After the critically acclaimed release of Instant in 2022, celebrated West African kora artist Ablaye Cissoko has once again partnered with French diatonic accordion virtuoso Cyrille Brotto to present ...

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The untimely death of Toumani Diabaté last summer makes his sometime collaborator (on the groundbreaking album ...

Following the reissue of Toumani Diabaté and Ballaké Sissoko’s New Ancient Strings, in January Chrysalis will release Diabaté’s debut album, 1988’s Kaira. Toumani Diabaté, who sadly passed away in ...

Derek Gripper's music is where tradition meets transformation. Hailing from Cape Town, South Africa, Gripper has spent his career transcending the boundaries of classical guitar by breathing new life ...

Live at BBC Proms from the Royal Albert Hall, London: the music/dance group Canzioniere Grecanico Salentino, joined by guitarist Justin Adams and kora player Ballaké Sissoko bring sunny sounds from ...

Malian music star Toumani Diabate passed away after a short illness, his family announced over the weekend. Music lovers across the planet paid tribute to a master instrumentalist who helped share ...

Make no mistake about what is happening here — this is a meeting between instruments, not traditions. Most certainly, the dialogue between Malian Ballaké Sissoko’s kora and South African Derek Gripper ...

Acclaimed Malian musician Fatoumata Diawara talks Adam Quarshie through her favourite records, explaining the influence of powerful female vocalists from both the United States and from Mali's ...

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Twenty-five years ago, Ballaké Sissoko and his cousin Toumani Diabaté recorded New Ancient Strings, duets ...

More than a quarter of a century later, Lucy Duran, professor of music at the London School of Oriental and African Studies, persuaded Joe Boyd to commission a belated sequel for release on his ...

"How come we've never heard of this beautiful instrument until now?" This was posted by a first-year college student to my world music course discussion board recently. He voiced what many of his ...