MAMADOU DIABATE
Durham, North Carolina
Malian Kora
Mamadou Diabate was born in 1975 in Kita, a Malian city long known as a center for the arts and culture of the Manding people of West Africa. Mamadou comes from a family of griots, or jelis, as they are known among the Manding. Jelis are more than just traditional musicians. They use music and sometimes oratory to preserve and sustain people's consciousness of the past, a past that stretches back to the 13th century when the Manding king Sunjata Keita consolidated the vast Empire of Mali, covering much of West Africa. To be born to a distinguished jeli family in Kita is already an auspicious beginning.
Mamadou's father Djelimory played the kora, the jeli's venerable 21-string harp, an instrument that came to Mali from Gabu, the region centered between Gambia, Senegal, and Guinea Bissau. N'fa Diabate, as Djelimory was known, performed in the Instrumental Ensemble of Mali and recorded on the National Radio of Mali.
At the age of four, Mamadou went to live with his father in Bamako, where the Ensemble was based. His father taught him how to play the instrument, and from there on he listened and watched and devoted himself to the instrument. Before long, Mamadou left school and began playing for local jeli singers, and was soon traveling throughout the region to play at weddings and baptisms, where modern jelis ply their trade.
At age15, Mamadou won first prize for his kora playing in a regional competition and instantly became something of a local celebrity. The next year, he returned to Bamako, and under the tutelage of his famous kora playing cousin, Toumani Diabate, he worked the jeli circuit, backing singers at neighborhood weddings and baptisms and entertaining the powerful at the city's posh Amitié Hotel.
In 1996, a touring group from the Instrumental Ensemble of Mali offered Mamadou the chance to travel to the United States with a group of Manding musicians and cultural authorities. Following a successful tour, Mamadou decided to continue his work in the United States, where he has since lived. In 2005, his CD Behmanka (World Village) was nominated for a Grammy.
Links
http://www.mamadoukora.com/pages/biography.html
http://eyefortalent.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/artist.detail/artist_id/122
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