Kandia Kouyaté
Encyclopedia
Kandia Kouyaté is a Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

an jelimuso (a female griot
Griot
A griot or jeli is a West African storyteller. The griot delivers history as a poet, praise singer, and wandering musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition. As such, they are sometimes also called bards...

) and kora
Kora (instrument)
The kora is a 21-string bridge-harp used extensively in West Africa.-Description:A kora is built from a large calabash cut in half and covered with cow skin to make a resonator, and has a notched bridge. It does not fit well into any one category of western instruments and would have to be...

 player; she has earned the prestigious title of ngara, and is sometimes appellated La dangereuse and La grande vedette malienne. Kouyaté's dense, emotional, hypnotic manner of singing and her lyrical talents have earned huge acclaim in Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

, though she remained relatively little known outside Africa, due to extremely limited availability of her recordings. Her home town of Kita
Kita, Mali
Kita is a town and commune in western Mali. It lies on the eastern slope of Mount Kita , known for its caves and rock paintings. Today, the city is known for its music, its annual Roman Catholic pilgrimage and its role as a processing center for the surrounding cotton- and peanut-growing region...

 is known for love songs, which form a large part of Kouyaté's repertoire. She also sings praise song
Praise song
Contemporary worship music is a loosely defined genre of Christian music used in contemporary worship. It has developed over the past sixty years and is stylistically similar to pop music. The songs are frequently referred to as "praise songs" or "worship songs" and are typically led by a "worship...

s.

Kouyaté's career began in the early 1980s, when she started using female choral vocals accompanying her. This practice was later picked up by stars like Mory Kante
Mory Kanté
Mory Kanté is a vocalist and player of the kora harp. He was born into one of Guinea's best known families of griot musicians...

 and Salif Keita
Salif Keita
Salif Keïta is an internationally recognized afro-pop singer-songwriter from Mali. He is unique not only because of his reputation as the Golden Voice of Africa, but because he has albinism and is a direct descendant of the founder of the Mali Empire, Sundiata Keita...

, and is now an integral part of Malian music
Music of Mali
The Music of Mali is dominated by forms derived from the ancient Mande Empire. The Mande people make up most of the country's population, and their musicians, professional performers called jeliw , have produced a vibrant popular music scene alongside traditional folk music...

. In 1983, she recorded two vinyl discs
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

, Amary Daou présente Kandia Kouyaté and Kandja Kouyaté et L’Ensemble Instrumental National du Mali
L’Ensemble Instrumental National
Established the day after the Independence of Mali in 1961, l’Ensemble instrumental national is an orchestra of traditional Malian music and song.Its mission is to maintain and give value to the heritage of Malian forms of music and song.-Repertoire:...

. Her debut solo album is Kita Kan.

Kandia Kouyaté toured Europe in 1999 alongside Guinean singers Sekouba Bambino & Oumou Diabate and with a 12 piece West African ensemble that included Kora, djembe, ngoni, balafon, bass, keyboards, backing vocals and percussion. The tour named as 'The Griot Groove Tour' included concerts in Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom

Kandia Kouyaté suffered a stroke in late 2004, and it is speculated that she will not be able to record or perform again.

Discography

  • Mayomba (1980, local cassette release)
  • Balassama / Sarama (1983, LP, produced by Amary Daou)
  • Kandja Kouyaté et L’Ensemble Instrumental National du Mali
    L’Ensemble Instrumental National
    Established the day after the Independence of Mali in 1961, l’Ensemble instrumental national is an orchestra of traditional Malian music and song.Its mission is to maintain and give value to the heritage of Malian forms of music and song.-Repertoire:...

    (1983, LP)
  • OUA 84 (1984, local cassette release)
  • Projet Dabia (1987, local cassette release)
  • Sa Kunu Sa (1994, local cassette release)
  • Kita Kan (1999, CD, Stern's STCD 1088)
  • Biriko (2002, CD, Stern's STCD 1095)
  • Ngara (2009, compilation tracks 1999/1984/1981)

External links

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