Biography

Ablaye Cissoko: the kora of a Senegalese griot conquering the world

At eight years old, Ablaye Cissoko already held his first kora — this twenty-one-string instrument that has linked the lute and harpe for centuries in West Africa. At twenty-two, he strung his instrument on European and North American stages. Now based in Saint-Louis-du-Sénégal, the musician is one of the most prominent kora players of his generation. Heir to a lineage of griots — these historians, storytellers and musicians who transmit a millennial memory — he traverses jazz, baroque and world music without ever renouncing the Manding roots that shaped him.

In brief


Full name	Kimintang Mahamadou Cissoko
Birth	1970, Kolda, Senegal
Genre	Kora, world fusion, jazz, world music
Notable works	Diam, Sira, Mes racines, Amanké Dionti
Awards	Named best world hit of 2012 by NPR for Amanké Dionti

Key dates

Year	Event
1970	Birth in Kolda, southern Senegal, into a family of griots
1978	Beginning of kora training
1982	First public concert, at age twelve
1985	Move to Saint-Louis-du-Sénégal and formation of the group Ninki-Nanka
2003	Release of first solo album, Diam
2009	The album Sira (with Volker Goetze) enters the top 10 of CMJ world music radio
2011	Release of the documentary Griot, directed by Volker Goetze
2012	Amanké Dionti named best world hit by NPR
2013	Release of Mes racines, featuring the ensemble Le Corda Ba
2022	Release of Instant, a duo with accordionist Cyrille Brotto
2025	Release of Djiyo, a new collaboration with Cyrille Brotto

One name, one heritage: the weight of a griot lineage

Ablaye Cissoko is his stage name; Kimintang Mahamadou Cissoko is his birth name. This double identity refers to a precise heritage: the griot designates a traditional artist from West Africa, historian, storyteller and musician transmitting a millennial memory. The Cissoko family is one of the most renowned in this art — the griots Cissoko hold mastery over the kora, a twenty-one-string instrument nearly eight hundred years old. His father gave him the name his great-great-grandfather had worn after an old consultant predicted his birth. “Everyone said Ablaye, but only Kimintang,” he recounts in 2012. “To address me directly, he never called me Ablaye, and not until he went underground.” The first name Ablaye, however, comes from his mother Amaly, who passed away when he was not yet two years old. This loss permeates his music with a silent quest for reconciliation with the past.

Captivated by the city of Saint-Louis, on the banks of the Senegal River, he settled there in 1985 and joined the Saint-Louis Jazz Orchestra, a pluralistic formation mixing African and European musicians. Against tradition, he did not limit himself to ritual frameworks but opened his music to jazz, baroque and Persian modes. “Music, like love, has no borders,” he declared in an interview with Le Monde in 2006. “If I play, I want to take pleasure. I do not want to torture myself, because then I do nothing good and I torture people, which is what I do not want.” His emblematic collaboration was with German trumpeter Volker Goetze, met in 2001: three albums (Sira, 2009; Amanké Dionti, 2012; Djaliya, 2014) and the documentary Griot (2011), screened in a dozen international festivals. He also multiplied crossings — François Jeanneau, Majid Bekkas, the ensemble Constantinople, Cyrille Brotto (Instant, 2022) — each collaboration placing the kora within an intercultural dialogue where it is never a solo star, but a voice within a choir.

Major works

Work	Year	Why it is essential
Diam (The Peace)	2003	First solo album; lays the sonic foundations of an artist who makes peace his guiding thread
Sira (with Volker Goetze)	2009	First duo at the summit; entry into the top 10 of CMJ world music radio
Amanké Dionti (with Volker Goetze)	2012	NPR distinction: best world hit of the year, major international recognition
Mes racines	2013	Return to Manding roots, enriched by the Senegalese musicians of Le Corda Ba
Instant (with Cyrille Brotto)	2022	Dialogue between kora and diatonic accordion, proof that his musical language continues to renew itself

Legacy

In 2011, the documentary Griot shows Ablaye Cissoko at the head of a school-house in Saint-Louis, where about eighty people reside and learn kora, djembé and dance. Son of a griot and father of a family, he embodies a bridge between old oral transmission and modern structures of musical training. His music circulates in festivals around the world, from Carreau du Temple in Paris to the Chicago Institute of Music, but his port d’atteste remains unshakable: the Senegal River, where Manding traditions and European influences cross.

Sources and references

Olivier Herviaux, “The Balm at the Heart of Ablaye Cissoko”, Le Monde 2, June 10, 2006, p. 46-47, https://www.lemonde.fr/consultez, accessed October 23, 2026.
“Ablaye Cissoko”, Wikipedia, https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ablaye_Cissoko, accessed October 23, 2026.
“Ablaye Cissoko”, Wikipedia (English version), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ablaye_Cissoko, accessed October 23, 2026.
Angel Romero, “Senegalese Kora Master Ablaye Cissoko”, World Music Central, September 3, 2022, https://worldmusiccentral.org/artist-profiles-ablaye-cissoko/, accessed October 23, 2026.
« Ablaye Cissoko : podcasts et actualités », Radio France, https://www.radiofrance.fr/personnes/ablaye-cissoko, consulté le 23 octobre 2026.
« Ablaye Cissoko », Bandcamp (site officiel), https://ablayecissoko.bandcamp.com/, consulté le 23 octobre 2026.
Volker Goetze, « GRIOT », https://www.volkergoetze.com/griot, consulté le 23 octobre 2026.
« Griot (2011) », IMDb, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1489960/, consulté le 23 octobre 2026.
« Ablaye Cissoko & Cyrille Brotto », Music Institute of Chicago, https://www.musicinst.org/events/ablaye-cissoko-and-cyrille-brotto, consulté le 23 octobre 2026.
« Ablaye Cissoko », Africultures, http://africultures.com/evenements/?no=889, consulté le 23 octobre 2026.