Taj Mahal and Toumani Diabate

• Kulanjan [Hannibal, 1999] A-

See Also:

• Toumani Diabate
• Toumani Diabate with Balaka Sisoko
• Toumani Diabaté's Symmetric Orchestra
• Taj Mahal
• Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder
• Mali Music
• Big Bill Morganfield & Taj Mahal
• merge all

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Kulanjan [Hannibal, 1999]
No longer does Mahal talk a bigger African diaspora than he walks. He deserves his top billing, but every other musician on this piece of serendipity is a West African retrofitting a simple little studio in Athens GA. Like the guitar hotshot he'd have turned into Stateside, costar Diabate is a virtuoso and nothing more, and his Manding songs are mostly some kind of change. But when his kora echoes the happy-hollering "Ol' Georgie Buck" or the deep-Delta "Catfish Blues," those straightforward old blues take on a filigree Diabate's percussive confederates can go to work on. And when Mahal's piano strides beneath the balafon of a Diabate named Lasana, the rhythms canter so comically you wonder who said open sesame. A-

See Also

• Salif Keita: Papa / Taj Mahal and Toumani Diabate: Kalujan [0000]