Artists Performing
**Town Hall Seattle and SAMA: Music+Art present
Global Rhythms: Ballaké Sissoko and Derek Gripper - A New String Theory**
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 improviser.
Ballaké Sissoko is a Malian player of the kora. Ballaké's father, Djelimady Sissoko, was a notable musician from the Gambia in his own right who moved to Mali and was funded by the government to be part of the national orchestra. Sissoko started playing music at a young age, as most born into the jeli or griot caste do. In 1981, when he was 13, Sissoko's father died, and he took his father's place within the Ensemble Instrumental National du Mali. He also performed with several prominent female singers before coming to fame through his duet with Toumani Diabaté in 1999. In 2000, he formed the trio Mande Tabolo with an n'goni player and a balafon player.
His 2005 album, Tomora, features Toumani Diabaté on kora, singers Alboulkadri Barry and Rokia Traoré and Fanga Diawara, violin soloist of the Mali National Instrumental Ensemble.
His record Chamber Music released in October 2009 was the result of a collaboration with Vincent Ségal, a classical cellist known for his work with Bumcello, and was released by French label No Format! and the U.S. label Six Degrees Records.
He released a solo album, At Peace, in 2013. Cellist Vincent Ségal produced the album and plays on several tracks.
In 2023, Sissoko premiered a Concerto for Kora by the Lebanese composer Zad Moultaka at the Radio France concert hall in Paris.
As of 2024, since 2022 Sissoko has been collaborating in duo concerts with South African guitarist Derek Gripper, who has transcribed kora music to play on his own classical guitar, with an album to be released circa April 2024.
Derek Gripper is one of South Africa’s leading guitarists whose love of the kora set him transcribing and recording some of its greatest works, changing the face of classical guitar...
When Gripper released “One Night on Earth,” his first album of kora translations, classical guitar legend John Williams said he thought it was “absolutely impossible until I heard Derek Gripper do it,” while kora maestro Toumani Diabaté asked for confirmation that it was indeed just one person playing. Both invited Derek to collaborate with them: Derek performed with Williams in London’s Shakespeare’s Globe and King’s Place, and with Diabaté and his Symmetric Orchestra at the Acoustik Festival Bamako, Mali. His 2016 Carnegie Hall debut paired him with Mali’s Trio da Kali, and the UK’s Songlines honoured him with best album in Africa and the Middle East for his 2016 album “Libraries on Fire.”
Since these two recordings put kora/guitar translations on the map, his recent recordings “A Year of Swimming” (2020), “Billy Goes to Durban,” (2021) and “Sleep Songs for My Daughter” (2022), have incorporated elements of his kora explorations in original compositions and improvisations, captured on tape in the field and in studio, while his Bach recordings have shown that African music has a lot to teach us about recapturing the natural simplicity of early European music.
Touring globally from his home in Cape Town, Gripper is collaborating with Malian kora master Ballaké Sissoko on a new duo project, and recording for the record label Platoon.
Source: https://www.wikipedia.com/
https://www.ballakesissoko.com/
https://www.derekgripper.com/
Event Schedule
Sunday, February 2, 2025 at 7:30 PM-8:30 PM
Image Gallery
Highlights
A meeting between instruments, ready to break from tradition.
Malian virtuoso Ballaké Sissoko, widely considered to be one of the greatest touring kora players, joins Derek Gripper, South Africa’s leading guitarist, whose love of the kora set him transcribing and recording some of its greatest works, to change the face of classical guitar and give the instrument its very first African repertoire.
World-renowned kora player Ballaké Sissoko and acclaimed guitarist Derek Gripper spend just three hours recording a wordless album together. The kora and guitar in the hands of masters - a session where New Ancient Strings meets One Night On Earth.
The dialogue between Ballaké Sissoko’s kora and Derek Gripper’s guitar is a summit of two master musicians operating at the highest peaks of their art. Sissoko’s kora traces its lineage through the once-powerful Kaabu Empire, spanning Gambia, southern Senegal, and Guinea-Bissau, while Gripper’s roots lie in European classical guitar. Their collaboration does not simply juxtapose these traditions; instead, they find common ground on a sonic terrain entirely their own.
As Sissoko and Gripper combine forces they take audiences across peaks and valleys of existence creating a new string theory that is singularly their own.