The family of Kora music

By Alemayehu Seife Selassie


Born and raised from a Greyo family that is known for playing the Kora [traditional string instrument] music, Ba Cissoko did not find it hard to learn how to play it at the young age of 11. Now 37, this musician has become an international icon booked for tons and tons of tours. Currently on a 14-country tour in eastern Africa, Ba Cissoko and his cousins Seku Kiyote the other Kora player and Kohu Kiyote the bass guitar player along with the percussionist were in Addis Ababa last Saturday for a marvelous performance. Playing and performing the Kora on stage were Ba Cissoko and Seku Kiyote.

Ba’s father Mory Kanté has passed away but Seku and Kohu’s father, Embadi Koyote, is one of the greatest players of Kora living in West Africa today. And before its current quartet stage the Ba Cissoko band used to be a trio with only three members. After taking the percussionist in 1999, however, the band moved to another level of the mandingue music.

Ba states that it takes a couple of years to learn how to play the Kora. But the first thing one needs to do before thinking of playing is, love the instrument. For Ba, who started playing the instrument at weddings, the stage performance was something which was bound to happen in due time. But performing for a large crowd in the US, Japan, Australia, New zealand, West and Northern Africa and now in East Africa was something many artists would only dream of. For this artist the only continent he has not performed at is South America. The French music festival where there were 25,000 crowds however tops his list of countries.

On their performance last Saturday at the Alliance Ethio-Française, one thing, which Ba had reservations on, was having a quiescent crowd. “It would have been nicer if people were dancing a little bit more but I know they were enjoying their time. And I love the place and the people. This show was a good one too”, Ba said.

Organizing a huge musical festival “International Festival Kora and Strings”, which gathers thousands of crowds, Ba Cissoko has managed to put together Kora players from Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Senegal, Togo, Guinea for the past two years. In last year’s festival he has even brought a Lebanese electronic music arranger to play with the Kora. “There are people who use Kora for Hip Hop, traditional music and even rock n roll in different places in Africa. We are trying to bring the people from different parts of the world to Guinea, Conakry where our festival takes place.” Ba said.

This year the third edition of that festival is going to take place on December 5th at a beach of Kawya, Guinea where the organizer expects over 5,000 people to turn up. “This year we are expecting musicians from Senegal, Gambia, Algeria, and we are working on bringing a musician from India.”

Having listened to the Ethiopian musician, Mohamud Ahmed and toured around the night visiting traditional music houses, Ba said, a thought has crossed his mind to put the Masinko and Kirar on his festival. Meeting with one of the young Ethiopian guitar players, he is also considering on putting an Ethiopian in the show with the guitar too.

Ba’s concert at the Alliance was one of the shows which proved that African instruments can harmonically be used for a concert along with the modern instruments. And the thing, which captivated the audience, was the highly decorated large Kora instruments. The electronic Kora Ba and his cousin were playing on stage were built by a French monk that lives in Senegal. The electronic Kora has got keys as opposed to the traditional Kora which has got goat strings that is pulled up or down the neck to tune the instrument. When Ba bought the 21 strings Kora five years ago he had to pay 700 Euros. And he states that now the price might go as high as 1000. The instrument that is played with the index finger and a thumb has a big goat skin stretched calbas (box).

Ba’s Kora is acoustic but Seku’s Kora has got a microphone and the sound goes through effect pedals which gives it its electronic distortion sounds. “This guitar has got the same effects as Jimmy Hendricks”, Huge Gregoire the band manager stated.
Ba Cissoko has released two CDs ‘Sabolan’ which sold 15,000-20,000 copies and the new CD ‘Electric Griot Lan’ which was released in the US and England and is awaiting release in France on the 29th of March.

Currently the musician is working on his third CD which would have a special implication for the artist for it would be released for the anniversary of the band’s formation. And he is planning on releasing the second album in tape, for the CDs are not sold much in Africa.
As far as the continuing of the Kora playing tradition is concerned, Ba said, “I hope my children will play the Kora in the future. My daughter is too young to play but she comes and touches the Kora.”

Starting his international tour in 1995, the Guinean Musician Ba Cissoko has become a master of the instrument, which many find interesting just to look at. Winning his daily bread with his skills however he has become one of the few artists to go on tour in as many as 40 countries in the time frame of February to mid June alone. Within this tour Ba has played with international African musical icons such as Femi Cutti.

The current 14-country east African tour includes Uganda, Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana and Zimbabwe. After his show here, the artist flew for a performance in Zambia.

March 24, 2007