- artist:MAH DAMBA
- featured artist:MAH DAMBA
- style(s):Manding, Contemporary
- country:Mali
- formats:Audio File / Digital, CD (Compact Disc)
- record posted by:One World
- label:One World
- publisher:One World
- buy this record
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Mah Damba returns with Taabolo Koura, a ten-track statement of authority from one of
Mali’s defining voices — four decades into a career that has never wavered from its source.
Born in 1965 into one of Bamako’s most prominent griot lineages, Mah Damba carries the
weight and the privilege of the djeliya — the art of the griot — in everything she does. Her
father, the late Djeli Baba Sissoko, was chief of the griots of the Bamako region, a man who
spent decades broadcasting the epics of the Mandingue empire on national radio,
accompanied by his n’goni. Her aunt, Fanta Damba, is among Mali’s most celebrated
djelimousso. This is the ground Mah Damba stands on. It has never shifted.
Taabolo Koura arrives after a career that has moved between ceremony and stage with equal
conviction. Since settling in France in 1983 with her late husband, the virtuoso n’goni player
Mamaye Kouyaté, Mah Damba has maintained her role as griotte to the Malian community in
exile while building a recording catalogue that includes seven albums and collaborations with
Mory Kanté, Kasse Mady Diabaté, Damon Albarn, and Matthieu Chedid. Her previous album,
Hakili Kélé (2019, Buda Musique), reached #9 on the Transglobal World Music Chart and
earned a four-star review in Songlines.
This new record deepens the musical partnership with guitarist and arranger Thierry Fournel,
who has worked alongside the Damba family for twenty years. Together they have built
something intimate and unhurried — an acoustic architecture of guitar, djeli n’goni, accordion,
calebasse, and guembri that serves the voice rather than decorating it. Mah Damba’s
instrument — deep, warm, and now carrying the grain of six decades — remains the centre of
gravity on every track.
The album draws from the full range of her knowledge. On “Simbo” and “Bakary Djan,” she
reaches into the Mandingue and Bambara epics — stories of Soundjata Keita and the warriors
of Ségou whose courage is invoked not as nostalgia but as instruction. “Anga Bara” is a direct
call to the youth of the Sahel: get to work, join hands, build. On “Mougnousso” and “Katakale,”
she draws from the well of proverbs and parables — the accumulated wisdom of a mother and
grandmother who has always understood that teaching is part of her mandate. Two tracks,
“Lemounou” and “Soninko,” are sung in Soninké, paying tribute to a people known across
West Africa for their work ethic and bonds of community.
The production is a family affair in the deepest sense. Her nephew Badje Tounkara — an icon
of the djeli n’goni, sought after by Salif Keita, Baaba Maal, and others — anchors the string
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arrangements. Her son Guimba Kouyaté, one of the most in-demand guitarists in West
Africanmusic, contributes guitar. Her daughters and granddaughters sing the choruses. Antoine
Girard’s accordion — an unusual presence in Malian music, but one that echoes Mah Damba’s
own grandfather Ousmane Soumano, who played the instrument — adds a rare harmonic
colour, while Fournel’s guembri pulls certain tracks toward the hypnotic territory of the Gnawa.
Guest appearances from violinist Clément Janinet, balafonist Bakary Diarra, and percussionist
Sebastian Quezada expand the palette without displacing the core.
The album’s crowning element is the mixing by Jean Lamoot — whose work on Salif Keita’s
Moffou and Mbemba set a standard for how acoustic African recordings can sound — bringing
warmth, space, and identity to every track. Several generations of djéli gave each other their
hands to make this record. The result is elegant, a contemporary album based on the tradition of
the highly respected artist and her musicians.
MAH DAMBA “TAABOLO KOURA”
Texts © by Mah Damba Music © by Mah Damba, Thierry Fournel & Guimba Kouyate
Thierry Fournel (1,3,4,5,6,7,9), Guimba Kouyate (2), Mah Damba (4,8,10)
ARRANGED AND PRODUCED by Thierry Fournel. MIXED BY Jean Lamoot.
POST PRODUCTION Carolina Vallejo. MASTER Tom Leader. COVER Olga Kovalevska Urban Lys.
PHOTOS Nicholas Kuhn. EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION Thierry Fournel & Carolina Vallejo.
LINE UP Mah Damba Lead Vocal / Thierry Fournel Guitar, Guembri, Bass, Calabash / Makan Tounkara dit
Badjè Djeli N’goni, Guimba kouyate Guitar / Antoine Girard Accordeon / Amadou Daou Calabash /
Woridio Kouyate Backing Vocals / Assetou Camara Backing Vocals.
Guests: Clement Janinet :Violon (“Bakary Djan” ) / Bakary Diarra Balafon ("Anga bara" et "Koulou Ya
Maye”) Sebastian Quezada Congas ( “Simbo”)
T R A C K L I S T 01. Denkadi 04:57, 02. Bakary Djan 04:31, 03. Anga Bara 04:46, 04. Katakale 03:27,
05. Lemounou 04:22, 06. Simbo 03:47, 07. Koulou Ya Maye 04:05, 08. Soninko 03:52, 09. Mougnousso
04:47, 10. Nantan 05:37
D I S C O G R A P H Y
1989 — Mah Damba (Syllart Productions)
1997 — Nyarela (Trema)
1997 — The Divas From Mali (World Network)
2000 — Djélimousso (Buda Musique)
2002 — Katakalé (Camara Production)
2011 — À L’ombre du grand baobab (Buda Musique)
2019 — Hakili Kélé (Buda Musique)
2026 — Taabolo Koura (One World Records)
S E L E C T E D L I V E H I G H L I G H T S
Festival Africolor (30+ appearances since 1996)
Tony Allen Tribute, Festival Rio Loco, with Damon Albarn (2023)
La Voix des Femmes (Annie Ebrel, Totó la Momposina, Yungchen Lhamo)
Kirikou et les hommes et les femmes — soundtrack (2013)