Toumani Diabaté

Overview

When Toumani Diabaté was five years old he picked up the Kora (a 21 string hybrid between a harp and a lute) and taught himself to play. His father Sidiki Diabaté was a renowned Kora musician in Mali, and Toumani found that he could educate himself simply by listening.

A child prodigy, Toumani was born a Griot (a class of travelling poets, musicians and storytellers who maintain an oral history in various parts of Western Africa), and his music both reflects and extends from this inheritance. Influenced not only by family tradition, Toumani engrossed himself in American soul music, as well as acts such as Jimi Hendrix and those British heaven climbers Led Zeppelin. The combination makes his music one of both gentle sway and energetic flutter, immediate and stimulating - the kind of sound that sooths an impatient ear and seduces the most stubborn of hips.

Apart from performing his Grammy nominated album The Mandé Variations at State Theatre, Mr. Diabaté will also stage a free performance with his Symmetric Orchestra on January 16 in The Domain at 8.00PM.