Lucy Durán

SOAS University of London, Music, Faculty Member

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Ethnomusicologist, music producer, broadcaster, specialising in the music of the Mande world
Phone: +44 207 898 4374
Address: Music department, School of Arts, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street,
London WC1H 0XG

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Papers by Lucy Durán

Our Stories, From Us, The “They”: Nick Gold talks to Lucy Durán about the Making of Buena Vista Social Club

Journal of world popular music, Sep 5, 2014

She did her BMus and MMus at King's College, London. Her main interests are West African and Cuba... more She did her BMus and MMus at King's College, London. Her main interests are West African and Cuban music, and her principal field of research is Mande music, which she has been researching on location in Mali, Gambia and Senegal since 1977, with special reference to the jelis, the kora, and women singers. Her recent research project, 'Growing into Music", www.growingintomusic.co.uk, in collaboration with a team of specialists, uses the medium of film to document children learning musical skills and knowledge in oral traditions of India, Azerbaijan, Mali, Cuba and Venezuela. Durán has a long professional involvement with the music industry, working as music producer, journalist and broadcaster. She was the regular presenter of BBC Radio 3's flagship world music programme World Routes for the duration of its lifetime on air, 2000--2013. With two Grammy nominations, she has produced more than fifteen albums, including the first two CDs by Malian ngoni player Bassekou Kouyaté, and six albums by Grammy award--winning kora player Toumani Diabaté, (most recently Toumani & Sidiki, 2014). She is also project advisor to the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Mali. Having devoted much of her professional life to balancing her broadcasting, recording, and academic work, Durán argues for the need to forge better links and understanding between the creative industries and academia.

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A Carnival of Cuban Music: Routes of Rhythm Vol. 1. Cuban Dance Party: Routes of Rhythm Vol. 2

Ethnomusicology, 1991

Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba / I speak Fula

Essays on Cuban Music: North American and Cuban Perspectives

Latin American Music Review, 1993

Huaynos & Huaylas. The Real Music of Peru

Ethno-musicology, 1991

Da kali – the pledge to the art of the griot, Growing into Music in Mali part I

Da Kali - the pledge to the art of the griot (Growing into Music in Mali) Directed by Lucy Duran;... more Da Kali - the pledge to the art of the griot (Growing into Music in Mali) Directed by Lucy Duran; edited Michele Banal. 80 minutes. An AHRC Beyond Text: Growing into Music project Da Kali is the first of two Growing into Music films on Mali. Shot on location between 2009-12, it follows the children of four celebrated jeli (griot) families in southern Mali as they face the challenges of learning the ancient art of the griot in the 21st century. It is the first time that the process of childhood music learning in Mali has ever been documented. Just turned twelve, Rokia Kouyate is determined to learn the lyrical style of her famous grandfather the singer Kasse Mady Diabate, and performs at noisy wedding parties, and for a popular television competition. Precocious Thierre Diarra at the age of four is already on the path to becoming a virtuoso on the jembe, following in the footsteps of his father Adama. Ten year-old Salif Diabate, nephew of kora master, Toumani Diabate, struggles to fit kora lessons into his busy school schedule, but begins to improve dramatically over a school holiday. And seven year-old Saran Kouyate and her younger sister, the five year-old Ami, are taught songs by their grandmother, the charismatic and fiery Bako Dagnon, considered one of the great master-singers of Mali. Her ideas about passing on her musical knowledge are rooted in the rural traditions of the remote village where she was born and raised, Golobladji - where her extended family continue to sing the hauntingly beautiful songs of the countryside.

The kora: tales of a frontier instrument

is without doubt the world's greatest kora player, and one of Africa's most remarkable musicians.... more is without doubt the world's greatest kora player, and one of Africa's most remarkable musicians. No other kora player can match Toumani in his formidable technique and incredible musicianship. Born into a leading family of Mandé griot musicians in Mali, he is the son of the most celebrated kora player of his time, Sidiki Diabaté (known as the "king of the kora"), (c. 1922-96) and the griot singer Nene Koita (d.1997). During Mali's first decade of independence, they were both members of Mali's prestigious Ensemble National Instrumental and played a major role in creating an indigenous musical identity for the newly formed nation. Toumani grew up in Bamako, capital of Mali, in this heady musical environment. A prodigy on the kora, he was largely self-taught, and developed an original approach to performance, combining his father's flair for virtuosic and fiery accompaniment, with the lyrical, gentle melodies of his mother's singing, all on the solo kora for the first time. Toumani's debut album, Kaira-the first solo recording of the kora-was released in 1988 when he was only 21 years old. On it he showcased, with astonishing virtuosity, some of the classics of the kora repertoire, and put the instrument firmly on the map. Now, after two decades and a prolific career both at home and abroad, including many acclaimed collaborations with artists as diverse as Ketama, Taj Mahal, Ali Farka Toure and most recently Björk, Toumani finally releases his longawaited second solo album, The Mandé Variations. As always, Toumani derives his main inspiration from the wealth of the Mandé griot tradition, but he also takes the kora into unexpected new musical territories and explores more fully than ever before the true potential of the instrument. He revisits some old favourites such as Alla l'aa ke (renamed Cantelowes, after the London street where he spent seven months in 1987) with a new maturity and passion, bringing to it a whole new level of complex rhythm and polyphony. On Si naani, he weaves two brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk

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Ngaraya: Women and musical mastery in Mali

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Oct 1, 2007

This article aims to contribute to an understanding of the evaluation of musical artistry in Afri... more This article aims to contribute to an understanding of the evaluation of musical artistry in Africa, through Mali as a case study. The discussion focuses on the informal discourses of the occupational group of Mande artisan-musicians known as jeli (pl. jeliw, jalilu), concerning the ideal of musical greatness, signified by the polysemic term ngaraya; while there is consensus about the ideal, there is much debate about who qualifies. Drawing on extensive interviews and fieldwork with leading jeliw over the past twenty years, it pays special attention to the views of and about Malian women singers, who since the 1980s have ± somewhat controversially, as explored here ± been the``stars'' on the home scene. The article shows how local discourses challenge the widely accepted view that only men are the true masters (ngaraw). Many women jeli singers (jelimusow) have a special claim to ngaraya, and some also seek to position themselves within the canon, as they increasingly move into centre-stage of Malian popular culture. The importance of learning directly from senior master jeliw remains a core issue in the evaluation of ngaraya for both men and women, encapsulated in the phrase``the true ngaraw are all at home''. 1 The phrase``inescapable figures'' is taken from Danielson's (1997) study of the Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum.

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<i>Jelimusow</i>: the superwomen of Malian music

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Sep 14, 1995

Ladilikan: Trio Da Kali and Kronos Quartet

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Toumani & Sidiki: reviving ancient strings

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Growing into Music: Childhood music learning in India, Azerbaijan, Mali, Cuba, Venezuela

Gorwing into Music is a 68 minute film that explores how children in diverse cultures from differ... more Gorwing into Music is a 68 minute film that explores how children in diverse cultures from different parts of the world acquire musical skills and knowledge. Shot on location between 2009-12, the film shows children learning and performing within some of the world's most celebrated oral traditions. It explores the contrasting ways that musicianship continues to be orally transmitted between generations in the 21st century. Directed by Lucy Duran, edited by Maya Maffioli.

Paraiso de gumbe: Manecas Costa

Mali: gold dust by the river

Introduction and notes

Mano Suave: Yasmin Levy

Kassi Kasse: music from the heart of Mali’s griot tradition: Kasse Mady Diabate

Do farala a kan: something has been added. Growing into music in Mali part II, 80-minute documentary film

Growing into Music in Mali Part II: Dò farala a kan: something has been added. Following on from ... more Growing into Music in Mali Part II: Dò farala a kan: something has been added. Following on from Da Kali, this film looks in more detail at ideas around what constitutes musical progress. Our guide in the film is Lassana Diabaté, a virtuoso jeli (griot) who comes from a long line of balafon players in Guinea, now living in Bamako. We follow the musical progress of children in two prestigious extended families of jelis, representing two distinctive regional traditions: the balafon (xylophone) of Niagassola across the border in Guinea, and the ngoni (lute) of Segou. Chapter 1 spends time with the families of El Hadj Sekou Kouyaté, the custodian of the Sosso Bala, declared a UNESCO Masterpiece of Intangible Oral Heritage in 2001, and reportedly dating from the time of the founding of the Mali Empire in the early 13th century AD. El Hadj Kouyaté’s son Fantamady, like many balafon players, is an expert guitarist; while another son, Janguiné, is a singer. Both are settled in Bamako where they have busy careers as musicians, and both are concerned to pass on the tradition of balafon to their young children, who show a special interest in learning, but there are many distractions and talent is not always the key to progress. A visit to Niagassola by three of the Kouyaté grandsons highlights some of the tensions between town and country living, but their pride in their special connections to the Sosso Bala shines through. Chapter 2 visits the extended family of Bassekou Kouyaté, innovative and virtuoso player of the ngoni, whose international success has given him another perspective on his Bamana tradition from Segou. Although the ngoni plays a central role in the lives of this family, the focus is on how the many Kouyaté girls, aged four upwards, learn the art of song and dance, in both Bamako and Garana, a village in Segou province where Bassekou grew up and where most of his family still live. In Garana, we watch the girls learning to sing such major pieces from the Bamana repertoire as Da Monzon, and see them play at the vibrant handclapping songs, the tegere tulon, that are fast disappearing, and were once a major creative force in the lives of Mali’s musicians

Da kali – the pledge to the art of the griot

An 80-minute documentary film

Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba / Segu blue

Our Stories, From Us, The “They”: Nick Gold talks to Lucy Durán about the Making of Buena Vista Social Club

Journal of world popular music, Sep 5, 2014

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A Carnival of Cuban Music: Routes of Rhythm Vol. 1. Cuban Dance Party: Routes of Rhythm Vol. 2

Ethnomusicology, 1991

Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba / I speak Fula

Essays on Cuban Music: North American and Cuban Perspectives

Latin American Music Review, 1993

Huaynos & Huaylas. The Real Music of Peru