Kélétigui Diabaté

Kélétigui Diabaté (* 1931 in Kita ; † November 30, 2012 in Bamako ) was a Malian master musician who developed new playing techniques on the balafon and was considered one of the most important people in contemporary Mali music.

Live and act

Diabaté comes from a family of well-known griot musicians and learned to play the balafon as well as the guitar and saxophone. In the late 1950s he was part of the touring formation of the Orchester de la Garde Républicaine and performed with them in West Africa. In 1960, at the time of Mali's declaration of independence, he was a founding member of Formation A of the Republic of Mali, with which he also recorded an album published by Bärenreiter -musicaphon. Later he belonged to the band Les Ambassadeurs , led by Salif Keïta since 1972 .

In 1978 he developed his personal style on the balafon after performing with American jazz musicians such as Lionel Hampton and Ella Fitzgerald ; he often played on two balafons that were half-step apart. In the next few years he appeared as a guest musician with numerous musicians, for example on Salif Keïta's album Ko-Yan in 1989 , with Zap Mama , with Ketama and with Bonnie Raitt . Since 1993 he has played regularly with the Symmetric Orchestra , which his namesake Toumani Diabaté directed. Between 1998 and 2009 he was part of Habib Koité's band Bamada and also took part in a joint tour with the Art Ensemble of Chicago , known as The Art Ensemble of Africa ; together with the musicians from Chicago he was also on stage at the Akbank Jazz Festival. It was not until 2004 that he recorded an album under his own name ( Sandiya ). Since 2011 he has largely withdrawn from the music scene.

Web links

• Kélétigui Diabaté at Allmusic (English)
• Kélétigui Diabaté at Discogs (English)
• Obituary in The Independent

Individual evidence

1. ^ Obituary , Der Standard , December 3, 2012
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Obituary Kélétigui Diabaté (cumbancha.com) ( Memento of the original dated December 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
3. ↑ Kélétigui Diabaté (African Guild)
4. ↑ 10th Akbank Jazz Festival ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.