Ethnomusicologist, music producer, broadcaster, specialising in the music of the Mande world Phone: +44 207 898 4374 Address: Music department, School of Arts, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H 0XG
Da Kali - the pledge to the art of the griot (Growing into Music in Mali) Directed by Lucy Duran;... more Da Kali - the pledge to the art of the griot (Growing into Music in Mali) Directed by Lucy Duran; edited Michele Banal. 80 minutes. An AHRC Beyond Text: Growing into Music project Da Kali is the first of two Growing into Music films on Mali. Shot on location between 2009-12, it follows the children of four celebrated jeli (griot) families in southern Mali as they face the challenges of learning the ancient art of the griot in the 21st century. It is the first time that the process of childhood music learning in Mali has ever been documented. Just turned twelve, Rokia Kouyate is determined to learn the lyrical style of her famous grandfather the singer Kasse Mady Diabate, and performs at noisy wedding parties, and for a popular television competition. Precocious Thierre Diarra at the age of four is already on the path to becoming a virtuoso on the jembe, following in the footsteps of his father Adama. Ten year-old Salif Diabate, nephew of kora master, Toumani Diabate, struggles to fit kora lessons into his busy school schedule, but begins to improve dramatically over a school holiday. And seven year-old Saran Kouyate and her younger sister, the five year-old Ami, are taught songs by their grandmother, the charismatic and fiery Bako Dagnon, considered one of the great master-singers of Mali. Her ideas about passing on her musical knowledge are rooted in the rural traditions of the remote village where she was born and raised, Golobladji - where her extended family continue to sing the hauntingly beautiful songs of the countryside.
Gorwing into Music is a 68 minute film that explores how children in diverse cultures from differ... more Gorwing into Music is a 68 minute film that explores how children in diverse cultures from different parts of the world acquire musical skills and knowledge. Shot on location between 2009-12, the film shows children learning and performing within some of the world's most celebrated oral traditions. It explores the contrasting ways that musicianship continues to be orally transmitted between generations in the 21st century. Directed by Lucy Duran, edited by Maya Maffioli.
Growing into Music in Mali Part II: Dò farala a kan: something has been added. Following on from ... more Growing into Music in Mali Part II: Dò farala a kan: something has been added. Following on from Da Kali, this film looks in more detail at ideas around what constitutes musical progress. Our guide in the film is Lassana Diabaté, a virtuoso jeli (griot) who comes from a long line of balafon players in Guinea, now living in Bamako. We follow the musical progress of children in two prestigious extended families of jelis, representing two distinctive regional traditions: the balafon (xylophone) of Niagassola across the border in Guinea, and the ngoni (lute) of Segou. Chapter 1 spends time with the families of El Hadj Sekou Kouyaté, the custodian of the Sosso Bala, declared a UNESCO Masterpiece of Intangible Oral Heritage in 2001, and reportedly dating from the time of the founding of the Mali Empire in the early 13th century AD. El Hadj Kouyaté’s son Fantamady, like many balafon players, is an expert guitarist; while another son, Janguiné, is a singer. Both are settled in Bamako where they have busy careers as musicians, and both are concerned to pass on the tradition of balafon to their young children, who show a special interest in learning, but there are many distractions and talent is not always the key to progress. A visit to Niagassola by three of the Kouyaté grandsons highlights some of the tensions between town and country living, but their pride in their special connections to the Sosso Bala shines through. Chapter 2 visits the extended family of Bassekou Kouyaté, innovative and virtuoso player of the ngoni, whose international success has given him another perspective on his Bamana tradition from Segou. Although the ngoni plays a central role in the lives of this family, the focus is on how the many Kouyaté girls, aged four upwards, learn the art of song and dance, in both Bamako and Garana, a village in Segou province where Bassekou grew up and where most of his family still live. In Garana, we watch the girls learning to sing such major pieces from the Bamana repertoire as Da Monzon, and see them play at the vibrant handclapping songs, the tegere tulon, that are fast disappearing, and were once a major creative force in the lives of Mali’s musicians
Overland travel in Senegal and Gambia is the best introduction to local music. Blaring out from e... more Overland travel in Senegal and Gambia is the best introduction to local music. Blaring out from every market stall, taxi radio-cassette and record shop in every town along the trans-Gambian highway, is the music of Youssou N'Dour, Baaba Maal, Ismael Lo, Super Diamono, Toure Kunda or some kora player. The smells of perfumed incense and smoked fish mingle with the rich inflections of Youssou's voice. You stop to buy a piece of tie-dye cloth, or maybe you are waiting at Farafenni to catch the ferry across the river. ‘I like his music too much,’ says a Gambian standing next to you, listening to Youssou's latest cassette, Kocc Barma. ‘I like the tama (drum) with keyboards, it makes me want to dance.’ ‘That's deep Wolof,’ says another; ‘He's singing for Alla Seck who died, Ndyesan (alas).’ The nearby stall-owner disagrees. ‘I prefer his old tapes, like Tabaski,’ he says. ‘That was sayisayi (rascal) music, that was real Wolof music, now he's too toubab (European). N...
Da Kali - the pledge to the art of the griot (Growing into Music in Mali) Directed by Lucy Duran;... more Da Kali - the pledge to the art of the griot (Growing into Music in Mali) Directed by Lucy Duran; edited Michele Banal. 80 minutes. An AHRC Beyond Text: Growing into Music project Da Kali is the first of two Growing into Music films on Mali. Shot on location between 2009-12, it follows the children of four celebrated jeli (griot) families in southern Mali as they face the challenges of learning the ancient art of the griot in the 21st century. It is the first time that the process of childhood music learning in Mali has ever been documented. Just turned twelve, Rokia Kouyate is determined to learn the lyrical style of her famous grandfather the singer Kasse Mady Diabate, and performs at noisy wedding parties, and for a popular television competition. Precocious Thierre Diarra at the age of four is already on the path to becoming a virtuoso on the jembe, following in the footsteps of his father Adama. Ten year-old Salif Diabate, nephew of kora master, Toumani Diabate, struggles to fit kora lessons into his busy school schedule, but begins to improve dramatically over a school holiday. And seven year-old Saran Kouyate and her younger sister, the five year-old Ami, are taught songs by their grandmother, the charismatic and fiery Bako Dagnon, considered one of the great master-singers of Mali. Her ideas about passing on her musical knowledge are rooted in the rural traditions of the remote village where she was born and raised, Golobladji - where her extended family continue to sing the hauntingly beautiful songs of the countryside.
Gorwing into Music is a 68 minute film that explores how children in diverse cultures from differ... more Gorwing into Music is a 68 minute film that explores how children in diverse cultures from different parts of the world acquire musical skills and knowledge. Shot on location between 2009-12, the film shows children learning and performing within some of the world's most celebrated oral traditions. It explores the contrasting ways that musicianship continues to be orally transmitted between generations in the 21st century. Directed by Lucy Duran, edited by Maya Maffioli.
Growing into Music in Mali Part II: Dò farala a kan: something has been added. Following on from ... more Growing into Music in Mali Part II: Dò farala a kan: something has been added. Following on from Da Kali, this film looks in more detail at ideas around what constitutes musical progress. Our guide in the film is Lassana Diabaté, a virtuoso jeli (griot) who comes from a long line of balafon players in Guinea, now living in Bamako. We follow the musical progress of children in two prestigious extended families of jelis, representing two distinctive regional traditions: the balafon (xylophone) of Niagassola across the border in Guinea, and the ngoni (lute) of Segou. Chapter 1 spends time with the families of El Hadj Sekou Kouyaté, the custodian of the Sosso Bala, declared a UNESCO Masterpiece of Intangible Oral Heritage in 2001, and reportedly dating from the time of the founding of the Mali Empire in the early 13th century AD. El Hadj Kouyaté’s son Fantamady, like many balafon players, is an expert guitarist; while another son, Janguiné, is a singer. Both are settled in Bamako where they have busy careers as musicians, and both are concerned to pass on the tradition of balafon to their young children, who show a special interest in learning, but there are many distractions and talent is not always the key to progress. A visit to Niagassola by three of the Kouyaté grandsons highlights some of the tensions between town and country living, but their pride in their special connections to the Sosso Bala shines through. Chapter 2 visits the extended family of Bassekou Kouyaté, innovative and virtuoso player of the ngoni, whose international success has given him another perspective on his Bamana tradition from Segou. Although the ngoni plays a central role in the lives of this family, the focus is on how the many Kouyaté girls, aged four upwards, learn the art of song and dance, in both Bamako and Garana, a village in Segou province where Bassekou grew up and where most of his family still live. In Garana, we watch the girls learning to sing such major pieces from the Bamana repertoire as Da Monzon, and see them play at the vibrant handclapping songs, the tegere tulon, that are fast disappearing, and were once a major creative force in the lives of Mali’s musicians
Overland travel in Senegal and Gambia is the best introduction to local music. Blaring out from e... more Overland travel in Senegal and Gambia is the best introduction to local music. Blaring out from every market stall, taxi radio-cassette and record shop in every town along the trans-Gambian highway, is the music of Youssou N'Dour, Baaba Maal, Ismael Lo, Super Diamono, Toure Kunda or some kora player. The smells of perfumed incense and smoked fish mingle with the rich inflections of Youssou's voice. You stop to buy a piece of tie-dye cloth, or maybe you are waiting at Farafenni to catch the ferry across the river. ‘I like his music too much,’ says a Gambian standing next to you, listening to Youssou's latest cassette, Kocc Barma. ‘I like the tama (drum) with keyboards, it makes me want to dance.’ ‘That's deep Wolof,’ says another; ‘He's singing for Alla Seck who died, Ndyesan (alas).’ The nearby stall-owner disagrees. ‘I prefer his old tapes, like Tabaski,’ he says. ‘That was sayisayi (rascal) music, that was real Wolof music, now he's too toubab (European). N...
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