"My dear dad is gone forever," the Malian great's son Sidiki Diabate, who is also a musician, wrote on Facebook.

Toumani Diabate was a master of the African stringed instrument, the kora.

He died at a private clinic in Bamako, the capital of the west African nation, another member of Diabate's family told AFP.

Diabate was born in 1965 to a family of griots -- storytellers who are the guardians of Mali's traditions and oral histories.

Fellow stars of the vast west African music scene paid tribute to Diabate.

Senegal's Youssou N'dour lauded "a virtuoso of the kora, an unmatched musical arranger" in a post on X.

Malian Grammy award-winning singer Oumou Sangare, known as the "Songbird of Wassoulou", said Diabate was "a bridge between our ancestral traditions and modernity".

Salif Keita, the "Golden Voice of Africa", lamented "the loss of (Mali's) national treasure".