Transcript for the Piece Audio version of A Senegalese griot meets a German jazz trumpeter

:18
The African kora is an instrument that gently seduces you with its sound. Made from a large calabash gourd, cut in half, it's
covered in cow hide, it has a long poll protruding from it's body that's hung with 21 strings in 2 courses. It's the traditional instrument of the African Griot or Story Teller.

Musik bite

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This kora is being played by Ablaye Cissoko. He's from Senegal and he's in a family of griots that goes back centuries.

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VG: The kora is an instrumetn of the griots and it's a heritage thats trasmitted from the father to the sun. His grand grand grand grand father, probably in the 1300s were fortunate to build this kora and develope this instrumetn so he's in a long line of people who developed this instrument

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THAT'S VOLKER GOETZE. He'S not just translating for Ablaye Cissoko. He plays with him on a CD called Sira. Goetze is from Germany where he plays jazz trumpet. It's not a pairing that immediately leaps to mind.

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Yeah, the first reaction of people when I tell them I play trumpet with the kora, if they know what the kora is , they go what? How can that work?

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But then they hear the music that Volker Goetze and Ablaye Cissoko recorded on their album Sira and they understand.

Musik

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When Volker Goetze met Cissoko a couple of years ago he was astounded by his extraordinary kora technigue. Then he heard him singing.
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VG: irs the just played kora and didn't sing and we were all astonished by his virtuosity and musicainship and 3 years later he started to sing and bring in his own tunes and we all cried.

Musik

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Volker Goetze matches Cissoko in emotional nuance. He plays much of the music with a mute on his trumpet and flugelhorn which takes his brass instrument into the dynamic range of the Kora. The two musicians sound like they grew up together in the Senegal plains as they converse on their instruments.

Musik

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Ablaye Cissoko and Volker Goetze have a CD out called Sira on ObliqSound. I'm John Diliberto and this has been an Echo Location, Soundings for New Music.