{"id":13981,"date":"2017-11-29T21:31:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T21:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2017\/11\/29\/trio-da-kali-and-kronos-quartet-a-happy-marriage-of-tradition-and-rule-breaking\/"},"modified":"2017-11-29T21:31:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T21:31:00","slug":"trio-da-kali-and-kronos-quartet-a-happy-marriage-of-tradition-and-rule-breaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/trio-da-kali-and-kronos-quartet-a-happy-marriage-of-tradition-and-rule-breaking\/","title":{"rendered":"Trio Da Kali And Kronos Quartet: A Happy Marriage Of Tradition And Rule-Breaking"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Banning Eyre<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Trio da Kali and Kronos Quartet’s album, Ladilikan<\/em>, is available now.<\/p>\n

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Jay Blakesberg\/Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n

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Jay Blakesberg\/Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n

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You might think traditional West African music and Western classical music would share little common ground. But Ladilikan<\/em>, the album from Mali’s Trio Da Kali and San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet<\/a> is a welcome landmark in the history of unlikely musical collaborations. <\/p>\n

The two groups together are a voice of an African praise singer harmonized by a string quartet. <\/p>\n

Trio Da Kali’s members descend from venerable musical families in Mali. With centuries of history and musicianship at their backs, they represent the chamber music of West Africa. Hawa Diabat\u00e9, the group’s vocalist, has been singing for decades, schooled at the foot of her world famous father, Kass\u00e9 Mady Diabat\u00e9. Lassana Diabat\u00e9 \u2014 no direct relation \u2014 is a monster balafon player who’s worked with everyone from Taj Mahal<\/a> to B\u00e9la Fleck<\/a> to the top musicians of Mali. And the young Mamadou Kouyat\u00e9 \u2014 whose dad, Bassekou Kouyat\u00e9<\/a>, was nominated for a Grammy \u2014 holds down a solid, swinging bass on the traditional lute, known as a ngoni. Just these three musicians create such a big sound.<\/p>\n