Frieze: Toumani Diabate's "Gorgeous New Album" Bridges the Millennia

Toumani Diabate's "gorgeous new album, The Mande Variations," writes Jace Clayton in the art and culture magazine Frieze, "demonstrates that a millennium of oral tradition is powerful cosmopolitanism; make any attempt to oppose tradition with modernity and you'll miss out on the stunning freedoms embodied in his work."

Toumani, a 72nd-generation Malian griot, honors the traditions of his ancestors while still bringing his timeless instrument to contemporary audiences well beyond Mali's borders. Says Clayton: "The sound a kora makes in his hand is like sunshine dappled through tree leaves: high and warm and flowing. Notes cascade. Time eddies."

While it may be tempting for some to consider a solo-instrument acoustic recording well suited to settle simply into the background, Clayton suggests that even listeners who set out to do so are inevitably "immersed, following an intricate melodic riff (played on one hand) as it dances around a relaxed bass figure (played on the other)."

Clayton finds in each song "a fantastic, polyglot genealogy, at once Malian and international" and, that being the case, "something radical about refusing to erect a line between an ancient locality and a modern cosmopolis, about letting 71 generations of collective memory speak and listen today."

To read the full album review, visit frieze.com.

The San Diego Union-Tribune gives the album four stars, with reviewer George Varga, writing that listeners "don't need to know a thing about West African music or the harp-like, 21-stringed kora that Toumani Diabate plays to be captivated by the aural beauty of" The Mande Variations. Toumani, says Varga, "creates shimmering melodies and improvisations that are steeped in tradition but sound utterly fresh and vibrant."

Read the review at signonsandiego.com.

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