EMDE

His 15-string instrument, which he made himself and calls the “bahouinou” (the strings of a man), is something between a kora and a ngoni. The Mandinka blues EMDE plays, woven from jazz, funk and reggae, perfectly accompanies the soft voice of this young griot of Bwa ancestry.

And this grand winner of the 2019 Syli d’or de la musique du monde is also a percussionist who is just as adept when playing the tamani, djembe, dundun, calabash, karinyan, filen and yaraba. His is music that brings you straight to the musical heart of Mali.