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CD
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AHONE 026CD
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Born in 1965 into one of Bamako's most prominent griot lineages, Mah Damba carries the weight and the privilege of the djeliya -- the art of the griot -- in everything she does. Her father, the late Djeli Baba Sissoko, was chief of the griots of the Bamako region, a man who spent decades broadcasting the epics of the Mandingue empire on national radio, accompanied by his n'goni. Her aunt, Fanta Damba, is among Mali's most celebrated djelimousso. This is the ground Mah Damba stands on. It has never shifted. Taabolo Koura arrives after a career that has moved between ceremony and stage with equal conviction. Since settling in France in 1983 with her late husband, the virtuoso n'goni player Mamaye Kouyat, Mah Damba has maintained her role as griotte to the Malian community in exile. This new record deepens the musical partnership with guitarist and arranger Thierry Fournel, who has worked alongside the Damba family for twenty years. Together they have built something intimate and unhurried -- an acoustic architecture of guitar, djeli n'goni, accordion, calebasse, and guembri that serves the voice rather than decorating it. Mah Damba's instrument -- deep, warm, and now carrying the grain of six decades -- remains the center of gravity on every track.
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