koraEn

the kora

The kora is a West African harp-lute with a deep and delicate sound. It can be played as a solo instrument, accompanying songs or in any musical ensemble. Thanks to the richness of its history and to the great diversity of its performers, it can naturally be associated to any interdisciplinal or cross-cultural project; because of its unique sound qualities and of its specific playing technique, the kora may also be a valious support for meditation and self-awakening.

In the following lines, you will find a historic panorama of the instrument, from its legendary origins to its contemporary fulfillments; you will cross the path of a great King who fought a musician Genius in the middle of a river; of great kora players like Lamine Konte, Foday Musa Suso or Toumani Diabate who spreaded the fame of the African harp across the globe; and of nine French Benedictine monks who sang Gregorian Chants accompanied by two kora players in the Heart of Africa. Finally you will know how many types of koras exist nowadays around the world.

1) The kora: Legend and Metamorphosis

2) The kora meets the world: Evolution of the traditional practices

3) The world meets the kora: Western composers and performers adopt the African harp

4) The kora today: different kinds of koras

The kora: Legend and Metamorphosis

The kora is a harp-lute from Western Africa. Its resonator is a half-calabash covered with cow skin and crossed by a wooden neck. 21 strings are divided into two parallel rows. Each string is attached to the neck by a leather ring. Two handles make it possible to hold the instrument and play it with thumbs and forefingers.

According to legend, the first kora was played by the djinns (spirits). One day, as the Great King Soundiata was walking along the river with his friend Balaface-Kouyate, he heard this instrument for the first time. He ventured into the waters and grabbed it from the hands of the Genius. Once back on the banks, Soundiata sounded the kora. He was delighted and gave it to his friend who played it too. "It is even more delightful to hear it than play it", the king exclaimed, "from now you will play for me". Thus Balaface-Kouyate became the ancestor of the griots (or jalis), poets, historians, and storytellers who introduced the kora to the court of the Mandingo Emperors and have passed the memory, the battles and the dreams of their people down to this day.

In the second part of the XXth century, the kora crosses new borders, takes up new challenges: in Africa first, where young griots are not afraid of playing it in a new way (for instance without singing), and anywhere else in the world, whether musicians coming from other horizons adopt it (learning traditional practices or creating original music), whether kora's natural heirs meet contemporary moods - we shall mention two of them, who first brought the kora beyond the seas in the end of the Sixties : in Europe, Lamine Konte (Senegal) makes recordings where Casamance's traditional melodies harmonize with Afro-Cuban rhythms ; in the United States, Foday Musa Suso (Gambia) crosses his music with jazz performers or contemporary music composers (Herbie Hancock, Philip Glass...).

In the same years, the instrument itself is sometimes redesigned, reconstructed : first, the monks of the Benedictine Monastery of Keur Moussa (Senegal) build an alternate kora with pegs (wooden pegs, then metal guitar pegs), in order to make the tuning easier and therefore to allow new kora players (men and women stranger to the traditional Mandinga culture); the Keur Moussa monks also conceive a new teaching method adapted to demands of modern life (written notation, scores, exercices) ; Brother Dominique Catta, the choirmaster of the Keur Moussa Monastery, is the first Western composer who writes pieces for the kora - solo kora, duets with African or Western instruments, or in accompaniment of the monastic chants. Other instrument makers, in France (Gweltas Simon) or in the United States (Bob Grawi and his electric kora) invite the kora players to new adventures.

(Many are the legends relative to the upcoming of the kora in the human world. Toumani Diabate tells another nice one on his web site.)

The kora meets the world: Evolution of the traditional practices

Although the kora was already studied by ethnomusicologists, recordings only began to be issued in the 1970's: Cordes anciennes (Ancient Strings) by Sidiki Diabate and Djelimadi Sissoko was recorded in Mali in 1970. Two years later, Gambie: Mandinka kora was recorded by Jali Nyama Suso (Ocora, 1972, re-issued in 1996 with the title Gambie: l'Art de la Kora - Jali Nyama Suso).

Lamine Konte (Senegal, 1942-2007) was certainly the first griot who brought the kora in Europe and made it dialog with musical trends that were stranger to the mandinka music. As soon as the end of the Sixties, his compositions (songs and instrumental pieces) combined traditional music, Afro-Cuban rythms, jazz and rhythm & blues (La Kora du Sénégal, Arion, Volumes 1 and 2). His musical interpretations included the poetry of the founders of the Negritude movement, such as Léopold Sedar Senghor of Senegal and Aimé Césaire of Martinique (Chant du Nègre, Chant du Monde - Song of the Negro, Song of the World, Arion, 1977).
Lamine Konte wrote film music (including Jacques Champreux’s Bako l’autre rive, Jean Mazel’s Du Sénégal aux Amériques and Souleymane Cissé’s Baara) and collaborated on Stevie Wonder’s Journey through the Secret Life of Plants (Motown, 1979 – Polygram, 1993). Other Cds: A Minstrel of Senegal (JVC, 1986); Griot Legend (World Music Library, 1999).

Foday Musa Suso (Gambia) first went to Europe; he moved to the United States in the 1970s, founding The Mandingo Griot Society (fusion pop-rock-traditional African music). He played with the jazz pianist Herbie Hancock (Watto Sita, 1984, Celluloid), producer and bass player Bill Laswell (New World Power, 1990, Island Records) and composer Philip Glass (Music from the Screens, 1992, Point Music).
Foday Musa Suso was the project manager of an album (book + CD) produced by Bill Laswell, dedicated to the kora : Jali Kunda - Griots of West Africa & Beyond, Ellipsis Arts, 1996. The book gathers testimonies by kora players and photographies by Pascal Lainé; in the recording one can hear interpretations of traditional themes recorded in Gambia, Senegal and Guinée-Bissau and three original encounters : kora and piano (Spring Waterfall by Foday Musa Suso and Philip Glass), kora and synthesizers (Lanmbasy Dub, with bassist Bill Laswell and keyboardist Jeff Bova), kora and saxophone (Samma, with the jazz saxophonist Pharaoh Sanders).
Foday Musa Suso also worked with the Kronos Quartet (Tilliboyo on the CD Pieces Of Africa, 1992, Elektra Nonesuch) and with drummer Jack de Johnette (CD Music from the heart of the masters, 2005, Kindred Rhythm/Golden Beam Productions). www.fmsuso.com

Toumani Diabate (born Mali, 1965) recorded what happened to be the first solo kora record purely instrumental: Kaira (Hannibal Records, 1988); he also played with the kora player Ballake Sissoko (New Ancient Strings - Nouvelles Cordes Anciennes, Hannibal Records, a tribute to their fathers record issued in 1970) and with Keletigui Diabate (balafon) and Basekou Kouyate (ngoni) (Djelika, Hannibal, 1995).
Toumani Diabate also played with the flamenco Spanish group Ketama (Songhai and Songhai 2) and with the Afro-American blues singer and guitarist Taj Mahal (Kulanjan, Hannibal, 1999). In 2001 he recorded Malicool with free jazz trombonist Roswell Rudd (Sunny Side); in 2005, In the Heart of the Moon, a duet with Ali Farka Touré, won the Grammy award (Nonesuch). In 2006, Toumani Diabate issued Boulevard de l'Indépendance (Nonesuch) with the Symmetric Orchestra, an orchestra composed of great African artists from different countries.
In 2007, Toumani Diabate collaborated with Bjork on Volta (Polydor) and with Dee Dee Bridgewater on Read Earth (Emarcy).
A new Toumani Diabate CD is issued in 2008 : The Mande Variations (World Circuit). This recording gathers eight solo kora pieces. They are played on a traditional kora or on a machine-head kora with a special chord. Some pieces are traditional tunes played in a completely new way; others are Toumani Diabate creations. The Mande Variations are unique : a treasure, a golden source, a bunch of prayers. www.toumani-diabate.com - www.myspace.com/toumanidiabate

This list does not pretend to be exhaustive: lately many griots recorded CDs. See proposed links.

The world meets the kora: Western composers and performers adopt the African harp

- Western musicians who learned traditional playing with griots:

Eric Charry (USA) is an ethnomusicologist and a music professor in the Wesleyan University (Middletown, Connecticut). His web page (echarry.web.wesleyan.edu) gives many valuable information about the kora and draws up an inventory of the ethnomusicologist resources on the Web. Eric Charry is the author of Mande Music : Traditional and Modern Music of the Maninka and Mandinka of Western Africa (University of Chicago Press, 2000). He is also the General Curator of the Virtual Instrument Museum, a project of the Wesleyan University Music Department and the Learning Objects Development Team.

Roderic Knight (USA) is an ethnomusicologist and a musician. He is a teacher in the Oberlin College (Ohio); he organizes kora and balo (xylophone) sessions based upon a traditional repertory. He has also produced video films about griots. www.oberlin.edu/faculty/rknight

Lucy Duran (UK) is an ethnomusicologist and musician. She promoted the encounter of Toumani Diabate with the Andalusian group Ketama (records Songhai and Songhai 2). She also produced with Joe Boyd other recordings of Toumani Diabate (Hannibal Records / Rykodisc); she plays kora with him in the record Kulanjan.

David Gilden (USA) is a musician. His web page, Cora Connection - certainly the first web page ever dedicated to the kora - is full of sound and visual information.

Harald Loquenz (Austria) is also musician and performer. He conceived a midi notation system for kora music. His web page, Kora Jaliya, is also very rich.

Sousou (Stockholm, Sweden) has been studying the West African musical tradition during several trips to Gambia and Senegal. According to the tradition, only men play the kora; Sousou (who also plays the violin, the recorder, the piano and the guitar) is now one of the few female kora players in the world. Sousou has performed various times on television and radio in Gambia and at festivals such as The Stockholm Kora Festival, Urkult, Malmöfestivalen and Nordlysfolkmusikfestival in Copenhagen, Denmark. http://www.myspace.com/sousoulill - http://www.myspace.com/sousoumahercissoko

Nathalie Cora (Canada) studied the kora with various African masters. She now leads her own group which associates the kora, the violin, the guitar, the accordion and the double bass (CD Petite Terre). She also made a record with the group Takadja (Takadja, Celestial Harmonies, 1995), and with the flutist and saxophonist Paul Horn (Africa, Inside Music, 1994). www.nathaliecora.com - www.myspace.com/nathaliecora

Daniel Berkman (USA) is a composer and a performer. He plays both the traditional kora and the Gravi -Kora (the electric kora conceived by Bob Grawi). Calabashmoon, Magnatune, 2005. www.infinitescope.com/kora et www.magnatune.com.

- Western musicians who play the kora in a new way:

Brother Dominique Catta (France - born 1925) is the "father" of the Keur Moussa kora; in 1963, he was one of the nine monks who came from the Monastery of Solesmes (France) and founded the Monastery of Keur Moussa (50 kilometres from Dakar, Senegal). Composer, master of choir of the Monastery, he learned traditional kora playing with griots and studied the songs of Western Africa, comparing the traditional modalities and those of Gregorian chants. Several years of research will conduce him to conceive a new kora with tuning pegs, to write a learning method (the first written kora method, called Keur Moussa Method) and to compose a great number of kora pieces, being the first Western composer to write for this instrument: pieces for kora solo (Le Chant des Montées, Dédicace), pieces for kora and oboe (Lumière d'Aurore), kora and flute, two concertos for several koras (Banehu Len, 1983, Fleuves d'eau vive, 1986), and many songs accompanied with the kora, the African percussions and the balafon (African xylophone)...
Brother Dominique Catta's work, wich has been written for the Liturgy oh his Community, is totally recorded (15 records; Quand renaît le matin (Abbaye de Keur Moussa Records, 1991) ; Lumière radieuse (Abbaye de Keur Moussa, 1992) ; Messe et chants au Monastère de Keur Moussa (Arion, 1980). His scores are edited by the Abbey of Keur Moussa (Du désert, d'ici et d'ailleurs, 1988) as well as the Kora Method. www.abbaye-keur-moussa.org

Brother Grégoire Philippe (France, 1950-1983) was a monk in the Keur Moussa Monastery. He wrote several kora pieces in a poetic mood (Pluie dans un jardin d'été). His score Quand renaît le matin was written for 3 koras (a soprano kora, an alto kora and a tenor kora) and one performer: each kora has a genuine sound and a special tuning, and the player goes from one to another, being allowed to play with sixty-three strings... (Abbaye de Keur Moussa Records). Quand renaît le Matin has also been recorded by Brother Dominique Catta in the homonymous recording of 1991, Abbaye de Keur Moussa Records).

Carole Audet-Ouellet (Canada) is a composer and performer. She learned the kora both with traditional masters and with Brother Dominique Catta. Her compositions and her style are an original synthesis of these two techniques. Pieces for solo kora, suites (Les Enfants de la Lumière, 1991, Les Collines de la Lune, 1999). Abbaye de Keur Moussa Records.

Dominique Fournier (France): musician, painter and sculptor, he learned to play the kora with Brother Dominique Catta ; then he leaded kora workshops in France. He initiated Jacques Burtin to the kora in 1986 in the Isle of Yeu (Vendée, France) and performed with him the suite for two koras Vive flamme d'amour (Kora à l'Abbaye du Bec-Hellouin - The Inner Song, Studio SM, Paris, 1994).

Sister Claire Marie Ledoux (born 1955) is a composer and a performer. She also is a specialist in Franciscan sources. She learned to play the kora with Brother Dominique Catta and Dominique Fournier and she integrated the kora in the Liturgy of her monastery, writing pieces for kora solo and songs accompanied with the African harp. Sister Claire Marie Ledoux and Jacques Burtin wrote and performed Une Rosée de Lumière - Saint François et Sainte Claire d'Assise (Studio SM, Paris, 1997).

Jacques Burtin (born Paris, 1955): a composer and a pianist, he discovered the kora in 1986; this meeting was essential to the evolution of his musical language and his practice of written and improvised music. Pieces for one and two koras, kora and Western instruments, kora and panpipes, kora and koto. Bayard Musique Records, Studio SM Records, Mara Productions. Concerts in Europe, United States and Japan. Music for theater and dance. Kora workshops (Keur Moussa method). Two printed scores : Une Rosée de Lumière, 1988 ; Le Chant Intérieur, 1996. Jacques Burtin has also made kora transcriptions of Erik Satie, Philip Glass and traditional folk music (Japanese, European, American Indian songs). www.jacquesburtin.com - www.myspace.com/jacquesburtin

Gwenaël Kerléo (Brittany, France) is a composer and a very gifted celtic harp performer (3 CDs at Coop Breizh). She has been intitiated to the kora by Jacques Burtin (Keur Moussa method) ; she may play some kora pieces in her harp concerts. www.gwenaelkerleo.com - www.myspace.com/gwenaelkerkeo

The kora today: different kinds of koras

Traditional Kora makers

Strings are attached to the wooden neck by leather rings (the kora player makes it slide along the neck to tune the instrument) ; formerly made out of the fibre of the baobab bark, they are now made of fishing thread. The kora maker Mamadou Diabate, grandson of Sidiki Diabate and Toumani Diabate's nephew, explains the different aspects of his work in his site: www.koramali.com.

The Keur Moussa Koras (Senegal)

The monks of the Keur Moussa Abbey (Senegal) created the first koras with tuning pegs (guitar keys), without changing the main structure or the chord of the instrument; some of their koras are actually played by griots (Toumani Diabate, Fode Drame, Prince Sissoko, Soriba Kouyate...). The Keur Moussa kora, along with the Keur Moussa Method, allowed many people from all over the world to play the African harp. www.abbaye-keur-moussa.org/musique/instruments/kora.php

Other Koras

Gweltas Simon (Molac, Brittany, France) creates various harp-lutes and string instruments born from his meetings with traditional Masters in Africa, India and Greece. He has long been in charge of the Instruments Migrateurs society, which brings together musicians, instrument makers, music teachers and musicologists who try to communicate their love for Traditional Music (exhibitions, musical lectures, workshops). Gweltas Simon leads workshops of Kamale N'Goni making (9-strings African harps) and builds 16-strings koras in order to initiate young players to the instrument, along with a new method close to traditional practices. Gweltas Simon may be contacted at gweltas.simon@libertysurf.fr.This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it You can see his instruments at http://instrumig.free.fr/galerie

Kaëlig (France) creates koras with tuning pegs or guitar tuners. He also makes travel cases for the instrument. http://www.myspace.com/korakaelig Mail : kora.kaelig@neuf.fr

The Kumbengo Koras created by Michael Schraud (Jaroso, Colorado, USA) are the first koras born in the United States. They are equipped with guitar tuners and are available in C and in F. www.kumbengokoras.com.

Bob Grawi (Florida, NY, USA) is the inventor of the Gravi-Kora, which has a stainless steel frame and has to be connected to an amplifier like an electric guitar. Bob Grawi also created the Gravikord, which has 24 strings and is tuned in a different way. As a composer and performer, Bob Grawi has made several recordings: Making Waves (1988), Rising Tide (1991), Cherries & Stars (1996). Foday Musa Suso played a Gravikord in his album New World Power (Island Records, 1990). Daniel Berkman also plays a Gravi-Kora. On November 2005 Jacques Burtin went to Florida to meet Bob, and came back to Europe with a Gravi-Kora. http://members.aol.com/gravikord