Obituary
“Mali’s “king of kora” Toumani Diabate died on Friday at the age of 58 following a short illness, the musician’s family announced on social media.
“My dear dad is gone forever,” the Malian great’s son Sidiki Diabate, who is also a musician, wrote on Facebook.
Toumani Diabate was a master of the African stringed instrument, the kora.
He died at a private clinic in Bamako, the capital of the west African nation, another member of Diabate’s family told AFP.
Diabate was born in 1965 to a family of griots — storytellers who are the guardians of Mali’s traditions and oral histories.”
https://www.barrons.com/news/malian-music-star-toumani-diabate-dies-after-short-illness-3c749207
One of my absolute favourite artists. I had no idea he was unwell, so this is an unwelcome shock. Hosting a family barbecue this afternoon and will crank the Symmetric Orchestra album in tribute.
A real virtuoso. Great loss.
Hungry carnivores take to cruising the streets of N10 listening out for one of the greatest African albums of the 21st Century, eager to gatecrash the accompanying eats!
It’s a big loss – I’ve been enjoying his music for a long time now, yet I had no idea he was even poorly. RIP big man.
Without wishing to detract from Toumani’s death, I’m here on the streets of N 10 and nary a sight of hungry carnivores, though I have oddly enough seen a fox every morning while I’ve been here.
Alas, I packed up the old jalopy and headed to almost the most south easterly extreme of the island about 8 years ago.
The carnivores of CT14 were grooving to the kora this afternoon, leaving my kindred spirits in N10 to fend for themselves
Couldn’t think of a name to match my new home town, so I retained the original moniker
That’s my fave, too, possibly as a result of hearing a track on a Word CD. So I have “Magic” Alex to thank. I often “drop” a track from this album when I DJ.
What terribly sad news!
A wonderful musician who put the kora on the international map and was also a very warm, charming, inspiring human being.
There will be many tears shed in Mali and around the world today.
58! That is terribly young.
He has created so much wonderful music, I thought he must be older.
A very sad loss!
There are many excellent clips on YTube. With Ali Farka Toure, with his son at Glastonbury a few years a few years back (a very proud dad) and of course solo. His son is a big hip hop and kora star in Mali and fills sports stadiums. Toumani commented that by contrast he himself played classical music for oldies.
Oh no! I had no idea. That’s very sad news. My all-time favourite African musician…
“Kaira”, “Djelika”, “In the Heart of the Moon”, “Songhai”, “The Mandé Variations”, “Ali & Toumani”, Kôrôlén, “Toumani & Sidiki” and “The Sky is the Same Colour Everywhere” … the great griot will always be with us.
Terribly sad news. This is possibly my favourite piece of music by anyone ever.
That’s saddening. Can’t deny that when I saw him several years ago, he was already moving like an older man. But he spoke through his kora, which was always thrilling.
Last saw him on a glorious still mild evening at Womadelaide lying on the grass staring at the stars of the Southern Hemisphere.
A highlight was a recent composition at the time – Lampedusa, dedicated to those africans who had died trying to reach Europe.
There is something wonderfully meditative about Toumani’s music and I can really imagine how wonderful that must have been @Junior Wells.
I was very blessed in that I got to meet him face to face on two occasions.
The first was at the Roskilde Festival fairly early on in his career. He was playing solo (always spell-binding) but at the end of the set invited some African musicians who lived in Copenhagen to join him for an impromptu jam. Very typical of his generosity of spirit.
In those days he didn’t speak music English so I tried as best I could to thank him in my rudimentary French.
The second time I met him was on the evening his Mali-Cuba project, Cubanismo, played at the Stockholm Culture Festival. A beautiful August evening so I took a beer after the show.
I was walking past a big hotel at Sergelstorg and I noticed a crowd of Africans standing out on the street. And there he was! Shameless fan that I am, I had to go and thank him for a fine show.
He was charming and interesting to talk to and I even got a photo of us together.
It struck me that when you are a big success as a musician in Africa, it is expected that you share your success and support friends and family. He did that in spades.
I can’t remember how many times I saw him: maybe six or seven. His charm, warmth and care for others always came across very strongly.
No more so than when he introduced Lampedusa, mentioned above.
One of the greats. He will be greatly missed.
What a heartwarming post; lovely to hear that the man matched his music for soul and heart.
Nice words KFD.
What a loss – undoubtedly one of the worlds great virtuosos although his name will be unknown to the vast majority. I bought Kaira and then the Songhai collaboration back in the late 80s and followed his career ever since. The duets with Ali Farke Toure are wonderful and I would suggest a great place to start.
ah no