2018 Songlines Music Award – Fusion

Ladilikan is a collaborative album by Trio Da Kali and Kronos Quartet. Comprised of gifted musicians from celebrated hereditary musical families in Mali, Trio Da Kali features balafon player Fodé Lassana Diabaté, a long-time member of Toumani Diabate’s Symmetric Orchestra; bass ngoni player Mamadou Kouyaté, the eldest son of the instrument’s greatest exponent Bassekou Kouyaté; and singer Hawa ‘Kassé Mady’ Diabate, daughter of Mali’s greatest traditional singer Kassé Mady Diabate.

Trio Da Kali was initially formed in 2014 by musicologist Dr. Lucy Durán for the Aga Khan Music Initiative. Since 2008, AKMI has brought Kronos together with leading musicians from around the world to compose, arrange, and perform new music rooted in regional traditions.

Trio Da Kali’s trio format and repertoire are now endangered in contemporary Malian music. Da Kali means ‘to give a pledge’ – in this case to a musical heritage that dates back to the early 13th century.

SELECTED CREDITS

Trio Da Kali
Fodé Lassana Diabaté, balafon
Hawa Kassé Mady Diabate, voice
Mamadou Kouyaté, bass ngoni

Kronos Quartet
David Harrington, violin
John Sherba, violin
Hank Dutt, viola
Sunny Yang, cello

Arrangements by Lassana Diabaté, Lucy Durán, and Jacob Garchik

Produced by Nick Gold, Lucy Durán, and David Harrington

All arrangements commissioned for the Kronos Quartet and Trio Da Kali by the Aga Khan Music Initiative, a program of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and the Kronos Performing Arts Association. Trio Da Kali was created by the Aga Khan Music Initiative, a program of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.