The griots of West Africa are singers and storytellers whose authority only grows with age. It would therefore not be so strange if the Malian veteran Kassé Mady Diabaté (1949) also broke through to a wider audience outside his homeland in his sixties. For this album, the scion of Mali's most famous griot family gathered a variety of musicians, of which kora player Ballaké Sissoko is the best
… known. Griots traditionally call for peace and tolerance and used to act as diplomats between different tribes. Using typical West African metaphors (the hunter who rises early, the persistent rhinoceros), Diabaté teaches his audience about the virtues of man. Fortunately, he does this with a voice that sounds soothing at one moment and then again penetrating and in which years of life experience resound. (PdK)more
