Kadialy Kouyate: Aado (Naxos/digital outlets)

 |   |  <1 min read

Diyanamo
Kadialy Kouyate: Aado (Naxos/digital outlets)

The west Africa string instrument the kora has a deliciously warm, trickling sound as heard on albums by its greatest practitioners like Seckou Keita and Toumani Diabate, and the new generation of Sekou Kouyate who plays electric kora), Sona Jobarteh (one of the few women practitioners) and Kadialy Kouyate.

As you can tell by the names, many of these artists are from griot families for whom playing kora is passed down the generations.

Kadialy Kouyate – who is of the Kouyate griot lineage from southern Senegal, teaches in London these days and has performed with Baaba Maal, Rafiki Jazz and Mumford and Sons – here presents an all-instrumental album of solo kora (not that it sounds solo from the interweaving lines of the 21 strings).

There can be an almost stately and poised Elizabethan elegance to kora playing (heard here on Thiosano, which means “inheritance or “shared tradition”) as much as there is thoughtful folk quality (Janjon Ba about a 13thcentury warrior).

The sound of the kora is so beguiling that it can be emotionally transporting, as it is in these confident hands.

One for relaxing late afternoons into early warm evenings.

.

You can hear this album on Spotify here.  

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   World Music from Elsewhere articles index

Alex Malheiros and Banda Utopia: The Wave (Far Out/Southbound)

Alex Malheiros and Banda Utopia: The Wave (Far Out/Southbound)

The exciting reissue/remake of Sabrina Malheiros' album New Morning recently should set many listeners up for this one by her father Alex and his jazzy band, and which features Sabrina on five... > Read more

Mariza, Terra (EMI)

Mariza, Terra (EMI)

As the most striking and internationally recognizable singer of Portuguese fado -- the close-cropped blond hair really, isn't it? -- Mariza seemed to arrive on the world music scene with almost... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2009 Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics: Inspiration Information (Strut/Border)

BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2009 Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics: Inspiration Information (Strut/Border)

A couple of years ago a very generous Elsewhere subscriber sent me some albums in the Ethiopiques series, music of all persuasions from Ethiopia (mostly club singers and jazz on the ones I... > Read more

AL DI MEOLA INTERVIEWED (2009): Guitarist from the loud to the listener

AL DI MEOLA INTERVIEWED (2009): Guitarist from the loud to the listener

At 55, Al Di Meola -- who still lives in New Jersey close to his musical roots -- has had a long and influential career, and was one of the great innovators on electric guitar. In the late... > Read more