Toumani Diabaté and the Symmetric Orchestra

The kora looks a bit like a prize-winning pumpkin speared by a tree branch, but this twenty-one-string gourd sings like a harp or a lute, depending on how it’s coaxed, and its romantic trill underpins the urgent rhythms of traditional Malian music. There’s only one kora player as good as Toumani Diabaté, and that’s his dad, Sidiki Diabaté. (The family’s musical lineage stretches back an awe-inspiring seventy-one generations.) But it’s the younger Toumani who has taken this uniquely African sound to the rest of the world, collaborating with an array of folks, including Blur’s Damon Albarn, the flamenco group Ketama, blues master Taj Mahal, and the late Ali Farka Touré, with whom he won a 2005 Grammy. With his band, the Symmetric Orchestra, the Dakota’s room temperature should climb at least twenty degrees. 1010 Nicollet Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-332-1010; www.dakotacooks.com