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 and 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.
Links & Official Website:
www.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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Music Musicians
