ABOUT
Foday Musa Suso: Born in 1950 into a family of Mandingo Griots—musicians, historians, and oral storytellers—dating back about a thousand years. Griots are walking and living libraries that carry and musically transmit the history of the Mandingo people of West Africa. Griots play a variety of instruments including the Balafon, the original xylophone, the Konting, a 5-string instrument played like a banjo, the Bolon, a 3-string bass instrument, and last but not least, the Kora, a 21-string harp/lute instrument, invented by Suso’s ancestral grandfather, Jali Madi Wulen Suso, 376 years ago.
While Suso can perform over a hundred traditional songs, in this program the Foday Suso Quartet will perform his innovative original compositions, fusing the traditional sounds of the Kora with Western stylistic music. He is accompanied by Dan Rowe (piano), Jordan Janz (cello), and Asher Delerme (percussion). However, in keeping with the Griot historical tradition of playing the very first song ever composed on the Kora, Suso will perform "Kelefa Sanneh" (a tribute to the great Mandingo warrior from Guinea Bissau), a song composed centuries ago by his ancestral great-grandfather, Jalimadi Wulen Suso.
While Suso can perform over a hundred traditional songs, in this program the Foday Suso Quartet will perform his innovative original compositions, fusing the traditional sounds of the Kora with Western stylistic music. He is accompanied by Dan Rowe (piano), Jordan Janz (cello), and Asher Delerme (percussion). However, in keeping with the Griot historical tradition of playing the very first song ever composed on the Kora, Suso will perform "Kelefa Sanneh" (a tribute to the great Mandingo warrior from Guinea Bissau), a song composed centuries ago by his ancestral great-grandfather, Jalimadi Wulen Suso.
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