The Malian musician Toumani Diabaté, who has died aged 58 after a short illness, was the undisputed master of the kora, the stately and stirring 21-stringed harp that is the most important classical instrument of west Africa. He played at festivals and concert halls around the world, and worked both as a soloist and with a remarkable array of other artists, ranging from his own Symmetric Orchestra to the guitarist Ali Farka Touré, the London Symphony Orchestra, and musicians from Spain, Cuba and Brazil.
Coming from a caste of traditional musicians and historians, the griots, he traced his family back 71 generations to the era when the Mande empire controlled much of west Africa.
His exquisite, relaxed playing mixed the ancient and modern, as he switched from pieces that dated back hundreds of years to his own compositions that he said reflected influences ranging from other African artists to Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding and Pink Floyd. His kora work mixed bass lines with melodies and improvisation – it was as if several musicians were performing at once – and as a devout Muslim, he said: “Music was a gift to me from God, the kora was a gift to me from God.”
Meeting Toumani in 2007 at home in Bamako, the Malian capital, was a reminder of his extraordinary range. He walked with the help of a stick (he had polio as a child) and sat in his garden playing the kora while discussing ancient Malian history and explaining that the role of griots was “to make communication. I’m doing a griot’s job.”
Taking constant calls on his mobile phone, he switched to discussing playing with Björk at Glastonbury, and explained why the kora is a “really deep and spiritual instrument”, but then warning how it can attract African spirits, the jinns, “if played after midnight”.
Even so, it was nearly 2.30 in the morning when he joined his Symmetric Orchestra at the Hogan club, where he proved that the kora can also be a glorious dance instrument. The following day he performed at a government function, explaining he had played to “more than 100 visiting dignitaries”, including Jimmy Carter and Colonel Gaddafi.
Before I left he asked his son Sidiki (then aged 15) to play for me, to demonstrate how a new griot generation could mix kora with a beat box.
Born in Bamako, Toumani was the son of Sidiki Diabaté Sr, known as “the king of the kora”, who played in Mali’s National Instrumental Ensemble, along with Toumani’s mother, Sidiki Sr’s first wife, the singer Nene Koita. But he insisted that he was never taught by his father, or anybody else. “I taught myself,” he told me, “listening to my father and grandfather and different musicians.”
The Malian government was keen to encourage local traditions, and Toumani made his first appearance with a group from Koulikoro, north-east of Bamako, at the age of 13, before joining the group backing the singer Kandia Kouyaté when he was 19.
His breakthrough came when the broadcaster and music academic Lucy Durán visited Bamako to find musicians for a festival in 1987 of Music of the Royal Courts promoted by the South Bank Centre, London, and BBC Radio 3.
The cast for a concert in the Queen Elizabeth Hall included Kouyaté, Sidiki Diabaté Sr, and his son Toumani – who stayed on in London for seven months, and in one afternoon recorded the first solo kora album, with no over-dubs. Produced by Durán and released on Joe Boyd’s Hannibal label, Kaira (1988) was hailed as a timeless classic that introduced Toumani (and the kora) to a western audience.
He began to branch out, collaborating with the Spanish flamenco group Ketama on the album Songhai (also 1988), and in 1990 forming his Symmetric Orchestra, which included musicians from right across what had once been the Mande empire.
A second African-flamenco set, Songhai 2 (1994), was a major success in Spain, and was followed by Djelika (1995), with backing from Bassekou Kouyate, a virtuoso of another traditional stringed instrument, the ngoni, and New Ancient Strings (1998), a kora duet album with Ballaké Sissoko, as a tribute to the album that both their fathers had recorded together.
He collaborated with the American bluesman Taj Mahal on Kulanjan (1999), an album much praised by President Barack Obama, and with the American free jazz trombonist Roswell Rudd on Malicool (2002).
Two years later he worked on a remarkable couple of albums for World Circuit, recorded at the Mandé hotel, near the Niger river in Bamako. In the Heart of the Moon was the memorable album recorded with Touré, which won them a Grammy. This was followed by the long-awaited effort from the Symmetric Orchestra, Boulevard de l’Indépendence (2005). He accompanied Touré on his last concert tour before his death in 2006, during which they recorded Ali and Toumani (released in 2010), which won another Grammy.
Constantly changing musical direction, Toumani released The Mandé Variations (2007), an album of solo kora instrumentals that was the long-awaited follow-up to Kaira. The following year he gave a concert with the London Symphony Orchestra, eventually released as album, Kôrôlén (2021), as a reminder that “our music is older than Beethoven”.
In 2010 he played on the AfroCubism fusion set and the following year recorded A Curva da Cintura with the Brazilian poet Arnaldo Antunes and rock guitarist Edgard Scandurra. Reacting to the growing political chaos in Mali, and wanting to provide a reminder of “the tolerance of Sufi-inspired Islam”, he was joined by his son for one of his finest duet sets, Toumani and Sidiki (2014).
For his final experiments in global fusion he joined the American banjo star Béla Fleck in The Ripple Effect (2020) and then Kayhan Kalhor, the Iranian master of the kamancheh spike fiddle in The Sky Is the Same Colour Everywhere (2023).
Just as Ravi Shankar transformed the image and popularity of the sitar, Toumani brought a new, worldwide audience to the kora by linking the ancient, the modern and music from around the world.
In 2008 he was appointed a UN goodwill ambassador for his work highlighting HIV/Aids through his music, and in 2014 received an honorary doctorate in music from Soas University of London.
He is survived by two wives, Fanta Sacko and Sira Diallo, and by his sons with Fanta, Sidiki and Balla.
• Toumani Diabaté, musician, born 10 August 1965; died 19 July 2024
