KORA MUSIC FROM WEST AFRICA
SONA JOBARTEH & BAND
Songwrither: sona jobarteh
Country: u. k. x gambia
Album: afro acoustic sound
Label: African guild records
Instrument: kora
Genre: acoustic west africa
Year: 2008
Sona
Jobarteh is a unique and pioneering musical icon of her time whose renown has
been rapidly flourishing globally. Born into a Griot family from the Gambia, a
tradition that dates back 7 centuries, she is the first female within this
tradition to become a professional virtuoso on the Kora. Her music is uniquely
poised between the preservation of her rich cultural heritage and an
accessible, modern style that relates to the current era and to audiences from
all over the world. At the heart of her success as an artist is her dedication
to humanitarian activism in the areas of social development and educational
reform on the continent of Africa.
Sona Jobarteh is a multi-instrumentalist and
composer from the Gambia. She was
born in 1983 into one of the five principal kora-playing
griot families
from West Africa – she is the first female professional kora player to come
from a griot family. She is the cousin of the well-known, celebrated kora
player Toumani Diabate as well as the sister of the renowned diaspora kora player Tunde Jegede.
She gave her first performance at London's Jazz Café when she was four years old, and performed at festivals several
times in her early childhood.
When still a music student she worked on
several orchestral projects including the "River of Sound" with the Irish
Chamber Orchestra, featuring Evelyn Glennie,
and other collaborative works including performances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia,
Milton Keynes City Orchestra and the Viva Chamber Orchestra.
In 2002 she performed in Vienna with the
renowned jazz vocalist Cleveland
Watkiss, also forming a part of his support act for Cassandra Wilson at the Barbican in London. She also featured on Damon Albarn's
Mali Music Project which was later performed for Jools Holland.
She has collaborated on stage with Oumou Sangaré,
Toumani Diabaté, Kasse Made Diabaté and the BBC
Symphony Orchestra. Jobarteh is a regular member of
her brother Tunde Jegede's African Classical Music Ensemble, which has toured
England, Ireland, Africa and parts of the Caribbean. She has contributed to his
albums Malian Royal Court Music and Lamentations, for which she composed two
pieces, one of which also featured on the album Trance Planet Vol. 5 (released
on Triloka records, Virgin in the US). She also works with the distinguished spoken-word artist
HKB FiNN as an instrumentalist, co-writer, singer and producer. For
her solo work, such as her performance at the 2014 Festival Internacional
Cervantino, in Mexico, she has
a band with members Kari Bannermann on electric guitar, Kyazi Lugangira on acoustic guitar, Mamadou Sarr on African percussions (as calabash or djembe), Alexander Boateng on drums and Andi McLean on the bass.
Her debut album was Afro-Acoustic Soul,
containing songs about bittersweet love and social themes. The influences on
this album are mixed with some that could be played on more conventional
European radio formats. Her
second was Fasiya (2011).
Jobarteh
also teaches the kora in London. She worked with her father, Sanjally Jobarteh,
in setting up a formal music school in the Gambia, named after her famous
grandfather.
She is English-born of African heritage, and
strongly identifies with the latter. Spending significant time in both England
and the Gambia, she blends different musical styles, from both the European and
West African traditions. However, unlike her contemporaries, she explores and
expands on traditional African roots rather than trying to fuse them with
contemporary hip-hop and jazz. Instead, she looks to reinterpret traditional
music. In addition to the kora, she also sings and plays the guitar.
Postagens
