Djelika

Toumani Diabate | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 5, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hannibal
• ASIN: B00000062F
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #203,600 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #79 in Music > World Music > Africa > Mali

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous music from Mali, August 9, 2002

By 

Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Djelika (Audio CD)

This album brings together three traditional Mali instruments; the kora (harp-lute), the balafon, a type of marimba or xylophone and the ngoni--a mandolin-like instrument with a flexible neck. The three virtuosi on this album are the kora master Toumani Diabate, Keletigui Diabete on balafon and Basekou Kouyate on the ngoni.

If you like "New Ancient Strings", something of a hit album in the World Music genre, you will be pleased with this offering. While the mix of instruments does not have the deep, hypnotic rocking style of the dual kora in "New Ancient Strings" the mix of the three traditional instruments is good to listen to. The music has a very traditional sound, yet is tuneful and completely accessible to any listener. The skirling harp riffs are shored up nicely by the "bones" of the balafon's wooden tonking, and the ngoni is fascinating--it's flexible neck produces half-tone notes like an ancient precursor of the bender or "whammy" bar on an electric guitar.

This music dates far, far back to the 13th Century kingdoms of Mali, and even before, when the kora was the hunter-harp. I wonder if King David's shepherd's harp didn't sound like the kora, and if the music to which the Psalms were sung sounded anything at all like this? We can only imagine about this, as music of the ancients is lost to us. But this sound is timeless, and I play my Toumani Diabate CD's over and over. They certainly speak to me and if the kora was the instrument David played to Saul, I can attest that it has tremendous powers to lighten the soul.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars contemplative virtuosity, August 6, 2002

By 

m_noland "m_noland" (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Djelika (Audio CD)

Folk-music based intrumentals from Mali. This disk works as both foreground and background music: the mood is contemplative but the playing is extraordinarily demanding - so the listener can either listen "hard" and be astonished by kora-player Toumani Diabate's virtuosity, or one can lay back and just let the music flow over you. The disk's production values are not the best, but it just adds to the air of authenticity of three skilled musicians interacting in the moment without the intermediation of studio trickery.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent recording by an instrumental master, December 3, 2000

By 

C. H Smith (Bowling Green, Kentucky United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Djelika (Audio CD)

Toumani Diabate first came to general attention in 1989 when he played on the collaborative project "Songhai" with the flamenco duo Ketama and ex-Pentangle bassist Danny Thompson. Six years later there was a "Songhai II," and this album was recorded at the same time. It also includes Thompson and two other West African musicians. But Diabate is the star attraction here; he is the most renowned living master of the guitar/harp-like instrument known as the kora, and one sometimes can scarcely believe that there is not multi-tracking going on in the recording. The material is primarily traditional, but the level of instrumental play is so advanced that one rapidly becomes aware of being in the presence of a great talent. Fully recommended; not a '5' only because subsequent recordings by Diabate have been even better!