Patrick Messina News Today

WEST PITTSTON — The West Pittston Cherry Blossom Festival opened Saturday to sunshine and moderate temperatures. The 52nd annual event has become a tradition…

Make the most of the summer!

Well, like most performers, my concert activities were affected in a large way, though mainly my performances overseas...

Ballaké Sissoko présente son nouvel album Djourou qui sort sur le label No Format ! (Rediffusion)

Lennon and McCartney go head-to-head yet again. Ram was McCartney’s second solo album, released in 1971, and is a prime example of how popular music, on its release, is adjudged by so many factors other than music. Macca was in disfavour in 1971, regarded, wrongly, as the man who broke up The Beatles and also as the politico-spiritual lightweight of the quartet (Ringo has always been given a pass on these matters!). 50 years later, disconnected from all such blather, Ram is a jolly thing, s...

TWO years in the making, Ballake Sissoko’s Djourou (**** No Format) draws together solo compositions alongside collaborations with a number of artists including Salif Keita, leading female kora player Sona Jobarteh, cellist Vincent Segal, French rapper Oxmo Puccino, singer-songwriter Piers Faccini and Arthur Teboul, the singer from Paris rock band Feu! Chatterton. Djourou is the Bambara word meaning string and the kora has 21 of them. The string here refers to the connection with the artists...

The adventures of the 21-stringed Mande harp—the kora—continue with this maverick set of collaborations from Malian maestro Ballaké Sissoko. Just as his friend, neighbor and kora collaborator Toumani Diabate is releasing a grandiose project in performance with the London Symphony Orchestra, Ballaké takes a more intimate approach, working in small settings with a diverse set of artists outside his tradition, as well as two veterans of Mande music. There are no hurricane griot vocals or po...

Album: Ballaké Sissoko - Djourou by Mark KidelMonday, 05 April 2021 Ballaké Sissoko is one of the greatest musicians in Africa – a kora player of extraordinary quality, strongly rooted in the Manding and family traditions that have nourished him. He’s also a born collaborator, with a sense of adventure that has resulted in very fruitful performances and recordings with musicians from his own culture as well as others from further afield. Ballaké Sissoko is one of the greatest musicians...