Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

SUSO, Foday Musa

(b c'51, Gambia) Kora player and a griot, or hereditary master (see Kora), said to be descended from the first kora player, Jalimadi Woleng Suso. He went to U of Ghana, taught kora there at Institute of African Studies, met drummer Adam Rudolph; they formed the Mandingo Griot Society '77 in Chicago, with Joe Thomas on bass, Hamid Drake on drums, John Markiss on guitar, and carved a unique niche in African music with mixture of modern and trad. instruments, blending Mandingo music with infl. of R&B, reggae, Latin and jazz. LPs on Flying Fish incl. Mighty Rhythm '78 with guest Don Cherry (later on Fonti Musicali CD), Mandingo Griot Society '81. They remained in Chicago, playing locally, running workshops; he played on Herbie Hancock's Sound System '84 and Hancock guested on Watto Sitto '85 on Celluloid; he worked with Philip Glass on soundtrack Powaquaatsie and on a score for a French play The Screens. Suso also released trad. Kora Music From The Gambia on Folkways; his Jali Kunda '97 on Ellipses Arts was a compilation of field recordings from Gambia, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau ('a sense of eavesdropping on something both ordinary and special', wrote Lucy Dur n in Gramophone), as well as three studio-recorded pieces by Suso with guests Glass (on piano) and Pharoah Sanders, which sound less interesting than the real stuff. Other Suso albums were The Dreamtime on CMP, Hand Power and Mansa Bandung ('Welcome The King') on Flying Fish.