Live music review: Toumani and Sidiki Diabaté

Venue: Cork Opera House

If music evokes locale, then this version speaks of deserts and oases, of the Touareg and Mandinke peoples. It also speaks of famine, drought and war — but these things come and go. Toumani Diabaté is the foremost exponent of the kora and is in the long line of an ancient tradition called the griot (rhymes with brio) that records the stories and traditions of the Malian people. The idea is something akin to our seanachaí and sept — of an oral tradition.

Now Toumani is passing the mantle onto his son Sidiki and this is their first tour together.