Kora (The Instrument) rapidshare

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Kora (The Instrument)

The Kora is a Westafrican harp of the family of bridge harps or harp-lutes.

It's the highest developped string instrument of Africa. The construction of the instrument as well as the music are unique in the world.

The Kora is found in all Mande cultures. It is played by the Mandinka in Gambia, Senegal and Guinea Bissau, the Malinke or Maninka in Guinée, the Bambara or Bamana in Mali and the Dioula in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). Though, it's Gambia and Casamance (South Senegal) where it has the greatest importance for social life.

The Kora has a centuries-old tradition and has been played at royal courts, where the musicians and griots belonged to the personnel.

The Kora was mentioned 1799 for the first time in literature by Mungo Park in Travels in the interior districts of West Africa as korri.

The Kora has a big hemispherical body, a long neck and two planes with 11 and 10 strings running in notches at the sides of an upright mounted bridge.

The playing style resembles the fingerpicking blues guitar, the placement of the strings allows for the playing of chords and harmonies and fast melodic runs.

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Ballaké Sissoko - Déli

Album : Déli
Artist : Issa Ballaké Sissoko
Release Date : 2001
Label : Indigo
Number of Discs: 1
Genre : World
Total time : 00:59:15
Total size : 109 MB

Tracks :
1. Famade
2. Detigiou
3. Deli
4. Baya Baya
5. Da Monson
6. Improvisation 1
7. Saratikan
8. Talasa
9. Kouroutoukelefa
10. Lan Banba
11. Improvisation 2

@ 256 Kbit/s mp3

From Amazon.co.uk
The kora is West Africa's answer to the European harp, and wonderfully beguiling it is: it was with this that generations of Mande kings were soothed by their minstrels, and the list of virtuosi is long. This album from Mali's newest kora star--who first came to prominence by duetting with kora king Toumani Diabate--is the quintessence of easy listening. Ballake Sissoko plays with lazy warmth, and he's accompanied by young players on other Malian instruments which have a comparable pedigree. Adama Tounkara plays the lute-like ngoni, and Fassery Diabate the balafon, a wooden xylophone with a distinctive slapping effect. Mama Draba, their singer, has a sweetly insinuating, almost feline, tone. The group virtuosity is unshowy but intricate, as the melodic lines interweave and interact; the acoustic purity is unsullied by electronics. Moreover, this is neither a field recording nor a formal concert, but something deliciously in between: listen on a cold winter night, and feel the sun reaching in.
--Michael Church

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Toumani Diabate & Ballake Sissoko
New Ancient Strings

Album : New Ancient Strings
Artist : Toumani Diabate & Ballake Sissoko
Release date : 1999
Number of discs : 1
Genre : World
Total size : 73,4 MB (mp3), 262 MB (FLAC)
Total time : 00:53:23

Tracks :
1. Bi Lambam
2. Salaman
3. Kita Kaira
4. Bafoulabe
5. Cheiknah Demba
6. Kora Bali
7. Kadiatou
8. Yamfa

@ 192 Kbit/s mp3 & FLAC

***********
Back in the early '70s, a recording by kora masters Sidiki Diabate and Djelimadi Sissoko called Cordes Anciennes first brought this rich acoustic music of Mali to the world. More than 20 years later, their sons, the now world-famous Toumani Diabate and the junior Ballake Sissoko, have come together to pay tribute to their fathers with 1999's New Ancient Strings. While many of the songs come from the original repertoire, the music is all modern Mali. Toumani Diabate has toured the world as a soloist, as a member of fusion groups like Songhai (with flamenco fusionist Ketama), and he has incorporated subtle changes into his music that makes it a living affirmation of the strength of the ancient harp of Africa. Together Diabate and Sissoko explore their fathers' roots while traveling their own new routes. This is the first all-acoustic kora recording Diabate has done since his stunning Kaira, released more than 10 years prior to New Ancient Strings, and it shows a mature and forward-looking artist that would make the elder Diabate proud.
--Louis Gibson

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Toumani Diabate - Djelika

Album : Djelika
Artist : Toumani Diabaté
Release date : 1995
Number of discs : 1
Genre : World
Total size : 118 MB (mp3), 268 MB (FLAC)
Total time : 00:51 :48

Tracks :
1. Djelika
2. Mankoman Djan
3. Cheick Oumar Bah
4. Marielle
5. Kandjoura
6. Aminata Santoro
7. Tony VanDer
8. Sankoun Djabi

@ 320 Kbit/s mp3 & FLAC

***********
Malian kora virtuoso Toumani Diabate, a collaborator in the Songhai and Kulanjan projects as well as the New Ancient Strings album, might just be the best player in the world on his 21-string, harplike instrument. Here, accompanied by Keletigui Diabate on balafon (a kind of xylophone) and Basekou Kouyate on ngoni, he tackles original and traditional material in beautiful fashion. Notes fall in rippling cascades from his fingers, whether on the dainty court song "Marielle" or the title track. The speed and dexterity of his playing, and of his ideas, is staggering, and his complete command of the instrument and its possibilities makes this album a joy. The trio arrangements give plenty of time to all players, although center stage is undoubtedly Toumani. While blissfully African, this is a record that transcends geography and ascends to the sublime.
--Chris Nickson

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Toumani Diabaté – Kaira

Album : Kaira
Artist : Toumani Diabaté
Release date : 1988
Number of discs : 1
Genre : World
Total size : 92,7 MB (mp3), 191 MB (FLAC)
Total time : 00:40:29

Tracks :
1. Alla l'Aa Ke
2. Jarabi
3. Kaira
4. Konkoba
5. Tubaka

@ 320 Kbit/s mp3 & FLAC

Amazon.com
This is a groundbreaking work establishing the 21-string kora as a solo instrument of great subtlety and range. Toumani Diabate is a virtuoso player and he delves into the classical West African kora repertoire with his masterful technique. The result is music that is both absolutely contemporary and totally timeless. The songs include the title track "Kaira," which means peace, and "Jarabi," which translates as passion. Peace and passion are key words pointing to why this album is so successful. Quietly, with dignity and grace, Toumani Diabate brings great beauty into the world, producing wellsprings of flowing music that transport the listener to a place of intense calmness and tranquillity. Kaira is a classic African recording that transcends genre to stand humbly among the best music ever produced.
--Jeff Grubb

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Toumani Diabaté
Boulevard De L'Independance

Album : Boulevard De L'Independance
Artist : Toumani Diabaté
Release date : 2006
Number of discs : 1
Genre : World
Total size : 76,8 MB
Total time : 00:52:33

Tracks :
1 Toumani
2 Boulevard de L'Independance
3 Ya Fama
4 Mali Sadio
5 Africa Challenge
6 Wasso
7 Mamadou Diaby
8 Tapha Niang
9 Single

@ 320 Kbit/s mp3

The album was recorded in two weeks of all-night sessions and features a string section, a horn section arranged by Pee Wee Ellis, and singers including the local hero Kasse Mady Diabate. Fifty-fourth in a hereditary line of master musicians and jelis (griots), Toumani Diabate is simultaneously revered as the guardian of an ancient musical tradition and as a bold, boundary-crossing experimentalist. He has earned acclaim for inventive solo records as well as collaborations with Blur's Damon Albam, American bluesman Taj Mahal, and the nuevo flamenco group Ketama, among others.

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Taj Mahal & Toumani Diabate
Kulanjan

Album : Kulanjan
Artist : Taj Mahal & Toumani Diabate
Release date : 1999
Number of discs : 1
Label : Hannibal
Genre : World
Total size : 135 MB (mp3), 333 MB (APE & CUE)
Total time : 00:59:00

Tracks :
1. Queen Bee
2. Tunkaranke
3. Ol' Georgia Buck
4. Kulanjan
5. Fanta
6. Guede Man Na
7. Catfish Blues
8. K'an Ben
9. Take This Hammer
10. Atlanta Kaira
11. Mississippi-Mali Blues
12. Sahara

@ 320 Kbit/s mp3 + APE & CUE

***********
Perennial blues road warrior Taj Mahal and Malian kora (harp-lute) ambassador Toumani Diabate join forces, blend textures, and intermingle idioms on this cleanly produced 12-song set, recorded in 1998 in Athens. Their common ground is best tilled on "Atlanta Kaira" and the title track, where the plucky filigrees and glittering tone of the kora sound right at home with Taj's darker, barking National Reso-Phonic steel. "Ol' Georgie Buck" and their canny cover of Muddy Waters's "Catfish Blues" are the album's blues banners, which find Diabate's kora delightfully incongruous, while the walking African ballad "Tunkaranke" leans most heavily toward the motherland. Fleshed out with fine vocals by Taj, Kasse Mady Diabate, and Malian chanteuse Ramata Diakate ("Queen Bee"), and other African instruments, the sound is defiantly acoustic, intimate, and SPAMisingly true.
--James Rotondi

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Toumani Diabaté, Ketama & Danny Thompson
Songhai

Album : Songhai
Artist : Toumani Diabaté
Release date : 1988
Number of discs : 1
Genre : World
Total size : 52,2 MB
Total time : 00:33:57

Tracks :
1. Jarabi
2. Mani Mani Kuru
3. Caramelo
4. A Toumani
5. Vente Pa' Madrid
6. Africa
7. A Mi Tia Marina
8. Ne Ne Koitaa

@ VBR mp3

Amazon.com
A chance meeting at a London house party led to this melodious collaboration between Mali kora virtuoso Diabate and the young, flamenco-based Spanish group Ketama. While Diabate's dazzling runs often give the impression of several instruments being played at once, Ketama is a group with the focus of a single mind. Together, their music drifts up and down the African continent, ranging from the relatively relaxed, repetitious groove-oriented music of West Africa to the occasionally blistering, speed-clapping, and Islam-tinged sound of Iberia. British double bassist Danny Thompson is a model of understated support throughout. Mali vocalists join the group on the anthemic "Mani Mani Kuru" and the quiet "Africa," while Ketama becomes downright sentimental for "A Mia Tia Maria."
--Richard Gehr

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Toumani Diabaté & Roswell Rudd
Malicool

Album : Malicool
Artist : Toumani Diabaté & Roswell Rudd
Release date : 2002
Number of discs : 1
Genre : World
Total size : 104 MB (mp3), 295 MB (FLAC)
Total time : 01:00:52

Tracks :
1. Bamako (Roswell Rudd) 6:29
2. Rosmani (Toumani Diabate) 6:05
3. Jackie-ing (Thelonius Monk) 5:43
4. All Through the Night (Traditional/arr. Roswell Rudd) 2:21
5. Hank (Toumani Diabate) 5:56
6. Johanna (Toumani Diabate) 7:51
7. For Toumani (Roswell Rudd) 11:32
8. Malicool (Roswell Rudd) 3:47
9. Sena et Mariam (George Gershwin) 7:02
10. Malijam (Ludwig von Beethoven/arr. Roswell Rudd) 4:02

@ VBR mp3 & FLAC

Rudd visited Mali and jammed with Diabate and his musicians a year before returning to make this record, so there's enough thoughtfulness and chemistry at work here to make this far more than the novelty it might have been had the players just met and recorded right away, as often happens in these "encounter" records. We get the feeling that these musicians are comfortable together, comfortable enough to take chances. That easy quality ultimately makes the record, so that when the musicians cut loose on a jam, mixing up traditional Manding riffs with Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," a bugle call rendered with trombone bluster, and the old swing jazz standard, "Get Happy," you just have to surrender to the musicians' free-spirited delight.

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Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabaté
In the Heart of the Moon

Album : In the Heart of the Moon
Artist : Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabaté
Release date : 2005
Number of discs : 1
Genre : World
Total size : 100 MB (mp3), 293 MB (FLAC & CUE)
Total time : 00:54:33

Tracks :
1. Debe
2. Kala
3. Mamadou Boutiquier
4. Monsieur le Maire de Naifunke
5. Kaira
6. Simbo
7. Ai Ga Bani
8. Soumbou Ya Ya
9. Naweye Toro
10. Kadi Kadi
11. Gomni
12. Hawa Dolo

@ 256 Kbit/s mp3 + FLAC & CUE

***********
Ali Farka Toure fans expecting to hear another fiery electric blues effort from the African John Lee Hooker are in for a big SPAMise. Toure's first album after a six- year hiatus is mostly an acoustic duo with kora master Toumani Diabate that draws upon Malian and Guinean folk style from the 1950s and '60s called Jamana Kura, which grew out of the Mande griot music tradition. Both musicians were children at the time this music was popularized and a yearning sentimentality flavors many of the songs, particularly "Hawa Dolo," one of three Toure tunes rerecorded here in that older style. Other SPAMises abound as well: there are only two vocal tracks from the deep-voice Toure, and much of the soloing is actually handled by the flittering Diabate. Minus a few overdubs by guests like Ry Cooder, the music here were first takes from a jam session in which the two musicians would improvising over the basic structures. Nonetheless, this loose approach matched with the stunning beauty of the playing makes it a treasure worth holding on to. --Tad Hendrickson

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Toumani Diabaté, Ketama & José Soto
Songhai 2

Album : Songhai 2
Artist : Toumani Diabaté, Ketama & José Soto
Release date : 1994
Number of discs : 1
Genre : World
Total size : 70,4 MB
Total time : 00:50:05

Tracks :
1. Sute Monebo
2. Niani
3. Pozo Del Deseo
4. Monte De Los Suspiros
5. Djamana Djana
6. De Jerez A Mali
7. Ndia
8. De La Noche A La Manana
9. Maili Sajio
10. Pozo Del Deseo (Instrumental)

@ VBR mp3

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Toumani Diabate
The Mande Variations

Artist: Toumani Diabaté
CD title: The Mandé Variations
Release date: 2008
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Ethnic
Time: 00:58:09
Total size: 82,7 MB (mp3), 290 MB (FLAC & CUE)
info:full booklet scan included

Tracks:
01-si_naani 10:29
02-elyne_road 8:50
03-ali_farka_toure 6:20
04-kaunding_cissoko 6:48
05-ismael_drame 5:45
06-djourou_kara_nany 6:53
07-el_nabiyouna 6:03
08-cantelowes 6:57

@ 320 Kbit/s mp3 + FLAC & CUE

Quote:
"The Mandé Variations is the highly anticipated solo album from Africa’s most brilliant instrumentalist and king of the kora, Toumani Diabaté. A moodier, more reflective and mature sound than we have heard from him previously, it features interpretations of classic themes alongside groundbreaking improvised pieces."

Album Description :
"The sort of musician you only encounter once or twice in a lifetime." Lucy Duran, BBC Radio 3
'The Mandé Variations' is the highly anticipated solo album from Africa's most brilliant instrumentalist and king of the kora, Toumani Diabaté. A particularly beautiful and melodically accessible instrumental album which will appeal to a very broad spectrum of music buyers, whether they favour jazz, classical, folk, ambient, or even chill out. In fact, anyone who enjoys discovering new music!

A moodier, more reflective and mature sound than we have heard previously from Toumani before, featuring interpretations of classic themes alongside groundbreaking improvised pieces. The album is a departure from Toumani's recent collaborative work and the chance to fully appreciate his incredible musical ability and creativity in his own right.

As always with World Circuit recordings, great attention to detail has been paid to recording, production, packaging and presentation to ensure it is of the highest quality.

About the Artist:
Toumani is amongst the most important musicians in Africa today and an eminent ambassador for the continent as a whole. Popular throughout the world, his music is both classical and contemporary in one.

The kora is a 21 stringed African harp unique to West Africa. As the world's premier kora player, Toumani can take much of the credit for the growing interest in this traditional instrument. In addition to his previous acclaimed albums, Toumani has reached a more modern audience through his recent work with the brilliantly funky Symmetric Orchestra and his collaborations with well known artists such as Damon Albarn, Ali Farka Touré, Salif Keita, Taj Mahal, and most recently Bjork. Toumani performed on her last album and then proved very popular with the crowd when they appeared together at Glastonbury last year.

Toumani Diabaté has been nominated along with his Symmetric Orchestra in the Africa category of BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music 2008. The winners will be announced in April. His recording with the late Ali Farka Touré, 'In the Heart of the Moon' won a Grammy in 2005."

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Kora Jazz Trio – Part 1

Album : Kora Jazz Trio
Artist : Moussa Cissoko, Abdoulaye Diabaté & Djeli Moussa Diawara
Release Date : 2003
Number of Discs: 1
Genre : World
Total time : 00:57:38
Total size : 132 MB

Tracks :
1. Tabou
2. N'Dyaba
3. Senef
4. Miriya
5. Now Is The Time
6. Goree
7. N'Dimi
8. Mimi
9. Matamani
10. Nina

@ 320 Kbit/s mp3

Kora Jazz Trio This is a formation of three jazz griots that provides further evidence of the musical links between the western coast of Africa and North America’s eastern shores. In the KJT, Guinean kora player Djeli Moussa Diawara (who is none other than Mory Kanté’s half-brother) joins forces with Senegalese pianist Abdoulaye Diabaté and percussion master Moussa Cissoko, also from Senegal. Their albums are the fruits of intense exchanges in the Paris studios of the Celluloïd label, and mix a Mandingo heritage with American jazz standards.

Jazz is just one aspect of a nicely unusual gathering of three great West African musicians. Djeli Moussa Diawara is a brilliant player of the Kora {African harp} and a fine singer.

Abdoulaye Diabate is a classically trained pianist who works regularly with Salif Keita & many other West African acts and whose various musical passions include jazz.

Moussa Cissoko is a master of various West African drums & drumming techniques.
Each was born into a musical family & all are very open to new musical adventures, whilst drawing strongly on traditional roots. The trio tackles one Charlie Parker classic, but most of its repertoire is directly African.

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Kora Jazz Trio – Part 2

Album : Kora Jazz Trio Part 2
Artist : Moussa Cissoko, Abdoulaye Diabaté & Djeli Moussa Diawara
Release Date : 2005
Number of Discs: 1
Total time : 01:04:34
Total size : 148 MB

Tracks :
1. Djame
2. Folly
3. Sunugal
4. Dadiou
5. Rythm'ning
6. Sindi
7. N'na
8. Seyo
9. Teranga
10. La Mer
11. Yakar
12. Djanya

@ 320 Kbit/s mp3

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Kora Jazz Trio – Part 3

Album : Kora Jazz Trio Part 3
Artist : Moussa Cissoko, Abdoulaye Diabaté & Djeli Moussa Diawara
Release Date : 2008
Number of Discs: 1
Total time : 00:56:55
Total size : 85,7 MB

Tracks :
1 Xam-Xam 4:15
2 Djelia 5:09
3 Chan Chan 4:42
4 Bi Tele 5:41
5 La Musse 4:41
6 Garde A Vous 6:28
7 Konon 4:57
8 Dali 6:21
9 Saxy 4:53
10 Diaman 5:22
11 Mamy 4:22

@ VBR mp3

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