Description
Bajaly, a brilliant young KORA player and singer, comes from a Gambian family who have passed down the tradition of musicianship through many generations. His great grandfather Koriyang Musa Suso (the inventer of the Kora), and his family includes Suntu Suso and Jali Madi Suso. His grandfather was Amadou Bansang Jobarteh, one of the heroes of the instrument, from whom he learnt many ancient songs. He has been playing and singing the traditional songs of The Gambia for almost 20 years, leading groups and solo, touring the whole of West Africa. Dressed In traditional robes, singing ancient songs and telling the folk tales of his native land, Bajaly is part of the living legacy of ancient Africa. With a haunting, plaintive voice and prodigious technique on his unique instrument, he has studied at the National Council for Arts and Culture and is mentioned in the Lonely Planet Guide to Senegal and The Gambia with a recommendation to seek him out as a true source of the tradition of the country.
About the artist: Bajaly Suso, from the Gambia, is a kora player and singer of the Griot caste, hereditary storytellers, musicians, artists and historians of the West African Mandinka empire. He has inherited the tradition of the kora from his father, who in turn learnt from his father and so on down from his ancestor the first known kora player, Moussa Suso.
