His ancestors were the voices of kings. His surname identifies him as a member of a musical family that can trace its genealogy to the 13th century, a lineage of storytellers, singers and musicians, ...

BAMAKO, MALI — On a moonlit African night in a leafy open-air bar, kora virtuoso Toumani Diabate is peeling off an ethereal flood of kaleidoscopic riffs from a 21-string cow-skin-covered harp like one ...

Sona Jobarteh was born in London to a family of Gambian griots, musicians and storytellers who maintain the oral tradition that keeps the histories of their people alive. Jobarteh’s family is one of ...

If an African kora-led album is called Electric Griot Land, it'll be different. For years, this instrument - a 21-string harp-lute with half a calabash covered with cow skin as a resonator - has been ...

Musician Toumani Diabaté of Mali and his 21-string kora, photographed at WOMAD -- the World of Music, Arts and Dance festival held yearly in the United Kingdom. Diabaté died on July 19 at age 58. "He ...

Editor’s Note: African Voices is a weekly show that highlights Africa’s most engaging personalities, exploring the lives and passions of people who rarely open themselves up to the camera. Kora master ...

The kora is a West African harp with 21 strings and a large calabash gourd body. According to Eric Charry, a historian of West African music, the instrument originated in the late 18th century, during ...

Her instrument was the preserve of men for hundreds of years, but the Gambian musician wasn’t fazed. She explains why she ripped up the rules – and is now remodelling African education In west ...

Monks in blue-grey habits lift their hands in supplication before breaking into a chant accompanied by the singsong twang of the kora, a traditional West African harp. It is mid-afternoon prayer in ...

"He played those 21 strings with love." That's the great American banjo player Bela Fleck talking about his duets with Toumani Diabaté of Mali — including the crowd-pleaser "Dueling Banjos." Fleck ...