Sidiki Dembélé Ensemble
The Hub, 12/8/2025
Sidiki Dembélé Ensemble
Those of us who follow the Beautiful Game will be familiar with the several Dembélés who have graced football fields across Europe in recent times. Mali and the Ivory Coast produces fine musicians as well as footballers, and the genial and eloquent Sidiki Dembélé is no exception. There is a class of musician in West Africa known as griots, who, as Dembélé explained, are also storytellers, historians, community leaders, organisers, and who are ‘a voice for those who don’t have a voice’.
Dembélé’s songs and instrumental pieces are part of that commitment to giving a voice, themed as they are around celebrations of motherhood, family, friendship, and the power of water (something we may have to develop a greater appreciation for if things go the way they’re going).
The evening began with a solo piece on the kamele ngoni, a smaller version of the kora, the notes rippling through the voluminous space of the Hub, while the rest of the brightly clad band gently swayed. The pace soon quickened though as bass guitar, balafon (similar to the marimba) and the dundun drums joined the djembe, Dembélé’s main instrument, and the heart of the music, often played by the maestro at astonishing speeds.
The music is patterned by the balafon and the bass setting up a foundation of riffs while the interlocking drums provide a fluid and complex stream of rhythms, sometimes topped by Fatima’s powerful vocals, and sometimes accompanied by Aida’s spectacular dancing. (‘No music without dance,’ we were told.) Dembélé’s themes might be topics with which it would be difficult for any reasonable person to disagree, but there is no sentimentality in their expression, as the band gives full-pelt, full measure.
Sidiki Dembélé is a firm believer in the redemptive power of music, which he had the audience believing as he got them up on their feet at the end, the music intense and irresistible. An 11-piece ensemble will be on tour in the UK in November. Well worth catching.