Toumani Diabaté begins a two-week tour with music from his latest solo record, The Mandé Variations, this Saturday at the Somerville Theater outside Boston. On Sunday, he comes to New York's Skirball Center, where The New Yorker suggests the "deeply meditative compositions" of the new record "promise to be quite stirring" live. Leading to next week's concerts in California, the Mercury News calls him "an unsurpassed master of the kora" whose performance on Mandé Variations "is incantatory, as Diabaté creates a rolling, hypnotic vibe that gives the album the feel of an extended suite."
Malian kora master Toumani Diabaté begins a two-week tour with music from his latest solo record, The Mandé Variations, this Saturday at the Somerville Theater outside of Boston that will take him to cities across the United States and finally to Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music on November 14.
On Sunday, for the second date on the tour, Toumani comes to New York City to perform at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, in a presentation of the World Music Insitute. The New Yorker describes the songs from The Mandé Variations, his first solo record since Kaira, two decades ago, as "deeply meditative compositions" that "promise to be quite stirring" in concert.
Next week, following a Monday performance at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia, Toumani will perform at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco on Wednesday. That concert is part of the San Francisco Jazz Festival and features a pre-concert talk in the Hall, beginning at 6:30 PM. The Silicon Valley Mercury News previews that concert and a November 8 show in nearby Santa Cruz with a feature on the musician writer Andrew Gilbert calls "an unsurpassed master of the kora."
Says Gilbert:
If Kaira announced the arrival of a brash new virtuoso, Mandé Variations is the work of a mature artist with an orchestral sensibility capable of playing bass lines, melodic lead and improvisational counterlines simultaneously. The effect is incantatory, as Diabaté creates a rolling, hypnotic vibe that gives the album the feel of an extended suite.
The writer calls attention to the song "Ali Farka Touré" in particular, describing it as "one of the loveliest tracks" off the album and
a beatific improvisation honoring his mentor, Mali's late guitar hero, with whom he recorded the Grammy-winning 2005 collaboration In the Heart of the Moon (Nonesuch). The kora's sharp metallic twang seems to mediate between the earthly and the ethereal, as his two-handed flurries flow like a clear, life-giving stream.
Gilbert also notes the opening track, "Si naani," which he calls "stunning."
Read the article, and its extensive interview with Toumani, at mercurynews.com. For more tour information, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.
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