FOUNDED in 1980 Joe Boyd’s Hannibal Records was a world music pioneering record label and Malian kora player Toumani Diabate was one of Boyd’s important signings.

He was the world’s finest exponent of the kora, the 21-stringed instrument which is played by plucking the strings like a harp, but with a richer and resonant sound.

Former BBC Radio 3 World Routes presenter Lucy Duran, a leading authority on African and Cuban music, is currently producing a reissue series of Toumani’s Hannibal releases for Chrysalis Records.

Duran talked exclusively to the Morning Star about the new reissues.

“I had been studying the kora and its music for a decade with Toumani's uncle, Amadu Bansang Jobarteh, who kept telling me about his nephew Sidiki Diabate, a remarkable virtuoso on the kora,” says Duran.

Sidiki was originally from Gambia, and settled in Mali upon independence from France in 1960. Eventually Amadu and Duran visited Mali in 1986 to met his legendary nephew, who was indeed an astonishing musician. But Sidiki told Duran: “Wait till you hear my son, Toumani!”

When Duran finally heard Toumani, she says she knew that he was a musical genius.

The first album in the Chrysalis reissue series — New Ancient Strings by Toumani with Ballake Sissoko was released in 1999 and reissued in March 2024.

Duran tells me: “Ballake Sissoko, who lived next door to Toumani, was an equally gifted kora player, so I arranged to record a set of kora duets by them. It was a sequel to a 1970 album called Ancient Strings featuring instrumental kora duets by their fathers.

“New Ancient Strings has astonishing lyricism and virtuosity and it remains a cult album. It’s sublime and timeless.”

The second reissue in this series is Kaira — his 1987 debut album. Duran describes it as “kaleidoscopic and endlessly flowing.”

“Toumani came to London in 1987 to perform at a BBC Radio 3 festival. I wanted to record a solo instrumental album showcasing the brilliance of this young genius. I persuaded Joe Boyd to record him. Joe used a classical music engineer, Nick Parker and we recorded Toumani in one single afternoon, with no overdubs.”

Kaira, means “peace” or “happiness,” and was an iconic song of cultural resistance to colonial rule in the ’40s and ’50s.

I ask Duran what reissues are planned. “One of the albums I most enjoyed producing for Hannibal was Kulanjan, featuring six outstanding Malian musicians (including Toumani and Ballake on koras) and the blues artist, Taj Mahal.

“We explored the roots of the blues in an exchange between these two cultures. The music flowed effortlessly and everyone was moved by the reconnections across the Atlantic.

“Barack Obama had it on his playlist  during his first election campaign for US president. It’s not been available for years so the reissue will be eagerly awaited, along with others in the Hannibal catalogue including Toumani’s Djelika from 1995.”

Sadly Toumani Diabate died in July 2024 aged 58.

Kaira is available on Chrysalis Records on CD, vinyl and download.