Mamady Keita

Mamady Keita (left) with Famoudou Konate

Mamady Keïta was born in 1950 in Balandugu (Guinea), a village of Wassolon, near the Fé River. His father was a master hunter and a fida tigi (master of the plants, that is to say a healer). His mother, wishing to know the destiny of the child that she was carrying, consulted a soothsayer who announced that it would be her last son: « The child must be left to amuse himself because it is there that he will make is name ».

From when he was old enough to crawl, Mamady descended on all the pots and pans in order to turn them over and beat on them. « My son will therefore be a djembefola »; his mother said to herself and she had an instrument constructed to his size. Very quickly he surprised everyone by his natural gifts. No one could believe their ears and they would ask themselves how such a small boy could draw such a sound from a drum. Mamady “Nankama” (Mamady-who-was-born-for-that), and “Balandugudjina” (the devil of Balandugu) are his two nicknames.

He owed his initiation into the history of the Mandeng and its music to Karinkadjan Kondé, an old djembefola (djembe player) of his village; in Malinke they say « Words come forth from an old mouth to enter a new ear ». Curious about everything, he would not rest until he knew, firstly all the rhythms of the Wassolon, then of the Mandeng and those of the neighboring ethnic groups.

Sekou Touré wished to spotlight Guinean Culture through music and dance and therefore devised a system of local, regional and national competitions that would attract the best artists of the land into the National Ballets of Guinea. Out of over 500 competitors, Mamady Keita, at the age of fourteen, was selected as one of 5 percussionists, only three of which were djembe players. There were forty-five artists that comprised the National Ballet “Djoliba” and Mamady was the youngest member. For over twenty years, Mamady travelled around the world with Djoliba, only resting between tours for short periods in his native country.

He was named lead djembe soloist only one year after Djoliba was formed, he was only 15 years old. At seventeen, the young drummer was cast in a Harry Belafonte film titled Africa Dance. After 15 years in the Ballet Djoliba, at the age of 29, Mamady became the Artistic Director and fulfilled this function until 1986 when he left the Ballet for good; this was the first time that a drummer was given the position of Artistic Director.

Desiring to get out of the cocoon formed by the ballet and to establish his own name as an independent musician, he joined Souleymane Koli’s “Koteba” based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. He stayed with the band for a year and a half and completed two more world tours. It was in this period that he was cast in his second movie, La vie platinée.

By 1988 Mamady’s name began to travel beyond West Africa. It was then that a group of percussionists in Belgium who had formed a non-profit organization called Zig Zag negotiated to bring Mamady to Brussels to teach and perform at their music school called Repercussions. Later that same year, Mamady established his own performance ensemble, Sewa Kan. The name refers to a Malinke proverb which says, « Ni kan tiyen, sewa tiyen. Ni sewa tiyen, kantiyen », “Without music there is no joy, without joy there is no music.”

In 1989 Mamady records his first album with Sewa Kan titled Wassolon, produced by Zig Zag and Fonti Musicali in Brussels.

Mamady is the first percussionist to organize a drum and dance workshop in collaboration with the Republic of Guinea’s Secretary of Arts & Culture; his first camp in 1990 is officially recognized as an international cultural exchange and 35 European students are hosted by the Secretary of Arts & Culture in Conakry for an intensive 4-week drum and dance camp. Mamady has continued to bring students to Guinea each year since.

In 1991, Mamady opens his own school of percussion in Brussels, Belgium called Tam Tam Mandingue, “drums of the Manding”. The school rapidly gains an international reputation and in just a few years he opens branches in Paris, Munich, Conakry, USA, Japan and Israel. Today there are over a dozen Tam Tam Mandingue schools around the world.

Also in this same year, 1991, Mamady’s own life-story is put on the big screen in an award-winning documentary film titled “Djembefola, the Man Who Makes the Djembe Speak”. Directed by Laurent Chevallier, this film introduces us to Mamady Keita, the world’s greatest djembe player and shares his magical and emotional journey back to his birth village of Balandugu, (Guinea) after a 26-year absence. Mamady hears from his older brother how the local soothsayer predicted his destiny when he was still in his mother’s womb. The film won several international awards and propelled the culture of the djembe around the world. Since then, Mamady has continued to tour, teach and record. (See discography below).

Mamady continues to teach at his school in San Diego alongside his wife Monette Marino-Keita. Together they travel the world carrying out his mission to preserve the tradition and the music of the djembe. Visit www.mamadykeita.com for his Calendar of Events/Workshops. Visit www.ttmusa.org for information on all of Mamady’s Tam Tam Mandingue schools or to purchase products by Mamady Keita.

Discography- Mamady Keita

1989 - Wassolon

1992 - Nankama

1995 - Mögöbalu

1996 - Hamanah

1998 - Afö

2000 - Balandugu Kan

2001 - Mamady Lèè

2002 - A Giatè

2004 - Djembe Master

2004 - Sila Laka