{"id":125034,"date":"2023-07-20T15:07:07","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T13:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/?p=125034"},"modified":"2023-07-21T15:31:56","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T13:31:56","slug":"new-ancient-strings-un-classique-plus-que-moderne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/new-ancient-strings-un-classique-plus-que-moderne\/","title":{"rendered":"New Ancient Strings, a modern classic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cWell let me tell you how it all happened\u201d<\/em> <\/em>begins Lucy Dur\u00e1n. It\u2019s spring in London and the renowned record producer and professor is remembering a night in Bamako in September 1997. We\u2019re here to speak about New Ancient Strings<\/em>, a timeless album of kora duets by Toumani Diabat\u00e9 and Ballak\u00e9 Sissoko and perhaps Lucy\u2019s favourite of the twenty five records she has produced. Recorded in a single night on September 22nd 1997 this classic long player has long been out of print, only adding to its cult status among audiophiles and connoisseurs of Mand\u00e9 music. Now slated for reissue on Chrysalis Records, this gem which takes its name from the 1970 recording Cordes Anciennes<\/em> by the duo’s fathers, is soon to be available again in all its high fidelity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cordes Anciennes, recorded by Sidiki Diabat\u00e9 et Dj\u00e9limady Sissoko in 1970
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Lucy (who picks up her kora during our chat to explain a point of tuning) began her association with the twenty one string West African harp with the Gambian master Amadu Bansang Jobarteh, and had known Toumani for more than a decade when they began discussing a follow up to his father\u2019s album with Djelimadi Sissoko. \u201cInitially, I wanted to do the album with Toumani\u2019s father Sidiki Diabat\u00e9,\u201d <\/em>she explains. \u201cI wanted it to be a father and son duet. They were very very competitive, which is a very Malian thing. It’s called `fadeya\u2019 meaning rivalry between children of the same father with different mothers. So your first rival in life is always your father.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having produced the younger Diabat\u00e9\u2019s 1988 debut Kaira<\/em> she put the idea to Sidiki who liked it. \u201cI think he thought he would be able to outplay his son, and of course his son probably thought he\u2019d be able to outplay his dad!\u201d <\/em>she chuckles. <\/em>With father and son on board, she set about persuading a label. \u201cI was trying to convince Joe Boyd of Hannibal Records. We’d done four albums at that point (with no money!) and I was trying to persuade him to go for this idea for a <\/em>New Ancient Strings following on from <\/em>Ancient Strings.  I liked the play on ‘new\u2019 and ‘ancient\u2019,\u201d <\/em>Lucy laughs, before reaching the sad part of the story. \u201cSo Sidiki went to Gambia in April 1996. He was born in The Gambia and he went to his birth town which is called Bansang where he suffered some kind of a stroke and died during early morning prayer. He was repatriated to Mali  (even though he wasn’t really originally Malian) and given a state funeral. At this point Joe Boyd had said, ‘let’s do it!\u2019 and then suddenly, we’d lost Sidiki.\u201d <\/em>Realising the need to change the narrative, Lucy decided to ask Ballak\u00e9 Sissoko if <\/em>he would step in for Sidiki, flipping the script to two sons reprising their father\u2019s music. \u201cBallak\u00e9 and Toumani\u2019s fathers were great friends,\u201d <\/em>she reasons. \u201cThey knew each other in Gambia and both emigrated to Mali and joined the Mali National Ensemble. So it made good sense for the sons of these two great friends who lived side by side in Bamako (the two families were given one piece of land by the president which they divided between themselves<\/em>) to do it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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