Saturday: 12:45 p.m. Two Rivers, 5:45 p.m. Penobscot; Sunday: 2:30 p.m. Penobscot

Kora player and ensemble leader Mamadou Diabate was born in 1975 in Kita, a Malian city known for the arts of the Manding people of West Africa. Diabate is descended from Manding jeli who served as traditional musicians, storytellers and oral historians. Sometimes referred to by the French term “griot,” the position of the jeli was a hereditary one passed down through family groups.

The Malian (or Manden) Empire began during the ninth century. It reached its full flowering during the 13th century and lasted until the 16th century. The stories of these glory days and the times since, as preserved by the jeli, are important touchstones for the Manding people in Mali, Guinea, Gambia and Senegal. The jeli continue to use music and oratory to preserve and sustain the Manding people’s connections to their cultural heritage.

At age 4, Mamadou Diabate began his musical studies with his father, Djelimori Diabate. Later, he received additional help and encouragement from his cousin, musician Toumani Diabate. Since moving to the United States in 1996, Mamadou Diabate has continued to perform the music of his homeland.

Diabate plays the kora, a bridged, harplike instrument. It has a calabash gourd resonator covered with calf skin, a long neck, and an arched bridge supporting its 21 strings. The kora player holds the instrument with the little fingers and plucks the strings with the thumbs and first finger, creating intricate rhythmic and melodic patters.

His accomplished ensemble includes balafon player Balla Kouyate, guitar and ngoni player Moussa Cissoko and jeli singer Abdoulaye Diabate.

Kouyate was born into a jeli family and destined to play the balafon, a xylophonelike percussion instrument. The Kouyates were the first jeli family in the Manden Empire. The role of balafon player was symbolically assigned to Balla’s ancestors by nobles and has remained in his family ever since. Balla began to play the balafon at age 6. His first performances were with singer Sanignai Kouyate, and he since has gone on to perform with the National Percussion Ensemble of Mali, Sekouba Banbino, Kasse Mady Diabate and Papa Susso.

Cissoko, also from a jeli family, provides a rhythmic underpinning for the ensemble with his work on the guitar and the ngoni, a small stringed instrument traditionally used in Malian music that is an ancestor of the modern banjo.

Vocalist Abdoulaye Diabate is a jeli from the city of Kela in Mali. From an important Malian family, his ancestors were counselors to kings and presidents. Kela, Abdoulaye’s birthplace, is known throughout the Manden world as a mecca for music and musicians. For 20 years, Abdoulaye led his own band, Super Mande, which featured artists such as Salif Keita, Mory Kante and Ousmane Kouyate. He has performed with the prestigious Ballet Koteba and with Les Gos de Koteba.