“Sabaru” is the new album by the multi-award winning Guinean Kora virtuoso, singer and composer, Sekou Kouyate, who invented the electrified kora at the amazing age of 12 - and went on to pioneer the sound with Wa Wa pedals, fast riffs, experimental distortions and rock and jazz- influenced playing” Sekou Kouyate is considered among the world’s finest Kora players. The album SABARU, meaning patience, sums up Sekou´s musical history. Rooted in his West African traditions and influenced by the contemporary Blues, Soul, Funk and Jazz, that has also been his early inspirations, Sekou´s sound, mode of playing and the invention of the electric Kora, has inspired a whole new generation of Kora players. Sekou Kouyate is nominated for AFRIMA AWARDS 2015 and SABURU is on the Top Ten list of World Music Charts Europe October. Not only a great master of the classical musical tradition, Sekou Kouyate also amplifies his instrument and distorts the sound with wah wah pedals, , the pioneering idea he got at the age of 12, and that set new standards for West African traditional music to enter the stages of contemporary music. Yet preserving the virtues and techniques of the beautiful instrument, and the knowledge he has proudly inherited from his father, M´Bady Kouyate, and while you know it's still a Kora, the things he does with it, turn it on its head; it's little wonder he's been called the Jimi Hendrix of the instrument. The sound becomes totally new, exciting waterfalls of notes that are palpably thrilling. He has been called a "Musical Genius" and "The most exiting musician to have come out of the New Generation of the African Continent" and "Worlds best Kora player of his Generation". Constantly curious and freely experimenting with new sounds, Sekou’s ideas have many sound layers that he extracts from this rich instrument, with its endless possibilities for complex combinations of tones and polyrhythms, and which he performs with great individual expression. Singing with his velvet soft, rich voice, and performing with such abundance of feeling and technique, it is always an emotionally rewarding experience to enjoy Sekou Kouyate´s music. His music is a groovy, soulfull mix of classical Mandingo, and details of Blues, Flaminco, Soul, Jazz and Afro Pop. Hard to descirbe in few terms,Sekou Kouyate has created amusic style of its own.
Awards
Mundial Transatlantic Bridge Prize 2015
Nominated for Afrima Awards 2015
The well-worn and often overblown expression “music is a common language" has never been more apropos in the case of Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyate. US-born, England-based Driscoll speaks no French and Kouyate, who hails from the West African country of Guinea, little English. When they were brought together at the Nuit Metis (Mixed Night) festival in Marseille, France in 2010 and given a week to produce a concert, music was the only way they could communicate. It turns out, ... read more
“Sekou Kouyate is one of the best Kora player’s in the world- a musical genius”
Jacob Edgar, Cumbancha, USA
“Sekou is my master, I always tell him, but he denies”
Toumani Diabate, Mali
“Kouyate commands the Kora, coaxing from it’s strings an ethereal sound somewhere between a guitar
carved of crystal and a Rennaisance harpsichord. The man is a rare virtuoso”
Superjam, UK
“SEKOU KOUYATE ROCKS BIG TIME! Sekou Kouyate from Guinea Conakry must be a measureless
virtuoso of the Kora”
Alexander Agrell, Sydsvenskan, Sweden
“Sekou Kouyate is one of the most amazing musicians in his generation from the African continent”
Kinobe Herbert, Uganda/ USA
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