Mamadou Diabaté

Mamadou Diabaté (born 1975) is a kora player. He began playing quite early in his life, became known as a musician in the area of Mali in which he lived, and has since moved to the United States, recording five albums

Life and career

Diabaté was born in Kita, Mali, a town relatively near to Mali's capital of Bamako, known for its artistic and cultural prominence within the Manding community of West Africa. He was born into a family of griots, with his father, Djelimory n'fa Diabaté, also a kora musician and a member of the Instrumental Ensemble of Mali. He began playing the kora, a 21-string harp at a very young age, performing at various public events in his country and was becoming somewhat of a regional celebrity by that time as well.

In 1996, he went on to travel with a group of the Instrumental Ensemble of Mali, and eventually settled in the United States. Since his move to the US, Diabaté has performed with several musicians from the country, including jazz players Randy Weston, Guy Davis, and Donald Byrd, as well as with a griot ensemble composed of musicians from Mali and the United States.