“How come we’ve never heard of this beautiful instrument until now?” This was posted by a first-year college student to my world music course discussion board recently. He voiced what many of his ...

Renowned Mali musician Ballaké Sissoko claimed today that US Customs in New York "completely destroyed" his custom-made kora, the West African instrument with which he performs. "The kora is a fragile ...

When Malian master musician Ballaké Sissoko opened the case to his kora, a traditional and delicate 21-string instrument, after an early February flight from New York to Paris, he was devastated by ...

mhm. The kora is made of a big gord. Um and that's just half of it. So it would have been basically a sphere. You can't grow one like that around here. This one came from Mali West Africa, John Hughes ...

From generation to generation, stories, songs and history are passed down through western African Griots — hereditary historians — who are tasked with the knowledge of over 800 years of history. That ...

When Ballake Sissoko, a renowned kora player from Mali, looked in his case at his Paris home after flying from New York, he found the instrument in pieces. By Maria Cramer A renowned Malian musician ...

The Djembe: From West African Villages to Global Stages The djembe drum dates back roughly between 400 and 800 years, created ...

For Sona Jobarteh, Africa's first woman to play the sacred kora professionally, breaking with tradition has not been easy. At Abidjan's FEMUA urban music festival, which closes in the Ivory Coast city ...

A follow up to their previous album, Sira, this new album by German trumpet player and kora virtuoso Ablaye Cissoko prove that the kora is an instrument that can truly go with anything. The title ...

AR Rahman received accolades at the 70th National Award for his work in 'Ponniyin Selvan Part 1.' His distinctive musical experimentation, including the use of the Kora instrument, enhanced Rajiv ...