Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra

Kora player Toumani Diabaté is simultaneously revered as the guardian of traditional African music and as its bold, boundary-crossing innovator. His Symmetric Orchestra captures this careful balance between tradition and innovation, youth and maturity, electric and acoustic. The exhilarating band includes 13 players from Mali, Senegal, Guinea and Ivory Coast, and features the soaring vocals of the great Malian Kassé Mady Diabaté, Boubacar Diabaté on djembe drum, Lassana Diabaté on balafon (traditional xylophone), Ganda Tounkara on the dry, deserty ngoni lute and Fanta Mady Kouyate on electric guitar