Renowned Malian kora player Ballaké Sissoko returns to his own musical tradition with a completely new chamber ensemble.

His new album « Djelimady N°1 » is dedicated to the memory of his father Djelimady Sissoko (v.1924-1981), a prominent kora player who was originally from Gambia and who contributed hugely to the popularity of the instrument.

At the instigation of Mali’s first president, Djelimady became a founder member of the famed Ensemble Instrumental National, a 30-piece orchestra of traditional instruments from around the country. This is when he acquired the nickname Djelimady no. 1 because of his leading role in this ensemble.

There are few published recordings of Djelimady no 1, though kora aficionados will know of him through the pioneering album Cordes Anciennes, recorded in 1970, in which he features in duet and trio with other kora players. Ballaké was already a virtuoso, though still very young, when his father passed away in 1981. Having inherited his virtuosity, ability to adapt to different styles, his melodic lyricism, and his knowledge of the Mande repertoire, he was invited to take his father’s place in the national ensemble, aged 13, becoming its youngest member.

With this new album, Ballaké celebrates his father's rich musical legacy. It is a creative returning to and recovering of some of the older, now mostly forgotten pieces of the kora, and its buried ways and sounds of playing, but always reinterpreted through a contemporary approach.

In homage to his father, Ballaké has created an entirely new and unprecedented six-piece ensemble. It is, in effect, a small, chamber version of the orchestra in which both he and his father performed. This new ensemble, which he calls Mande Tabolo (“taking hold of the Mande heritage”) is led by his own 22-string kora. It includes two more koras played by Fode Karamba Seydi and Mohamed Saïba Diabate, both young newcomers.

It also features the soku (one-string horsehair fiddle) that is now endangered. Here it is played by one of the few remaining soku players, Daouda Sissoko.

The ensemble includes the ngoni, the Malian lute, played by renowned musician and longtime friend Badjé Tounkara. On the album, the stellar musicians will be joined by gifted vocalist Fatim Kouyaté, and the guest voice of Franco-Italian singer-songwriter Piers Faccini, with whom Ballaké has worked extensively, in tribute to the late great Malian singer Kassemady Diabaté.

Recorded in Angoulême, France, the album was produced by producer and musicologist Lucy Durán who has a long trajectory of producing innovative albums of Mande music with many awards including three Grammys (New Ancient Strings; Toumani & Sidiki; Bassekou Kouyaté: I speak fula), alongside multi Grammy-awarded studio engineer Jerry Boys (Buena Vista Social Club, Ali Farka Touré & Ry Cooder: Talkin’ Timbuktu).

The album Djelimady N°1 celebrates the creative genius of one of the greatest kora players at the peak of his art.

Words by Lucy Durán