Sekou Kouyaté - Sabaru (2015)

'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 age of 12 - and went on to pioneer the sound with fast riffs, experimental distortions and funk and jazz-influenced playing. His family band, Section Kora, impressed audiences and the press on their recent successful tours Scandinavia and Mexico - and they recorded this album during visits to Copenhagen in 2014 and 2015, with the guest star, Francis Kweku Osei for Ghana. Some of the songs are performed entirely by the multi instrumentalist Sekou Kouyate. '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 had been his early inspirations. Sekou extracts multiple sound layers from his Kora - a rich instrument with endless possibilities for complex combinations of tones and polyrhythms - and on which he performs with great individual expression 'Sabaru' is full of funky bass lines, irresistible rhythms, soulful vocals… and most of all, mesmerising Kora playing… like silver pearls of sound falling from a sunlit sky... Today he is considered one of the world's best Kora players. Sekou Kouyate is nominated for Afrima Awards 2015 and 'Sabaru' is on the Top Ten list of World Music Charts Europe October, November and December, on Transglobal World Music Chart Top 20 November and on the Global Village Top 40 December.