The history of the West African kora, a 21-string harp, goes back several hundred years — back to the days when Mande griots, hereditary musicians who tell the history of their people, played for the ...

Much like the surname “Smith” or “Jones” here in the U.S., the name “Cissoko” (also spelled “Sissoko”) is a common family name throughout the West African countries of Mali, Senegal,… For those of you ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Malian musician Ballaké Sissoko alleges his "cherished, custom-made kora" was "completely destroyed" on a flight this week ...

Ten fingers for twenty-one strings, and magic takes place, surely, calmly. Ballaké Sissoko enlaces us in his suave and crystalline sonority and his kora, magnified by his talent as a melodist and an ...

When Ballaké Sissoko and Vincent Ségal perform at the North Beach Bandshell this Sunday, they’ll do so under the cover of a shadow of nativism and xenophobia that has engulfed the United States. The ...

Outrage poured in from around the world when news broke that a musician’s priceless instrument was destroyed by Transportation Security Administration officials in the United States. Ballaké Sissoko ...

More than a quarter of a century later, Lucy Duran, professor of music at the London School of Oriental and African Studies, persuaded Joe Boyd to commission a belated sequel for release on his ...

A meeting of instruments, not traditions. The dialogue between Ballaké Sissoko’s kora and Derek Gripper’s guitar is a summit of two master musicians at the peak of their craft. Despite coming from ...

I begin this edition of All Songs Considered with a powerful true story of a Japanese big band formed in a Wyoming internment camp during World War II. The artist singing this story is Julian Saporiti ...

Last February, Sissoko’s historic instrument was disassembled on a flight home to Paris. Bolstered by a new kora, his latest album revives their borderless journey In the Malian language Bamanankan, ...

Expanding on the adage that less is more, Malian kora master Ballaké Sissoko and renowned French cellist Vincent Segal have taken an ascetic minimalistic approach on Musique De Nuit. This melding of ...