1001 Albums
en
Create account

29 albums · 1976–2024

The kora of Mali, the harp-lute of the jeli

· 1 min read · by 1001 Albums

Toumani Diabaté smiling behind his kora on stage
Ballaké Sissoko seated with his koraA young kora player in a yellow hat, seated in front of a stone wall
Toumani Diabaté and his kora, Fez 2009. Photo: nathalie_r, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Ballaké Sissoko and his kora. Photo: GolDavis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · A kora player in the street. Photo: Kalamuh 045, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The kora is the harp-lute of the jeli, the griots of Mali, Guinea, Senegal and the Gambia: 21 strings over a large calabash covered in cowhide, played with the thumbs and forefingers of both hands. Its runs sound like a harp and a guitar at once.

The list keeps to Mali: Sidiki Diabaté and Batourou Sékou Kouyaté in the seventies, Toumani Diabaté alone and with Ballaké Sissoko, Taj Mahal, Ali Farka Touré and the London Symphony Orchestra, Ballaké Sissoko with Vincent Segal's cello, Mamadou Diabaté in New York, and the young Sidiki Diabaté's pop.

The list has 29 records from 1976 to 2024. The players of Guinea, Senegal and the Gambia are left out; they would fill lists of their own. About 25 hours of music, 3 days of a few records each.

By genre

World 89%Blues 3%Classical 3%Other 5%
  • World 89%
  • Blues 3%
  • Classical 3%
  • Other 5%

The genres named most: kora, world, griot, classical, desert blues, pop.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 1 country: Mali 29. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1970s

The 1980s

  • SonghaiKetama, Toumani Diabaté & Danny Thompson · 1988
  • KairaToumani Diabaté · 1988

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Instruments first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.