Biography:
Foday Musa Suso is an internationally recognised
Kora playing Mandingo griot who was born in 1950
in the Gambian village of Sarre Hamadi, a village in
the Wuli District, in the Upper River Region. He is
a virtuoso master kora performer & composer from
a hereditary lineage of other Jalis.
After spending his childhood in Banjul, the capital,
he was sent to Pasamasi Village where he was taught
by Saikou Suso, his uncle, when he was nine years old.
He would sometimes be under the tutelage of another
of his uncles Falimada Suso. After 7 years of rigorous
formal training he became an accomplished player of
the kora, balaphone (African xylophone) and the tama.
Such an apprenticeship is a standard feature of learning
music in Manding because it is considered important
for achieving proper discipline and concentration.
Unlike most musicians in Manding society, Suso's talents
are shared among many instruments. When he had finished
his training he had now put to memory past tribal conflicts,
family lineages, the epic oral histories of the Manding
people and its cultural heroes from the great Sujatta
onwards.
Foday Musa Suso made trips to a number of European,
Asian and African countries teaching, and performing,
as well as learning from others. He spent two years
at the Institute of African Studies, University of Legon,
Ghana, as a resident instructor of the Kora.
In 1977 Suso flew to Chicago, in the US, where he began
his recording career as well as forming a group, Mandingo
Griot Society, with the percussionist Adam Rudolph.
The group have appeared at New York's Carnegie Hall
and Central Park Summerstage, the Yerba Buena Center
for the Arts in San Francisco, Frankfurt International
Jazz Festival in Germany and at the Cultural Center
in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. Since then, he has taught
and recorded with many well known jazz artists, including
the trumpeter Don Cherry, and Herbie Hancock, with whom
he recorded the album, Village Life, while on their
tour of Japan. The group opened new ground in what is
known as World Music in numerous other collaborations,
such as with Ginger Baker using Suso's skillful and
heavenly playing of the West African lute in a number
of pieces.
After the band broke up they Suso re-united with its
members Rudolph and Hamid Drake in 1984 to create the
album Watto Sitta. The album was produced by Bill Laswell,
and was a milestone of modern African music, skillfully
and effortlessly merging Suso's cutting-edge kora playing
with an effortless equilibrium of natural and synthesised
tunes.
Since the early 80's his various collaborations and
work has included working with Pharoah Sanders,
Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet an ensemble who
commissioned him to compose five works. They collaborated
at venues ranging from New York's Lincoln Center and
California's Institute of the Arts to the Staatsoper
Opera House in Vienna, Austria and the Royal Festival
Hall in London In traditional, contemporary, minimalist,
classical and avant-garde settings he's cast the kora
in both lead and supporting roles where its emotive,
shimmering sound finds ever new levels of beauty and
boldness.
Record Labels:
Island, Lyrichord, Folkways, Axiom, CBS, Sony, Flying
Fish, Celluloid, CMP, Point Music/Philips Classics,
Ellipsis Arts, Rhizome Sketch, Polygram, and Elektra
Nonesuch.
Career High Points:
Foday has also performed on several film soundtracks
including Roots, Powaqqatsi, and Mountain of the Moon.
Other high-lights of his career include working as a
performer and consultant for a Japanese documentary
film on African music and the book/CD, Jali Kunda: Griots
of West Africa and Beyond.
| Discography
/ Music Downloads: |
 |
Links & Official
Website:
Fmsuso.com
Contact
Details:
Email: fodaymusasuso[a_t]netzero.com
Discography:
• Kora Music
from the Gambia
•
Sounds of West Africa
The Kora & The Xylophone
•
Mandingo Griot Society
With special guest Don Cherry
•
Mighty Rhythm
Mandingo Griot Society
1981, Flying Fish Records FF 269
•
Mansa Bendung
Foday Musa Suso,
Tamba Suso and Jarju Kuyateh
•
Mandingo
New World Power
•
The Dream Time
Foday Musa Suso
•
Hand Power
Foday Musa Suso
•
Julu Kemo
Foday Musa Suso
•
Mandingo Watto Sita
Featuring Foday Musa Suso
•
Jali Kunda
The Griots of West Africa and Beyond
• Ancient Hearth
Mandinka and Fulani music of The Gambia
• Village Life
Herbie Hancock & Foday Musa Suso
• Jooka
Foday Musa Suso
•
Pieces of Africa
Kronos Quartet
•
Jazz Africa
Herbie Hancock, Foday Musa Suso,
Aiyb Dieng, Adam Rudolph,
Joe Thomas, Hamid Drake, Abdul Hakeem
• Music From the Screens
Philip Glass and Foday Musa Suso |
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