Habib Koité

Born in 1958 in Thiès, Senegal, and moving to Mali at an early age, Habib Koité grew up between Kayes and Bamako in a Kassonké family with a griot tradition, where singing and instruments were central. Trained at the Institut national des arts in Bamako, where he later taught guitar, Habib Koité developed a highly personal playing style informed by Mandingue repertoires and Malian traditions, while also incorporating touches of blues, reggae and flamenco. In 1988 he founded Bamada with several long-time collaborators and began gaining recognition on local stages before expanding internationally in the early 1990s. His discography includes Muso Ko (1995), Ma Ya (1998), Baro (2001), Afriki (2007), Brothers in Bamako (2012, with Eric Bibb), Soô (2014) and Kharifa (2019). Habib Koité has also crossed paths with musicians such as Toumani Diabaté, Kélétigui Diabaté and Afel Bocoum. With Bamada, he has built over decades a repertoire in which the guitar converses with supple rhythms, songs in several Malian languages and a compositional approach attentive to the exchanges between popular traditions, acoustic music and both African and international stages.