Diabel Cissokho

Kora player, singer, composer, producer, multi instrumentalist from Senegal

Contents

Biography

Reviews/Quotes

Discography

Tours/Images

Previous gigs List

Media Information/Links/video

Contact Details

Diabel Cissokho

Senegalese musician Diabel Cissokho is part of the great line of Cissokho griots. Growing up in Dakar and Tambacounda, surrounded by a rich musical heritage and a family of musicians, Diabel began playing a number of traditional instruments. However, Diabel’s affinity with the kora was clear from an early age.

Diabel’s musical pedigree is exceptional. International tours with his family’s band Bannaya led to a long stint as Baaba Maal’s kora player, as well as with acclaimed musicians such as Kandia Kouyate, Pee Wee Ellis, Omar Pene, Cheikh Lo, Ernest Ranglin and Youssou N’Dour. Now well established in the UK, Diabel’s virtuosic talent, his “ r e s o n a n t v o i c e a n d r o c k i n g k o r a style” (Songlines), have been welcomed everywhere from WOMAD, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Glastonbury, Globaltica, and London’s Barbican, where he performed alongside Femi Kuti, Cheikh Lo and Manu Dibango.

Diabel’s success with bluesman Ramon Goose cemented his reputation as a versatile musician, able to effortlessly cross cultures. Their album Mansana Blues was lauded as “a flavoursome mix of slide guitar, mellow kora and undulating Mandinka rhythms” (fRoots) which “delivers moments of steamy pleasure” (Songlines).

A 2010 European tour culminated in the DNA Culture Project with Ramon, Robert Plant guitarist Justin Adams, Gambian riti player Juldeh Camara and bassist Julian Joseph at Dakar’s renowned venue Just4You.

Diabel’s 2012 album ‘Kanabory Siyama’ marked a return to his roots. Recorded in the UK and Dakar and featuring members of his own family, the album drew on Diabel’s rich musical heritage, blending beautiful Mandinkan

melodies with an upbeat West African groove. His album received a four star review in Songlines magazine where he was also a featured artist on their Top of the World CD, as well as receiving nominations for Best Artist and Best Newcomer.

Alongside the album’s release, Diabel completed an extensive uk tour at festivals and venues across the UK including the Back2Black festival at the Barbican and a spot at the UK's leading world music festival WOMAD, where he performed and was broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and was interviewed by Lucy Duran. As a regular performer with Africa Express, Diabel was part of the Africa Express train performing with some of Africa and the world’s most renowned musicians including Paul McCartney, Amadou and Mariam, Damon Albarn, Romeo Stodart, Matthieu Chedid, and more. Diabel also performed on 'Later...with Jools Holland' performing alongside Sinead O'Connor, again showing his versatility as an artist.

In 2014 Diabel had the premiere of his documentary, filmed by Estrella Sendra, about the history of the griots and how Diabel draws on his heritage as a griot and uses it in his life as a musician today. This film received great feedback in the UK and Europe and continues to be screened internationally. Following a successful 2015 international tour, 2016 saw Diabel release his fourth album ‘Tambacounda Express’, an album that draws on the eclectic mix of cultures that pass through the region where Diabel was born, Tambacounda in Senegal. With influences from Senegal, Mali, to Mauritania, Guinea, Niger, and Morocco, the result is a rhythmically, lyrically and melodically diverse collection of songs with strong roots in the blues, alongside the traditional Mandinkan melodies of his griot ancestry.

Diabel continues his European and international tour for 2017 and starts work on his new album.

'The Cissokho family have the benefit of a deep culture that goes back to the Middle ages where music occupies a central, life affirming position in society, along with a 21st century youthful dynamism that defies the world to ignore them. Groove, melody and soul, and those voices hitt ing you l ike an Atlantic wave, it's irresistible.' Justin Adams, 2012

Reviews

‘Diabel Cissokho’s “Totoumo”, on the other hand, sets slide guitar against n’goni, and pumping bass with hand percussion, injecting West African folk music with blues for a wonderful result.’

John Powell www.angelica-music.com

www.angelica-music.com

‘…Diabel Cissokho - the renowned Kora player - also had the crowd on their feet with a set full of delights and rhythms and he gelled brilliantly with Toure on the number ‘Future’…’

Andy Snipper www.music-news.com

‘One of the highlights was the guitar and kora duet with Diabel Cissokho, from Senegal, playing a beautiful instrumental number called Peace…’

Simon Broughton, London Evening Standard, (Queen Elizabeth Hall, Sept 2013)

‘…Cissokho played soaring high cadenzas.’

David Honigmann, ft.com (Financial Times)

Discography

- The Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

- The Front Room, Southbank, London

- Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London

- Richmix, London - Passing Clouds, London - Hootananny, London - St Ethelburga’s, London - Cargo, London - The Vortex, London - The Spitz, London - Momo’s, London - The African Centre, London - The London African Music

Festival - The London Jazz Festival - The Tabernacle, London - The Hackney Attic, London - Gallery Cafe, London - The Ritzy, London - The GreenNote, London - The Old Truman Brewery,

London - Institute of Education, London - Womad UK (Bristol, Charlton

Park) - The Canteen, Bristol - Africa Oye, Liverpool - Marlborough Jazz Festival,

Marlborough - Smugglers Festival, Kent - Rhythmtree Festival, Isle of

Wight - The Forge, London - The Marine Theatre, Lyme

Regis - The Chichester Inn,

Chichester - Galeri Caernarfon, Wales - SOAS, London - Band on the Wall, Manchester - La Reference Bar, birmingham - The Mac, Birmingham - The Hare and Hounds,

Birmingham

- The Lantern Theatre Sheffield - The Queen’s Theatre,

Hornchurch - Latitude Festival, Suffolk - Larmer tree festival, Salisbury - Middlesbrough Town Hall - Warwick Arts Centre, Warwick - The Arches, Glasgow - The Ritz, Manchester - Cardiff University, Cardiff - The Big Top@Creative

Common, Bristol - Granary Square, London - Ropetackle Arts Centre,

Shoreham - Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline - Glastonbury Festival,

Glastonbury - Africa Festival, Leeds - Hi-Fi Festival, Leeds - BBC Studios, London - Buckingham Palace, London - Dock Des Sud, Marseilles,

France - Le Sunset Club, Paris, France - Tour de Zinc Festival,

Beauvais, France - Bokrijk African Festival,

Belgium - Just4You, Dakar, Senegal - Daniel Sorano, Dakar,

Senegal - Centre Culturale Francais,

Dakar, Senegal - Centre Culturale Francais, St

Louis, Senegal - Oslo Spektrum Arena,Oslo - Tamaningue Festival, Mali - Aliance Franco, Gambia - Centre Culturale Francais,

Kaolak, Senegal - CDPS, Tambacounda,

Senegal - Funky Elephant Festival,

Helsinki, Finland

-London Coffee Festival, London

- Drum Camp, Suffolk - The Great Escape Festival,

Brighton - Cicus, Seville, Spain - Oslo World Music Festival,

Oslo, Norway - Africa Centre Summer

Festival, London - Stuart House, Liskeard,

Cornwall - Bloomsbury Festival, London - Africa Festival, Leeds - Hi-Fi Festival, Leeds - BBC Studios, London - Buckingham Palace, London - Dock Des Sud, Marseilles,

France - Le Sunset Club, Paris, France - Tour de Zinc Festival,

Beauvais, France - Bokrijk African Festival,

Belgium - Just4You, Dakar, Senegal - Daniel Sorano, Dakar,

Senegal - Centre Culturale Francais,

Dakar, Senegal - Centre Culturale Francais, St

Louis, Senegal - Larmer Tree Festival, Wiltshire - Tropical Pressure Festival,

Cornwall - Aksanat, Turkey - The National Theatre, London, - Horniman Museum London - Roskilde Festival, Denmark - Globaltica - Poland - Nell’s Jazz and Blues, London - Jazz Cafe, London - Moseley Folk Festival,

Birmingham - Bluedot Festival, Jodrell Bank

Observatory Manchester

Previous performances

Links (Please click the following links)

• www.diabelcissokhomusic.com

•

• www.facebook.com/diabelcissokho

• Introduction to Tambacounda Express

• Soundcloud

• Kafoumusic Youtube Channel

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Videos

Contact Information

For bookings or any other queries please use the following contact information:

Email:

kafoumusic@gmail.com

Tel. 00221 774426058 (Senegal)