CHRIS SEARLE welcomes a new book that makes working class history come alive in a true story of human flesh and aspiration
‘Wait till you hear my son, Toumani!’
Tony Burke speaks with LUCY DURAN producer of a reissue series of Toumani’s Diabate recordings
Toumani Diabate with his kora
[jbach/CC] 
GORDON PARSONS is intrigued by a contemporary update of a problem play that raises more questions than it answers
New releases from Alice Di Micele, Tim Grimm, and Tereza Catarov
MARY CONWAY is frustrated by the stylistic muddle that arises when you apply a pub theatre sensibility to a towering Greek tragedy
ALAN McGUIRE welcomes a biography of the French semiologist and philosopher
ALEX HALL is frustrated by a book that ducks a clear definition of terrorism and fails to perceive the role of the state in sponsoring it
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.
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