BALLA TOUNKARA
Boudefo, Mali 1970

 

Balla Tounkara was born in a village called Boudefo, near Kita, a renowned center for griot arts. "The family of Tounkara is small. We all come from one guy, Magandianyoule." Tounkara explains that the family patriarch had played a key role in the founding of the Malian empire 800 years ago. "So Boudefo is one family—Tounkara. If somebody has another name, it comes from the mother’s side. My grandfather is a djelifili, chief of the griots. He’s 116." Tounkara’s other grandfather was the late Batourou Sekou Kouyate, one of the most respected kora players of the 20th century. Tounkara grew up playing drums: the doundoun, djembe, and tama (talking drum)—"like every kid in Kita".

He became serious about kora as a teenager after he moved to Bamako. Tounkara practiced the demanding harp the way he does everything—with ferocious determination. Then, in 1996 he had a life-changing experience. His uncle, Djelimady Tounkara, famed leader of the Super Rail Band, took him to a soiree at the home of Babani Sissoko, at the time, one of the wealthiest men in Mali and certainly its most generous arts patron. Tounkara got his chance to play when his Djelimady began to play one of the bulwarks of the griot repertoire, "Sunjata," the story of the first king of the Malian Empire. "I just sang for five minutes and Babani said, ‘One minute. Who is this boy?’ And he just stopped the music and wrote a check for $12,000." Soon afterward he was on a plane bound for the United States.

Balla arrived in New York City where he immediately began to pursue his career in music. He devoted himself to developing creative innovations of kora music, proving his long-held belief that the kora was at home in many different musical settings. Having lived in New York City where he established his name in jam sessions throughout Greenwich Village, Balla then moved to Boston and formed his own group, Groupe Spirit. In 1999, Balla took the band to the studio, and produced Be Right, a 10-track album that chronicles Balla’s creative mastery of the kora, and in 2002, the band was nominated as "Outstanding World Music Act" at the Boston Awards.