Mamadou Diabate

Julie and I had the opportunity to see Mamadou Diabate and friends perform at this year's Wheatland Music Festival in Remus, Michigan.

Mamadou plays the kora, an African harp made out of a huge calabash gourd covered with a cow hide. He comes from the west African country of Mali, and hails from a long line of jelis, a musician caste with the important role of protecting the people's history in song.

It's really amazing to think about a guy coming all the way from west Africa to a hay field in Michigan to share the music of generations of Malians with a bunch of 21st century Midwesterners. I had this same thought when I saw Gerard Edery and the Ivory Consort performing songs from Spain from the 10th through 13th centuries, when Jews, Muslims and Christians forged a common musical language in songs sung in Ladino, Hebrew, Arabic and Galician-Portuguese. I got the chance to thank Gerard personally for bringing forth these songs, but did not get tha chance to thank Mamadou.

We purchased one of his CDs and we have found ourselves listening to it at least once a night every night since the festival. Most of the music has no words, and the songs with lyrics are not in a language we understand. Nonetheless, the music evokes all kinds of feelings.

There's more about Mamadou, the kora, jelis and clips of his music on his website. Check it out and consider ordering a CD of your own in support of this artist.