Mamadou Diabate - SOLOBALAFON
The balafon as solo-instruments opens a door to westafrican melodies for european listeners. The Balafons, which are used in the concerts are different in tones, or say harmonies, and so they can demonstrate different ways of african music. On the one hand the compositions are traditional pieces from Burkina Faso, which are played sinces many many years. And the other side there are compositions from Mamadou, which are influenced from his life in Europe. In incredible virtuosity Mamadou playes wonderful melodies with rhythmic finesse, completed with the sound of his voice. The sticks are moving in a velocity, which you can´t really realize with your eyes. And if you can not see, that Mamadou is standing alone on stage, because of the sound you would think that there are playing 3 musicians.....
Mamadou Diabate brings the sun of West Africa on our stage! Colorful, as the atmosphere of a marketplace somewhere in West Africa, is the music of Mamadou Diabate and Percussion Mania. Kanuya - the name of the latest CD - means friendship, respect, and appreciation.
You can hear and feel all these with the six musicians on stage. Virtuosic balafon music, supported by powerful African rhythms and refined by African chants. A complete scene, in which the body can´t sit still anymore…. See for yourself! They owe their popularity mainly to the spectacular and virtuosic "balafon duel" between the two brothers, Mamadou and Yacouba.
The master of the Balafon Mamadou Diabate lives and works in Vienna. He composes, sings, and plays the balafon as well as various percussion instruments. His concert tours took him to many countries and prestigious festivals. After 12 CDs and countless concerts, he became an indispensable part of the world music scene. “He brings the sun of West Africa to our concert stage! In these few words, you can rewrite the emotion and energy in Mamadou's music. “
NEW PROJECT (2022): SEENGWA
A special collaboration album - created during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The project combines jazz, classical, as well as traditional West African and modern music, and is a clear statement to the world that the cultural scene remains alive. SEENGWA unites the almost forgotten musical traditions of the Sambla people in Burkina Faso and connects the music and “talking balafon” with the here and now. A total of 13 top-class musicians and singers take the audience on a rhythmic journey, from tradition to modernity.
Exclusive Seengwa Tour dates were available for August and September 2022. The new live program will be with 9-10 musicians on stage: Mamadou Diabate & Percussion Mania together with Malika La Slamazone, a poet from Burkina Faso - joining the “talking Balafon” with her slam poetry and as a vocalist, together with two more singers from Mamadou's home country. On special request the renowned jazz musician Wolfgang Puschnig.
BOOK MAMADOU DIABATÉ & Percussion Mania
Canada: productionspmboussi@gmail.com