“About Yasimika: Gorgeous, gorgeous and gorgeous again. Wide open spaces of the mind. Both me and Charlie Gillett were chasing this for our labels. With little cash I was scared to get in a bidding war, so pulled back. He had the good grace to thank me and it came out on his Oval label for a period, and later on Joe Boyd's Hannibal Records.”

“About Yasimika: Released in the UK on the late Charlie Gillett's Oval label, this 1982 Abidjan recording of a perfectly matched line-up of kora, balafon, acoustic guitar and harmony vocals just knocked everybody sideways. Eventually released by 5 different labels in France, the UK and USA over the years, this legendary album tops many world music fans' desert island lists, as it does mine.”

“La palme du swing [revient] à la kora au long cours de Djeli Moussa Diawara [...]”

“Critique d'OCEAN BLUES : "[...] Avec les arpèges aériens de Djelimoussa, Bob Brozman trouve le parfait contrepoint à ses guitares hawaïennes, à son blues grasseyant ; et l'Africain, qui est aussi guitariste, s'amuse parfois à le suivre en plaquant des accords. Comment peut-on plaquer un accord à la kora ? Théoriquement, l'instrument est calé entre les deux pouces, mais Djeli Moussa a mis au point une technique pour lâcher une main et jouer en "strumming". Il faut voir ses mains voler et claquer, ses doigts dérouler les notes pressées. Parfois il s'élance dans un solo précis et débridé à la fois, joignant la rigueur d'un Batourou [Sékou Kouyaté] à l'arrogante liberté des riffs griots. [...]"”

“[...] Alors que les jazzmen récupèrent les grooves latins ou africains pour ancrer leurs solos, les bluesmen, eux, se tournent ver les soloistes. Ce qui les fait craquer, ce sont ces improvisateurs impénitents, sorciers de l'outrancier et de l'inattendu, que l'on rencontre dans les cours des villages d'Afrique. Djeli Moussa est de ceux-là, et s'il entreprend une carrière sérieuse, il est sûr que ses pairs américains le reconnaîtront. Le jazz est né au pays Mandingue au XIIIe siècle.”

“Praise for OCEAN BLUES: "With either Diawara or Brozman, one would expect nothing less than a dazzling, vibrant, tasteful album, and OCEAN BLUES delivers all that to the power of two." - DIRTY LINEN "On OCEAN BLUES concept and realization come together with spectacular results to produce one of the albums of the year [...]" " [...] much in the style of last year's splendid collaboration between Taj Mahal and Toumani Diabate on Kulanjan... OCEAN BLUES is arguably an even finer album, for the interplay between the slide and Hawaiian guitars of Brozman and Diawara's kora seems more natural and better integrated." - SONGLINES MAGAZINE (UK) "The clear sense of fun that comes through the speakers reaffirms the idea of music as a single universal language." - SONIC.NET”

“Magicien de la kora et chanteur, Djeli Moussa Diawara renoue avec sa carrière solo en publiant Sini, un album à la mesure de l’ambivalence de cet artiste guinéen : attaché à faire une musique populaire, mais conscient que sa virtuosité le coupe parfois de son public africain. Il n’hésite pas à faire le grand écart en passant d’un registre à l’autre.”

“[...] Two koras, a balafon, and a splendid female chorus backing Jawara's lead make for a deserved best-seller among Africans in France. This is contemporary-traditional Mandingo music, purely and wonderfully performed and admirably recorded.”

“[...] I swear the emotion is higher here, the weave a quantum more intense. And of such quanta are world-music classics made. /// [...] Yet once again his confident interweave and powerfully West African (Guinéan?) vocal feel (technique?) overwhelm secular skepticism. Right, this kind of Beauty is an ideological construct. Don't we all deserve a vacation once in a while?”

“I'm not sure when I first heard the sound of a kora, but I do remember that everything changed in 1983 when I brought home an album by Djeli Moussa Diawara I found at Sterns African records Centre [...]. Only four songs, all of them long, and I played this entrancing thing over and over, marvelling at the mixture of kora and guitar, the soaring voice of Moussa and the dreamy answering chorus of women. The endless circles of sound from the balaphon were hypnotising. I played all four songs on Capital Radio, and found that listeners were as enchanted as I was.”