Ballaké Sissoko and Derek Gripper

World Music Institute and MB1800 (Music Before 1800 – the longest running early music concert series in New York City), present kora player Ballaké Sissoko and guitarist Derek Gripper. Malian virtuoso Ballaké Sissoko, widely considered to be one of the greatest touring kora players, joins Derek Gripper, South Africa’s leading guitarist, whose love of the kora set him transcribing and recording some of its greatest works, changing the face of classical guitar and giving the instrument its very first African repertoire. In this concert the artists look at the unbroken musical tradition of the griots of Mali, through French occupation and colonization, and emerging as one of humanity’s most astonishing aural traditions.