With over 2000 languages spoken in Africa, most Africans speak more than one language. That’s true for Derek Gripper who hails from Cape Town, South Africa and for Ballaké Sissoko, Malian-French now living in Paris. One speaks English, the other French. While they sit side by side in sound-check and performance, neither speaks the language of the other.
Technically.
Mshale spoke with Derek Gripper last month when he explained that their common language is understood through music. It’s the plucking of the strings of their instruments—a guitar and a kora—and the glances exchanged and the smiles or raised eyebrows aimed at each another, even the sway of their shoulders that imparts information to one another.
Gripper said, “we’ve never had a discussion about the music that we play. We’ve never planned what we’re going to play, and we’ve also never played outside of either the studio or the concert hall.”
He reflected further, “So I think the closest we’ve come to a rehearsal is the sound check, you know, where we will play for 10 or 15 minutes together. So it’s kind of all improvised, uh, together, in the sense that we have a shared repertoire of the standards of kora, but we’re also improvising, having a conversation between what I remember, and what he knows, and things like that.”
Sissoko plays kora and Gripper plays guitar, but the music Gripper plays he has translated from kora music to guitar. In fact, that is how this unique collaboration began.
“It officially started in 2011 when I transcribed one of his two of his pieces for my album, One Night on Earth, which was this transcription of kora music for guitar and the two composers whose music I chose were Tourmani Diabate and Ballaké Sissoko,” Gripper said.
He followed that album with more translation of the Malian kora by Sissoko on consecutive albums, Libraries on Fire and New Ancient Strings.
This one-sided collaboration moved into dynamic in-person play during the pandemic oddly enough.
Gripper said, “The real collaboration started in 2022. We had a gig at the School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS, in London, which was a pretty momentous occasion that was commemorating the fifty years since his father, [Djelimady Sissoko, also a brilliant kora player], had been in London.”
Interrupting himself, Gripper said, “Ballaké also played at Number 10 Downing Street on that occasion, which I imagine is probably the one and only time there’s been a kora performance in Number 10 Downing Street.”
The pair has performed and recorded together since then. “The next night, we went into the studio and we recorded the album that we’ve since released together,” Gripper said.
A classical guitarist who’s dedicated himself to playing kora music, Derek Gripper has played with many kora players over the years. “I’ve never had the experience,” Gripper said, “that I have [had] with Ballaké.”
“I’ve done collaborations and had really wonderful. times, but, you know, it’s not often that you find someone that you really just feel so comfortable with to play it with.” He added, “There’s a kind of kindness, and a looking after each other, and a mutual excitement, even though it’s not verbally expressed. but you can feel that, you know, that we… we enjoy… we really enjoy playing together.”
This copacetic relationship, Gripper said, “that’s, that’s really the payoff. I like the fact that we can’t talk to each other. I actually… obviously, it’d be great if we could, and I know that people who tour with him who can have a totally different experience, but I like the uniqueness of this experience, that we kind of know each other through a different medium.”
Gripper and Sissoko will perform on January 31st at St. Olaf Catholic Church 215 S 8th St., Minneapolis, MN 55402 as part of the St. Olaf Music Series 2025-26.
Tickets available here for their 7:30 pm show.
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About Susan Budig
Susan is based in Minneapolis and reports on general assignments for Mshale with a focus on entertainment. In addition to reporting, she is also a writer, poet, teacher and coach.
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