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  Lalo Keba Dramé, born in Gambia, was a famous korafolá A korafolá is a kora player in mandinka (who is able
to make the kora talk) - korafolálu, plural. , admired by all the Greatest (even the Queen of England !). He became famous for the adaptation to kora of
Djembeseng (very dancing rhythm played on djembe drums), creating a revolution in the kora musicGabunkee civilization is characterised by the kora (of Soces people from Gabu)... Read more..
Very young, Lalo Kéba Dramé became famous in the djaliyaa jèlí (plural, jèlílu) is a bard, loremaster, and praise-singer in the Manding areas whose functions are story-telling, speaking about lineages, singing and playing music as he want and hear it... Read more. by enlivening weddings. But popularity came with programs on the National radio. Soon his reputation passed across the Gambia river spreading in all countries of the Manding area. Lalo
Keba Dramé decided then to settle in Senegal where he became the official korafolá A korafolá is a kora player in mandinka (who is able
to make the kora talk) - korafolálu, plural. of « History of Casamance », then regularly invited at the program of Radio Senegal animated by El Hadj Moctar Diallo.
He gained international notability in 1967 with Bamba BodianThis song
(Bamba Bodian) was composed in honour of Alhaji Bamba Bodian or Ledjè, a wealthy merchant of the XIX century, king of Brikama... Read more., a praise song in the honor of a rich person benefactor, and «Coura MbissaneCoura Mbissane is the nickname that Lalo Keba Drame gifted to his favorite wife, Rokhaya Dieng... Read more. », a great hit sung in duet with Rokhaya Dieng. He adapted the djembeseng, Manding
polyrythmics very involving given by the djembe drums, to the kora.
 Two years
after his participation in the first Congress of Mandingues Studies in London in 1972, Lalo Kéba Dramé died tragically. Many korafolálu A korafolá is a kora player in mandinka (who is able to make the kora talk) - korafolálu, plural. of the countries of the ex empire mandingue gave him a tribute by playing again his
tunes. The Senegalese band Touré Kunda adapted, under the title « Nanthio », his version of the traditional gabunke tune KedoKedo is a song was composed near 1865 after the war of the Moslim Fula people versus the pagan kingdom of N'Kaabu... Read more. in Santhiaba album published in 2008.
Produced in 1979 by Sonafrica, Hommage à Lalo Keba contains famous titles of the korafolá A korafolá is a kora player in mandinka (who is able to make the kora talk) - korafolálu, plural. virtuoso, like Bambo BodianThis song (Bamba Bodian) was composed in honour of Alhaji Bamba Bodian or Ledjè, a wealthy merchant of the XIX century, king of Brikama (Gambia).. Read more., a song in the honor of a rich made up person and his benefactor in 1967. As for «Coura MbissaneCoura Mbissane is the nickname that Lalo Keba Drame gifted to his favorite wife, Rokhaya Dieng... Read more. », his great tube sung in duet with Rokhaya Dieng, he created a revolution for the
repertory of the kora, adapting, for the very first time, at the kora the « djembeseng », djembe involving polyrythmics.
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Lalo Keba Drame, Lalo Keba et sa cora, LP, NDARDISC, 1967, réed. CD, Ioda, 2010, Cantos Music - Bellot |
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Lalo Keba Drame, Hommage à Lalo Keba, 1979, Sonafrica, réed. L.P. |
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