in a single live take on the night of Mali’s national independence day.
In what’s still an unfathomable historical turn, a decade or so after that independence day, Mali was under siege by mad Islamists who banned music wherever they ruled. With help from the French army, Malians beat back fascists in-country. But the Frogs are gone now and sharia-warriors are once again on the come in the Sahel.
New Ancient Strings’ gift of tranquility-and-beauty is (as ever) hear-and-gone. The musicians who made it were never trying to skip out of history into some deracinated New Age. They were catching notes on the wing. Let’s pray reactionary fanatics don’t ground them (and their homies) again.
Note
1 I tried Diabaté and Touré’s 2010 follow-up to In the Heart of the Moon, but it didn’t hit.