The guys full name is Kutta Toumani Diabate and he is a Malian Kora player. Toumani has gained international fame and accolade playing this arcane instrument that many would not have heard. This guys is an eclectic performer and he feels at home playing the traditional home style music or New York style Jazz. He can mix and scratch as well as any.
Toumani comes from a long line of musicians and traditional Kora player. His family members including father and few cousins etc all made it big time into this domain of Kora playing.
Sometime in October 2008, Toumani got into controversy because he had sung a song with Arabic lyrics which were part of Koran and the song was selected by Playstation 3 video game. This ended up offending a lot of unruly and primitive Arabs so the company removed that particular offending portion.
The maker of the game, Sony, decided to delay and recall the batch to fifx this problem but some copies with original soundtrack had already been sold in many mid east countries. Good for them.
Check out a video of this fella below on the youtube.
