Toumani Diabate: The King of the Kora ‚Äì playing with his son Sadiki WOMAD July 2008

Below is a youtube clip of Toumani Diabate, the legendary, present King of Kora instrument worldwide. In this clip you’ll see him playing with his son, Sidiki, at WOMAD’s festival in New Zealand, July of 2008.

There are obviously two things that you first need to have knowledge about before any of this makes any sense to you…who is Toumani Diabate? what is the Kora?

Toumani Diabate was born in 1965, in Mali, heir to the musical throne occupied by what he states are 70 previous generations in his family alone, of Kora master instrumentalists, him representing the 71st. He is known as the greatest player of the Kora in modern history, and most certainly of his generation. He is proudly self-taught, and has been lavished countlessly, both in African by his contemporaries, and in the rest of the world by many of the talented artists whose paths he’s crossed, with praise befitting a regal monarch, simply because of the flawless and effortless mastery he has over the Kora Harp/guitar/instrument.

Now, what is the Kora? The Kora is a 21-string african harp, or rather, just the HARP. The orchestral harp we’re familiar with today was conceived from witnessing the structure, performance and various qualities of the Kora. It’s structure is as follows: it has a calabash, which acts as its main source of sound production and as a resonator, which has an animal hide covering half of it, studded/bolted to the calabash, around half of the calabash. The calabash can also have symbols and patterns, mostly those of the African tribal symbol code systems one finds plentifully on the Mother continent. protruding upwards from the top of the calabash is the neck of the instrument, upon which all the strings are tied (21 strings, even sometimes up to 24)…some constructions of the Kora have the strings woven in an intricate knotting style around the entirety of the neck, spiraling or snaking up the neck to the top of the neck (which itself varies in length up to a meter long), and other constructions or tying’s of the strings are common to the guitar fashion, drill in tuning pegs onto the neck, and binding the strings in such fashion.

on the calabash is a bridge, for attaching the strings to the base of the calabash and making them taut for variations of colour and tone for each string…ultimately, the instrument looks like a cross between a guitar and some otherworldly stringed instrument…it is a truly beautiful thing to behold.

But playing it is where all the funs at!… so watch this video to witness the master and KING, Toumani, play with his son, Sidiki, who, it has to be said, as with most sons, really looks like he wants to give his father a run for his money!!!!!