Jali Musa Jawara

about

Guinean singer and composer Djeli Moussa Diawara is foremost among world players of the Kora, the African harp-lute of the Manding peoples of the Senegambia. Born in Guinea in 1961 into a family whose musical roots span generations, his father was a famous player of the balafon (Africa's wooden cousin to the xylophone), and his mother sang. He joined his family as a member of the djeli (or jali) caste - the honored griots who carry a tradition of reciting town news through improvised lyrics and melody on the kora. Like his half-brother, Mory Kante, and cousin, Kante Manfila, he was drilled by his elders in music, instrumental technique and a millennium's worth of oral history and genealogies. The kora is a demanding instrument, consisting of two parallel rows of strings attached to a notched bridge on a resonating gourd, and Djeli's confident command of it is the result of a lifetime of study and practice. He learned the fine points of playing the kora from a brilliant performer named Batourou Sekou and gradually forged an individual style. In the late 70s, Djeli visited Abidjan, Ivory Coast and performed for a time with the legendary Rail Band in Bamako, Mali. He eventually went solo, working with Djenne Doumbia, a remarkable singer who later graced Salif Keita's band. A British label put out his first LP, "Yasimika," in 1983 and it is revered today as one of the finest African albums of all time. Following a series of false starts, he began to record for the Paris-based

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