Mamadou Diabaté ||| Portrait

Portrait de: Mamadou Diabaté

Mamadou’s musical career was mapped out as soon as he was born into the Diabate family. His father Djelimory was a venerated player of the 21-string kora harp and performed as N’fa Diabate in the Instrumental Ensemble of Mali. Mamadou is the latest in a long line of jelis or griots that stretches back to the 13th century empire consolidated by Manding king Sunjata Keita. The traditional musicians were the keepers of the empire’s culture and passed on the pearls of wisdom to the future generations. Mamadou was influenced by his family’s music heritage as soon as he moved in to his father’s house in Bamako in 1979. On his return to Kita, he began performing at weddings and baptisms throughout the region. At the age of 15, he won a regional prize for his kora-playing and was encouraged to settle in the Malian capital. There, he was guided by his cousin Toumani Diabaté who was one of the country’s most popular kora players. At the age of 21, Mamadou was given the opportunity to tour the United States with his father’s former ensemble. The success of the tour persuaded him to settle down and shore up his music career in New York. This has allowed Diabaté to work with a wide variety of artists from other genres, including Susan McKeown, Ben Allison, Donald Byrd, Randy Weston, Eric Bibb and Thomas Mapfumo. He has released three solo albums, the second of which, “Behmanka”, was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Daniel Brown