South African guitarist Derek Gripper is a hard man to pin down when it comes to describing his unique talents.

The musician, who plays Brisbane’s bayside and the Gold Coast on February 2 and 3, is touring nationally. Seeing him play is a unique experience.

Gripper’s unusual blend of African and traditional classical styles has taken him around the world  to venues such as The Globe in London and Carnegie Hall in New York.

Over the past decade he has developed his innovative style, translating the intricate sounds and rhythms of the 21-string West African kora harp onto his six-string acoustic guitar.

Gripper enjoys the challenge of defying traditional music genres and pushing boundaries.

“I like having conversations between genres that are usually not really conversant,” he says. “West African music is a non-written music, an oral tradition, so this conversation between the two, in other words playing their music, but also going back and playing Bach, teaches you a lot about both but mostly about classical music.

“Because the origins of classical music are an oral tradition as well, so to get off the page and get back into the feel of the music is pretty valuable and for me it just rehabilitates my understanding of classical music more.”

Gripper’s unusual approach was a response to his frustration with traditional works for classical guitar.

“I went out into the world and realised I could play the classical guitar but I didn’t really like the music,” he says. “So, I have been on a 20-year search for what to do with the classical guitar, how to do things that I really liked and how to play music that I really liked.

“One of the really important things was to look at African repertoire and search for music that I was really listening to, cracking the code of how you use the classical guitar for African repertoire.”

The result was a technique that no-one thought possible until he created it, while at the same time showing the fascinating overlaps between African music and early European melodies, revealing the natural simplicity within both genres.

Gripper’s ground-breaking album One Night on Earth and collaborations since with a range of Mali’s most respected African kora masters demonstrate his approach to music.

“Toumani Diabaté and Ballaké Sissoko are great living masters of the kora whose music I’ve been lucky enough to play,” he says.

“Toumani in the 1980s recorded a ground-breaking album that made instrumental music of the whole thing. Kind of like a Bach counterpoint, all these interweaving lines … it’s an interesting interlocking technique that he has.

“Once you put that onto guitar, it ends up having the same kind of effect. It was Toumani who said that. He heard my recording and thought – that’s not one guitar. And I was like – yeah exactly – because that was my experience of listening to him. It was like – how can that be possible?”

Gripper continues to innovate and challenge himself with other recent recordings such as A Year of Swimming, Billy goes to Durban and Sleep Songs for my Daughter, all with original compositions and improvisations that evolve his musical style.

Now he is back in Australia with his biggest tour here to date and his first since the pandemic, Music from the Strings of Mali.

“I’m really excited to be playing in Brisbane again,” he says. “I remember the crickets very well in Brisbane. I remember Brisbane having an incredible night sound, which is all day, right? Remarkable.”

Derek Gripper: Music from the Strings of Mali  plays Sandgate Town Hall, February 2, 7pm; and  Broadbeach Cultural Centre, February 3, 7pm.

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