Kirike

Kirike

The new album KirikÃ© has provided a platform for KassÃ© Mady to celebrate his position as one of Mali's greatest voices in distinguished company. The album is the third in a series born out of the friendship between the young Malian kora maestro BallakÃ© Sissoko and the iconoclastic French cellist Vincent Segal. Already this friendship has resulted in two beautiful albums, Chamber Music (2009) and its follow-up At Peace (2012), both released on the No Format! label. Kirike, like the other two albums in the series, exemplifies a more intimate musical current that has been emerging in Bamako, one that's closer to the acoustic sound of tradition. Having long been admirers of KassÃ© Mady, BallakÃ© and Vincent dreamt of assembling a royal cast around him and making an album worthy of his extraordinary voice. So it was that three virtuoso soloists came together, childhood friends, one-time members of the National Instrumental Ensemble of Mali, and scions of Mali's great griot dynasties. BallakÃ© Sissoko is the son of Djelimady Sissoko, the musical giant who recorded the album Ancient Strings, a cornerstone of modern kora music. Balafon player LansinÃ© KouyatÃ© is the son of Siramori DiabatÃ©. (and so related to KassÃ© Mady). And ngoni player Makan Tounkara, aka BadiÃ© , grew up in the heart of the Instrumental Ensemble, his father being one of its directors. The centrepiece is KassÃ© Mady's voice. He sings in Bambara, the dominant language of southern Mali, and in doing so the man with the voice of velvet reveals an altogether different personality: an old man of the soil grumbling at the margins of his field in a language infinitely rootsier and more flavoursome than the grand MalinkÃ© of the classic griot praise-songs. A fifty-year long career hasn't blunted his high-notes, but rather added richness to the astonishing gentleness of his baritone, making his voice better suited to this chamber music than to the brilliant sheen of fusionistic pop. It is a sound attuned to the modern ear, a consecration of one of Mali's greatest voices.
KassÃ© Mady DiabatÃ© vocals
Makan BadgÃ© Tounkara ngoni
Lansine Kouyate balafon
BallakÃ© Sissoko kora
Vincent Segal cello
Produced by Vincent Segal
Country USA
Manufacturer Six Degrees
Binding Audio CD
ReleaseDate 2015-01-06
UnitCount 1
UPCs 657036121423
EANs 0657036121423

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Six Degrees
Binding	Audio CD
ReleaseDate	2015-01-06
UnitCount	1
UPCs	657036121423
EANs	0657036121423

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