Toumani Diabate is one of the world's best players of the kora, a 21-string West African harp lute. His music is a wonderful flow of tingling, light-hearted fairytale melodies. In 2005, together with compatriot and guitarist Ali Farka Toure, he proved his world class with the album 'In the heart of the moon', which won a Grammy Award in the category 'Best Traditional World Music'. Toumani developed a playing style that allows influences from many other music genres and sought musicians worldwide who wanted to experiment with him. The result included a concert with a classical harpist and collaboration with a Spanish flamenco group, British jazz-folk bassist Danny Thompson and bluesman Taj Mahal. In 1989 he released his debut 'Kaira', the first kora solo album ever. It was an album full of breathtaking songs with masterful improvisations. She made Diabate a star in her own country and a much sought-after artist internationally. Five years ago, Toumani Diabate set up a collaboration with top singers and musicians from Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Senegal. This resulted in a very swinging big band: the Symmetric Orchestra. "Symmetric" stands for the symmetry between tradition and modern and between the many ethnicities that play in the band. Toumani is also guided by this fourteen-member group at the Handelsbeurs. Peter Vantyghem once wrote: “Traditional Malian music is sometimes compared to the sound of water lapping against a canoe. It is a rippling sound without fixed beats, without the need for high volume. Spiritual, natural, soothing and the perfect medium to sink stories that will continue to be told centuries later.” Experience the mystical power of this ancient African sound for yourself.
