Foday Musa Suso

Foday Musa Suso (2017)

Foday Musa Suso (* 1950 in Sare Hamadi , a small town in the Wuli district in the Upper River Region ) is a musician and composer from the West African state of Gambia . He belongs to the Mandinka ethnic group and is a griot (other spelling Jali ). His favorite musical instrument is the kora ; but he also plays gravikord and various other instruments.

Suso emigrated to Chicago in the 1970s , where he founded the world jazz band The Mandingo Griot Society in 1978 with Adam Rudolph , Hamid Drake and Joseph Thomas , which also played with Don Cherry .

He has performed with Philip Glass , Herbie Hancock and the Kronos Quartet .

Discography

• 1970: Kora Music from Gambia (Smithsonian Folkways)
• 1979: Mandingo Griot Society (Flying Fish)
• 1982: Mighty Rhythm (Flying Fish)
• 1984: Hand Power (Flying Fish)
• 1984: Mandingo Featuring Foday Musa Suso: Watto Sitta (Celluloid), produced by Bill Laswell
• 1985: Duo with Herbie Hancock : Village Life (Columbia)
• 1985: with Herbie Hancock: Jazz Africa (Verve)
• 1986: Mansa Bendung (Flying Fish)
• 1988: The Dreamtime (CMP, 1990) solo album, produced by Bill Laswell
• 1992: Philip Glass and Foday Musa Suso: Music from “The Screens” (Point Music)
• 1996: The Dreamtime (CMP)
• 2005: Duo with Jack DeJohnette : Music from the Hearts of the Masters (Golden Beams)
• 2005: with Jack DeJohnette's The Ripple Effect: Hybrids (Golden Beams)
• 2008: The Two Worlds (Orange Mountain Music)
• 2012: with Gretchen Rowe: Koralations: Heart to Heart (African Kora meets American Poetry)

Book contribution

• Foday Musa Suso Jali Kunda: Memories in: Jali Kunda: The Griots of West Africa and the rest of the world . Book and CD set. Ellipsis Arts. 1996

Web links

• Literature by and about Foday Musa Suso in the catalog of the German National Library
• Foday Musa Suso official site
• Foday Musa Suso page on the Other Minds homepage