Blue Magic by Moussa Diakite

“Blue Magic” is the third album by Malian now Sydney based guitarist, singer and composer Moussa Diakite.

Diakite spent his foundational years playing lead guitar in the internationally acclaimed ‘Rail Band’. One of the first bands to combine elements of Cuban, Congolese and Jazz with West African rhythms, melodies and instrumentation, ‘Rail Band’ went onto sell out stadiums across the world whilst serving as a launching pad for illustrious solo careers for many of its members.

This included lead vocalist Salif Keita, who went onto release 20 + critically acclaimed albums featuring everyone from Weather Report founders Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter to Carlos Santana ("Amen") and Diakite himself.

Following his time with the ‘Rail Band’, Diakite spent 5 years playing lead guitar in Grammy Award-winning Kora player Toumani Diabate’s (Taj Mahal, Björk, Ali Farka Touré) live band before spending a further 5 years touring the world with Salif Kieta.

Since moving to Australia Diakite has put together an impressive list of sold-out headline shows and festival credits ranging from Womadelaide and Woodford Folk Festival to Darwin Festival, Bellingen Festival and Mullum Music Fest. Since moving to Australia Diakite has released 2 prior albums, featuring a veritable who’s who of both West African and Australian musicians, from Toumani Diabate to Oli McGill (Cat Empire).

Though flickered through with lashings of love, nature, respect, humanity and unity - “Blue Magic” is an album that ultimately, is underpinned by Diakite's reflections on the struggles of his homeland.

With core tracking of the album done in Sydney with Wassado, Diakite then took the tracks to Africa to have traditional West African instrumentation added by some of Mali’s finest musicians.

The result is an album resplendent with Diakite’s trademark melodic Afro-blues funk groove and pin perfect polyphonic melodies, demonstrating exactly why Moussa Diakite is recognised worldwide as a master of his craft.

Moussa Diakite is a guitarist, singer and composer born in Mali, now based in Western Sydney who plays a combination of Malian, Congolese, Highlife, Afro Beat, Cuban, Blues, and Jazz.

Moussa Diakite played in the iconic Afro-Latin “Rail Band” and also played in bands with with Grammy Award-winning Kora player, Toumani Diabate, and Salif Kieta.

moussadiakite.com
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