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2003 BBC3 Awards for World Music Nominee (Africa)
“Kasse Mady’s music smiles out of the speaker.” — Damon Albarn
“An absolutely gorgeous CD.” — Taj Mahal
Kasse Mady Diabate is one of Mali’s national treasures. Known for his profound knowledge of West Africa’s
griot tradition (the centuries-old musical heritage and oral history), Diabate brings past and present together, singing ancient songs within a modern context.
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Kasse Mady Diabate is one of the most cherished singers in Mali, known for his profound knowledge of Mali's deepest oral and musical traditions, for his ability to adapt these traditions into a modern context, and for the sheer beauty and ethereal quality of his tenor voice.
He was born in 1949 in Kela, a renowned center of the Mande griot
(jeli) tradition in western Mali, near one of the seats of the great Mali empire (1235-1469). Kasse Mady's family, the Diabates of Kela — all of whom are
jelis —were the singers for the emperors and their descendants, the royal Keita lineages. And still today they are considered among the most important and authoritative
jeli families across seven West African countries where Mande culture predominates.
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