Sira

Foday Musa Suso, Toumani Diabaté, Mory Kanté, and others introduced the kora — a traditional West African instrument with 21 strings — to the west in the late 20th century, exposing new listeners to its entrancing timbres and rhythmic patterns. Senegalese vocalist/kora player Ablaye Cissoko wrote most of *Sira*’s material, but it’s no surprise that the album also includes arrangements of three traditional pieces, since Cissoko comes from a centuries-old family of griots, or storyteller/musicians. However, this collaboration with the German jazz trumpeter Volker Goetze also brings something new to the venerable traditions associated with the kora. Two minutes into the opening title track, Goetze lends gentle trumpet embellishments to Cissoko’s plucking and singing, establishing *Sira*’s basic sound. The trumpeter often uses a mute, and even when he doesn’t, his tone has a burnished, mellow quality. Goetze spends a lot of the album sensitively responding to Cissoko, but he carries the main line on tracks like “Domain Domain” and “Gorgorlou,” a couple of instrumentals. Goetze penned one cut, “Bamaya,” and it’s a gem. With a hypnotic kora pattern as a backdrop, he spins out one of *Sira*’s loveliest melodies.