MAMADOU DIABATE - Courage (World Village)

Mamadou Diabaté’s previous album, the sparkling Douga Mansa, appeared from under the radar to earn a thoroughly deserved Grammy award in 2009. That highly accomplished kora-only affair placed emphasis on the re-interpretation of traditional tracks, and arguably overshadows much of the recent output of some of his more celebrated peers. Credit is due to the Malian for refusing to rest on his laurels by merely repeating the formula for the follow-up, instead returning to ensemble work with an accent on original compositions. The result of this Mamadou’s fifth album is therefore a more experimental, worldly recording, reflecting the US base of the artist and his cohorts. The song-writing is approached with the western audience preference for unobtrusively undulating melodies in mind (and why not?) and Mamadou’s interaction with the jazz scene, and his ability to mix sharp extemporisation with a light, silky touch remains engaging throughout, in particular through some thrilling instrumental conversations with balafon player Lansa Fode Diabaté. Kita Djely is the best of those, the balafon bubbly and bright, kora dancing in and out of shifting rhythmic patterns. Amongst other highlights, Abou Sissoko on ngoni chips in with some intriguing running ngoni lines on Humanity, and Mamadou is briefly back in solo, reflective mode on the beautiful Kora Journey. The result is arguably a slight dip in standard overall compared to its predecessor but it’s a worthwhile move for all that as Mamadou Diabaté continues to hone his considerable talent.

MOSI CONDE - Kaira Kora Afrika

A sparkling debut from this London-based kora player and singer originally from Conakry in Guinea. Mosi Conde is nephew of Mory Kante and ol’ Diamond Fingers himself, Sekou Diabate, so certainly has a lot to live up to.

It’s the former that he most resembles, the tracks here being mostly brisk and melodic comprising Mosi’s bright kora, decent if not outstanding voice, bolon, excellent sparingly applied flute from Baba Galle Kante, and rhythmic decoration from calabash and djembe.

With eight shortish and sweet songs and under forty minutes long, it never wears thin. And despite its mostly sunny disposition it’s the spiritual closing track Tooba that really stands out, not least because Conde’s vocals are at their plaintive best.

It’s all very alluring, although the packaging could best be described as economical. It would be good to see this album picked up by an established distributor, buffed up and put on show at what will on the strength of this release surely be an increasing live presence. It’s the least this hugely encouraging first effort deserves.

JACKY MOLARD QUARTET & FOUNE DIARRA TRIO - N’Diale (Innacor Records)/DIABEL CISSOKO & RAMON GOOSE - Mansana Blues (DixieFrog)

The radiant Foune Diarra will surely be one of Mali’s next stars. Possessing a voice that’s powerful yet as sinuous as the slight frame that betrays her past as a dancer with the Malian Ballet, she dazzles and seduces with a mixture of supple soulful charm and rousing declamation worthy of an Oumou Sangaré or an Amy Sacko. Backed by the dry, chirpy strains of kamele ngoni player Kissim Sidibé (no mean vocalist himself) and Alhassane Sissoko’s animated djembe drum, the Foune Diarra Trio is an ensemble to be reckoned with. But that’s not the half of it. Bambara meets Breton on N’Diale with celebrated fiddler Jacky Molard commanding his quartet of violin, double bass, accordion and saxophone to lay an impressive array of European folk idioms over the core West African base. Celtic jaunts straddle Brittany and Ireland and Balkan textures come and go in a melange that could have amounted to bit of an unholy mess in less assured hands. Instead it all knits together with seemingly ease, these seven consummate musicians unafraid to let the tunes take as long as required to unravel (seven minutes seems an optimum time), with much of the impetus coming from the restrained Gallic jazz saxophone that Yannick Jory interlaces with the overall texture. A fine album from start to finish.

www.innacor.com

www.myspace.com/ndiale

These cross-cultural collaborations arguably miss more than they hit so we are doubly blessed this month because the meeting of Senegalese singer/kora player Diabel Cissokho and former Eric Bibb sideman Ramon Goose has much to recommend it too. This one comes from the blues end of the spectrum with Goose playing a mean old slide guitar as well as predominantly tasty acoustic picking that nestles comfortably alongside Cissokho’s engaging and economical kora melodies. Diabel has a chocolate- rich voice that’s well-suited to these rootsy mid-tempo workouts, and Ramon has a decent crack at injecting some chunky blues-rock riffs to the tougher moments. Electric bass, drums and calabash complete the picture and it all comes together most effectively on Yeurmande, a flavoursome mix of slide guitar, mellow kora and undulating Mandinka rhythms. There are some ho-hum blues-rock moments too but it’s a mostly successful outing.

ALI FARKA TOURE & TOUMANI DIABATE - Ali & Toumani (World Circuit)

Mindful perhaps of the Mali-fatigue that seems to be affecting some parts of the world/roots community, this sedate and beautifully textured release arrives to somewhat less of a fanfare than its highly praised predecessor, In the Heart of the Moon. However, Ali and Toumani is at least as worthy of our attention given the timeless and empathetic approach these two master musicians have to their craft - or had in the case of Ali Farka, of course, this album having been recorded in London in 2005 against the backdrop of pain and illness that the cancer-stricken Touré endured at the time.

It’s difficult not to read some of that setting into the serenity that marks this far more measured and spacious release. The guitarist is no more or less mellow than he was on the earlier album – or indeed his last solo album, Savane – but there is a deference in Toumani’s playing that suggests some attempt to eschew much of kora player’s improvisational abilities in favour of a musical resolution between the Peul and Mandé traditions of the two musicians. The virtuosity is never too far from the surface though, Ali’s hypnotic circular melodies acting once again as a base for kora notes that spiral, shimmer and fall with studied grace. Ali punctuates those moments with moves into the instrumental spotlight that are more considered but no less effective, with regular traces popping up of some of his favourite melodic motifs from the past (once more for that heart-stopping Kadi Kadi riff) occasionally buttressed by his gruffly welcoming voice.

Ali and Toumani is an exercise in note-perfect, expressive restraint, anchored at times by the silky bass – at once lithe and darkly melancholic – of the (now also sadly deceased) Cuban Orlando “Cachaito” Lopez, and burnished with some subtle finishing touches by Vieux Farka Touré and his band. Fully deserves as many plaudits as its garlanded predecessor.

www.worldcircuit.co.uk

JAYME STONE and MANSA SISSOKO

If there were a musical instrument version of the BBC’s popular personal history programme “Who Do You Think You Are”, the banjo would surely be first in line for some genealogical gap-filling, such has been the recent proliferation of attempts to revive, recapture and return the instrument to its assumed African source. Now Jayme Stone, an unaffected yet articulate banjoist originally from Toronto (now resident in Boulder, Colorado) brings his old timey and bluegrass enthusiasms to one of the more effortless family get-togethers. Stone’s album with Mansa Sissoko, Africa to Appalachia, was released early this year to relatively little fanfare, but its series of updated West African melodies and occasional bluegrass standards - including what Stone describes as “a twisted version” of The June Apple - has proven to be one of 2009’s long-fuse albums, its subtle charms and supple melodies creeping up and working their way into the imagination over the ensuing months.

With no grandiose claims to uncovering any newly discovered shared DNA between the banjo and its West African cousins, nevertheless Jayme says he sees a connection there. “I became increasingly aware of certain similarities between the banjo and instruments such as the ngoni, “explains Stone, “and in recent years I’ve spent some time over in Africa, including seven weeks spent journeying around Mali, learning about the ngoni and other Malian instruments, transcribing the songs I heard there, and meeting people like Bassekou Kouyaté and Toumani Diabaté; although actually the most important meeting of all has been with a musician based in Canada.”

Quebec resident Mansa Sissoko is a kora-playing griot, born in Baleya near Kita in western Mali and raised in the capital Bamako. “His mother, Fatamata Binta Kouyaté, was a well-known griot singer and story-teller,” explains Stone, “and although I never met her I have this strong feeling that she was a huge influence on Mansa. A lot of our songs come from her repertoire.”

That repertoire makes up the majority of Africa to Appalachia’s songs, with some familiar Malian melodies receiving Stone and Sissoko’s fluid banjo and kora treatment, with guitarist Grant Gordy in support and fiddler Casey Driessen cementing the bluegrass element where required. Mansa’s unspectacular but sturdy singing contrasts with Guinean griot Katenen Dioubaté’s soaring vocals, and bassist Paul Mathew and percussionist Nick Fraser lay down a convincing polyrhythmic groove.

“Nick and Paul are musicians from Toronto that I've played with for years,” explains Stone, “and I always love what they bring. There is a trust and understanding there, so I knew that they would fit in. Nick had never played the calabash before but he's an incredibly intuitive musician - it's in your hands as a percussionist rather than the instrument and he’s found his own way of playing it. “

The result is a friendly, empathetic marriage of styles which perhaps contrasts with the more academic approach of, for example, the (admittedly very interesting) 2007 Grammy-nominated match-up between Cheikh Hamala Diabaté and Bob Carlin. The alliterative, ambiguous album title – “designed to be evocative, summing up that the continents are related, but no more,” according to Stone - reflects this unforced, light-touch approach.

"Some traditionalists may question if I am the person to do it, because I am not a tried and trusted bluegrass player,” says Stone. “I very much come into it as a modern banjo player; I love bluegrass and old-timey and maybe I play it in an irreverent way, but for me the relationship and the energy of the collaboration is the most important thing. Even though we have different skin colours, cultures and backgrounds, and are from different countries, we both have imaginations and we found a place where our imaginations meet. There's a certain amount of study and understanding musically and culturally. But I feel that what we have come to, especially now that we have toured, is a music that's our music, it's the sound of these people; there's cross-influence and there are so many layers - I have all kinds of influences from listening to jazz, classical music, some of that trickles in, Mansa loves Bob Dylan and Bob Marley. We're sort of modern folk; it's just not an academic pursuit at all. I don’t even know how we would do it as an academic exercise at all, and it’s developing all the time as we play live.”

On paper, the smaller concert line-up (Jayme, Mansa and the rhythm section) doesn’t possess as much depth or variety as that on the album. But the sparser arrangements work well, bringing a bucolic dark edge where on the album there is smoothness and light. And there are a couple of impressive new numbers that the band has worked out on the road, and which benefit from the increased space afforded to the Stone/Sissoko melodic axis and the sparer, more acoustic rhythmic flavour in which they are framed. It’s a set that suits small halls and festivals - warm, inviting and with an understated intelligence and sincerity all of a piece with its accomplished yet modest practitioners.