Sabaru (One World Records, 2015)
Son of kora player M´Bady Kouyate and cousin to Ba Cissoko, Guinean kora musician and composer Sekou Kouyate has collaborated with Roberto Fonseca, the zouk band Kassav, Paris’s Marco Prince FFF, Cameroon’s Blick Bassy and musician and rapper Joe Driscoll on their 2014 release of Faya.
Considered one of the best contemporary kora players and inventor of his own electrified kora with wa-wa effects, Mr. Kouyate has developed a style that has wowed fans worldwide. Putting those prodigious talents to work on his release of Sabaru, out on the One World Records, Mr. Kouyate proves to be a powerful force on the African music scene.
Together with kora players Sefoudi Kouyate and Mohamed Kalissa, bassist and backing vocalist Bouba Kouyate; drummer and calabash player Mohamed Kaba; jembe and conga player Facinet Sylla; tama, udu, clave, drummer and conga player Francis Kweku Osei; bassist Gaddiel Amoah; keys player Carl Amoah; and Mr. Kouyate on vocals, kora, electric kora and guitar, Sabaru strikes on a bright and palatable sound that’s sure to please kora fans and African/world music lovers.
Opening Sabaru with lusciously seductive “Dela,” Mr. Kouyate conjures up a sound that comes across as deceptively free and easy, but upon a closer listen the music is carefully crafted with layers of kora, bass, guitar and delicious amount of percussion.
Slipping into the pleasingly good-natured “Dindinya,” fans get a personal listen into the soulful vocals of Mr. Kouyate. Fans should certainly check out stingingly dazzlingly “Groove Kora,” a kora flashy track so good it should come with a warning.
Equally delightful is the rich sounds of “Fouta,” “Emourafama” and the kickass rocking, jazzy groove of “Nade.” The sweetly poignant “Desert” and the kora and percussion rich “Dificil” are another pair of standout tracks.
Writing all of the music and lyrics to Sabaru in addition to his phenomenal kora work, Mr. Kouyate blazes a fresh path through the African musical landscape and keeps to a tight, neat, high-octane energetic sound that will surely make fans begging for more.
Purchase Sabaru
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
