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Momodou
Denmark
11706 Posts |
 Posted - 25 May 2025 : 19:48:59
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It was with shock that I read the passing away of Jali Foray Musa Suso this afternoon in his home in Kombo Brikama.
May Allah (SWT) grant you Jannah and guide and protect your wife and children, my friend.
Born in 1950 in the Sarre Hamadi village of The Gambia, Foday Suso was la master kora composer and performer as well as a skilled oral historian. From a young age, he lived and studied with his teacher Sikou Suso, the great uncle of Foday Musa Suso. Traditionally, in Mandingo culture, a father does not teach his son. The child is sent to live with a master kora player.
After mastering the kora, Suso traveled to Europe to play the kora. In 1974, Suso taught the kora in the Institute of African Studies Department at the University of Legon in Ghana. A few years later in 1977, Suso travelled to London in which he spent one month playing solo kora concerts before making his way to Chicago. His time in Chicago marked the beginning of his recording career. Here he also formed a group called the ‘Mandingo Griot Society’, with the famous percussionist Adam Rudolph. In the mid 80’s he released the album Watto Sitta. The integration of Suso’s cutting-edge kora playing with a graceful balance of natural synthesised tunes marking it as a pioneering achievement for African music.
Foday Musa collaborated with similarly omnivorous western musicians like Bill Laswell, Phillip Glass, Herbie Hancock and others to fuse West African music with classical minimalism, free jazz and avant funk’. Hancock and Suso have collaborated extensively, with Hancock featuring as a guest artist on the Watto Sitta album. Suso also collaborated with Hancock on a song for the Los Angeles Olympics and was a guest artist on Herbie’s Sound-System CD, which came out on CBS/Sony Records.
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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Obituary: Jali Foday Musa Suso
