Enjoy some ancient Malian music! Sidiki Diabate and Toumani Diabate are widely considered two of the best kora players of recent history. I particularly enjoyed "Sunjata," an epic I have read in translation but never heard presented in the way griots and musical ensembles performed it. Although some scholars question the antiquity of the kora (they doubt that it existed back in the early days of the Mali Empire, founded by Sunjata in the 13th century, preferring a more recent origin, perhaps in a limited geographic region in the 18th century), it's a beautiful instrument that is now one of the musical symbols of the Mandinka people's cultural heritage. Indeed, hearing this music, along with the ngoni and other stringed-instruments of this region of West Africa, one cannot help but think of the African origins of the blues, perhaps one of the reasons 'desert blues' is popular in Mali. Also, enjoy "Djourou Kara Nany," supposedly an ancient song about Alexander the Great, whose legendary conquests and history reached ancient Mali and entered into the oral traditions of Sunjata. Check out another version of "Sunjata" featuring the ngoni (a type of lute) here.
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