(CNN) -- In the star-studded world of supergroups, where musical acumen and bloated egos often co-exist, it's not unheard of band members to not talk to each other. But in the case of AfroCubism, the all-star band consisted of renowned Malian and Cuban musicians, the reason for the group's lack of verbal communication is much more straightforward: the band's members simply don't understand each other's language. "We cannot even speak together on stage," says kora maestro Toumani Diabate, one of Mali's premier musicians and a member of AfroCubism. "Music has created its own language -- it's the music message, and I think the message is true to the audiences [and] to the world also at the same time."
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Kora master Toumani Diabate is one of Africa's most famous musicians
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His newest band, AfroCubism, blends together the sounds of West Africa and Cuba
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The long-awaited band received a Grammy nomination last year for "Best World Music Album"
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Diabate's mission is to keep the sound of the kora alive
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The old musicians from Mali, the old stars, it's like, 'OK, I'm here, I'm playing,' and the @placeholder also say the same.
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"In the 1960s a lot of countries in Africa got their independence and we had a very good relation with @placeholder -- musicians from Mali were taken from Mali, going to Cuba to study how to write and to read the music -- not to play the music because we already knew how to play the music -- and we still have this kind of relation still running about culture and style."