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The Mande Variations
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List Price: $18.98
Our Price: $14.97
Your Save: $ 4.01 ( 21% )
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Manufacturer: Nonesuch
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0075597994421
Label: Nonesuch
Manufacturer: Nonesuch
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Nonesuch
Release Date: 2008-02-26
Studio: Nonesuch
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Editorial Reviews:
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The Mand‚ Variations is Malian legend Toumani Diabat‚'s first solo recording in 20 years and it is a stunningly beautiful, immediately accessible blend of traditional melodies, original compositions and breathtaking improvisations from the world-renowned virtuoso of the kora, the 21-stringed West African harp. According to London's The Guardian, 'Diabat‚ mixes fearsome technique with a deep humanism and a magical ability to improvise scintillating runs out of thin air.' American concertgoers who saw Diabat‚ with members of his celebrated dance band, the Symmetric Orchestra, on his spring-summer '07 tour in support of his previous World Circuit Nonesuch disc, Boulevard de L'Independanc‚, witnessed a performance that was nothing short of astonishing.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: extremely talented musician and composer
Comment: All instrumental, solo music by an incredibly talented and unique Kora player. The Kora is a West African stringed instrument which has also been called the lute-harp (by those who need a point of reference). You really have to hear it to believe and appreciate it. I'm an accomplished acoustic and electric guitar player, heavily influenced by a wide variety of classical misic. For long lasting, non-intrusive listenability, I highly recommend this, especially for musicians of stringed instruments, including of course the piano. The melodic and rhytmic counterpoint is phenomenal and unique. I get drawn into it similar to the way that Mozart's Nachtmusik or Vivaldi's Four Seasons do, it's meditative. His earlier album is very similar, Kaira. Fame did not spoil this talent. I bought them both at the same time. Make no mistake: this is very fine art.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Intoxicating
Comment: During a stay at a friend's house, I was introduced to the intoxicating music of Toumani Diabate. I can't even count the number of times I have played The Mande Variations, probably hundreds. The heartfelt connection from a musician to his instrument has never been more beautifully expressed than the music from this album. Reviews with the words, "addictive", "amazing" and my own, "intoxicating" are all true. I have this album on my iPod and brought it with me to Burning Man to be played at a theme camp on stadium speakers. In about 10 minutes, hundreds of people were drawn to this music, it is that powerful. There is a utube video of him playing, eyes closed and you watch a musician totally in the zone and in the moment of bliss. This music is bliss. This man is magic and a gift to us all.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Comment: There are a ton of reasons why people consider this a classic. It lifts and soothes. It runs through your skin into your beating heart. Wow!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Toumani at his best doing sophisticated roots music
Comment: Toumani Diabaté comes from a long line of Malian kora players, the kora being a 21-string harp crafted from a halved calabash gourd and cow skin, with nylon strings. This is only his second solo album from a large discography - the first one was in 1988. He has however recorded duet albums, like the lyrical New Ancient Strings with another talented kora player Ballake Cissoko and more recently a gently mesmerising In The Heart of The Moon, with the late Ali Farka Toure. He then assembled the enormous Symmetric Orchestra to record Boulevard de L'independence, a funky but somewhat noisy dance extravaganza where his usual subtlety was set aside.
Now he comes full circle back to his roots with a fascinating and gorgeous Mande Variations for solo kora (albeit with a few overdubs), a suite of original compositions, including a tribute to Ali Farka Toure. This is true griot-based music (despite the brief allusion to the Good Bad & the Ugly at one point), but don't think because he plays a primitive instrument the music is likewise. It is sophisticated, elaborate music - perhaps the sound equivalent of the most exquisite Berber carpet - washing over the listener with lush melodies and rhythms that are expanded with extraordinarily virtuosic improvisations. He is certainly at his brilliant best here - clear, confident, subtle and mesmerising, confirming once again his place as one of the masters of this beautiful and distinctive instrument.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sublime
Comment: Another quietly beautiful and reflective masterpiece from Toumani Diabate. He is by far one of the most luminous West African musicians the world has been honored to listen to. I would probably never get to listen to him live, so this is as good as it gets for me! And I'm never disappointed with his albums. At once spiritual and tender, not to be missed...because if you haven't discovered it,the kora is the instrument which is connected to our heartstrings and our mind's inflections. Savor it, find yourself in it.
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