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West African Kora Master Hypnotizes Cafe 9

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Posted to: Music

Brian Slattery Photo

Madou Sidiki Diabaté and Salif Bamakora, with their koras at Cafe 9.

The chitchat at Cafe Nine on Wednesday might have been getting a little intense, but a flourish of notes from the 21-string kora of Madou Sidiki Diabaté was enough to silence them. 

One by one the voices died down as Diabaté floated phrase after mesmerizing phrase into the air — modern yet informed by a West African culture thousands of years old. 

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