Cissoko and Brotto’s Melodic Voyage Across Continents

From Kolda in southern Senegal to Figeac in France’s southern Occitanie region is roughly 2,400 air miles or 63 hours of drive time.

Musically, it’s no distance, no time at all.

Senegalese kora master and singer Ablaye Cissoko and French accordionist Cyrille Brotto cross that space to make music of a single, blended vision and sound.

They are co-pilots with strong wings of separate geographically specific cultures sharing a compelling flight plan across national and cultural borders.

They launch the Proctors Passport Series on October 7th in the GE Theatre – a seven-concert world-music exploration curated by Music Haven impresario Mona Golub with the same cross-border intent.

Fans of their dynamic fusion sound have Brotto’s wife to thank for this cross-Mediterranean duo. As Songlines World Music magazine reported, Brotto surprised his Cissoko fan wife by organizing a Cissoko concert in their hometown of Figeac. 

Instant friendship, instant musical alliance.

“I didn’t know at the time that Cyrille played the squeezebox,” Cissoko told Songlines. “I always had the desire to play with an accordionist. Our meeting was a gift. I see the instrument like a spirit, like a bird that stretches out his wings to fly; its melodic power intrigues me.” Brotto called the 21-stringed West African kora “definitely mysterious for me,” adding, “The sound is absolutely captivating and magical.” 

Cissoko explained how their talents dance around each other, “My duo project with Cyrille embodies two histories, two cultures, two horizons, and two landscapes.”

Before joining forces, each was already an international star.

Scion of a griot family, Cissoko played his debut kora performance at 12, then enrolled in Dakar’s Conservatoire of Music. 

Touring Africa and Europe since 2002, Cissoko began building musical bridges early on. He made three albums and the film “Griot” with German-born NYC trumpeter Volker Goetze, and crafted duo albums with Majid Bekkas and Simon Goubert. Working with the Canadian Mediterranean-style band Constantinople, he produced two notable albums before recording “Instant” with Brotto in 2022. 

Brotto also reflects a respected tradition, the dance-based folk style of Mediterranean France. And he collaborates in all directions, including the Brotto Lopez Project with flutist and singer Guillaume Lopez, rock band Les Ogres de Barback, duos with Stephane Milleret and Raibaud Brotto; also the band Groove Factory with Milleret and bassist/keyboardist Michael Fontanella – a funky but folkloric band with two diatonic accordions. 

Wiki tells us, “A melodeon or diatonic button accordion is a member of the free-reed aerophone family of musical instruments. It is a type of button accordion on which the melody-side keyboard contains one or more rows of buttons, with each row producing the notes of a single diatonic scale. The buttons on the bass-side keyboard are most commonly arranged in pairs, with one button of a pair sounding the fundamental of a chord and the other the  corresponding major triad (or, sometimes, a minor triad).”

Combining a diatonic accordion with a 21-string kora creates a natural harmonic and rhythmic fit. The kora is staccato, its silvery notes ringing out with only short sustain, while the diatonic accordion is all about sustain, capable of holding a note or chord through the full pulling apart or inward compression of its bellows. 

• Proctors Passport Series presents seven concerts in the GE Theater (432 State St., Schenectady) and Universal Preservation Hall (25 Washington St., Saratoga Springs). Show time is 7:30 p.m., with no opening acts.
• The Passport Series grew from the 30-year Music Haven program of international music in Schenectady’s Central Park. 
• A Passport Series Pass provides a ticket to all seven shows in the 2023-2024 Passport Series for the price of 4. 
• The math works this way: tickets are $30 or $210 for all seven if bought individually, but a $120 Passport Series Pass drops the per-show admission to $17 each. 518-346-6204 https://proctorscollaborative.org/passport-series/
• Some Passport artists this season have played here through Music Haven programs, including Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba (Feb. 16 at Universal Preservation Hall) and BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet (Apr. 18 at Proctors GE Theatre).