Sona Jobarteh was born in London to a family of Gambian griots, musicians and storytellers who maintain the oral tradition that keeps the histories of their people alive. Jobarteh’s family is one of ...

The kora is a West African harp with 21 strings and a large calabash gourd body. According to Eric Charry, a historian of West African music, the instrument originated in the late 18th century, during ...

Sona Jobarteh. Photo by Tony Rath, courtesy of the artist. In many West African cultures, griots serve as communal memory banks, transmitting a people’s history, rituals, folklore and values from ...

His ancestors were the voices of kings. His surname identifies him as a member of a musical family that can trace its genealogy to the 13th century, a lineage of storytellers, singers and musicians, ...

Lovers of traditional African music, especially kora music, will sorely miss him. Diabaté was widely recognised as the greatest kora musician of his generation. His effortless, calm and dignified ...

The music of West Africa will fill Franklin & Marshall College's Barshinger Center Friday when Mamadou Diabate performs on the kora, in the first Sound Horizons concert of the year. The series brings ...

Toumani Diabaté carries the history of 71 generations in his fingers. An unsurpassed master of the kora, the 21-string harp played throughout the West African territory once encompassed by the vast ...

We're adapting the way the kora and the oud are played...using contemporary choices within traditional forms. Seattle's Kane Mathis is one of the world's leading performers on the kora, the ...

When Bolepu Mathabatha met with Pops Mohamed to repair his damaged kora, the moment felt like renewal rather than loss. In a ...

The 21-string kora is West Africa’s traditional harp lute. It is part of West African musical history in Senegal, Guinea, Mali, and other countries. It is a beautiful hand-crafted instrument: a large ...

The world has lost a significant musical ambassador for the Mande people of west Africa – the virtuoso kora player, composer, and collaborator from Mali, Toumani Diabaté . He died on 19 July, just ...

Diabaté was widely recognised as the greatest kora musician of his generation. His effortless, calm and dignified strumming of the kora to produce enchanting and blues-like sounds that stay with the ...