Soto Koto World Culture - Jaliba Kuyateh

This is Jaliba from The Gambia, a man of music and king of the kora sound. He was known as the Kora Boy, singing in small groups and parties and at the same time attending school, playing kora and learning the trade of the music business in Banjul in the shadows of Ifangbondi Band. He found his way to Senegal and Guinea Bissau singing River Gambia kora-blues. He traveled from The Gambia abroad to London, Paris, Amsterdam and the United States and everywhere he played the people would applaud. He gained international fame in Amsterdam were he played at the African Music Festival in the Paradiso with other major African stars. He is a great singer known as the “Kumareh bird” because of his silky voice. Without his singing, playing and dancing, the kora music would not have been the same. From this time on he had no other name than Jali, a noble role as a griot ordained by the community and respected by all.

He is the driving force of the Gambian music scene and a man who made the instrument of kora well know in the world from Gambia. Jaliba advanced the kora sound mixing it with modern European and American instruments. He became the driving force of contemporary Manding music by making the kora sound a unique brand of contemporary music that appeals to Bilues & Jazz lovers, funky ambient, Urban and even Kora Hip Hop. If you listen to the song Bantaba, in which he duets with Karin Patterson, this tune has an irresistable American brand of funk with the English glowing voice of Karin and the flow of the tingling kora sound, which give the industry a new music of cultural diversity.

Jaliba performs his show both plugged with an 6-piece band from Africa and sessions with international artists like those who played on his worldly–global sounds album Kora Dance including Don Grusin, a veteran Jazz painist, Larry Williams of Seawind & Gary Herbig who played sax solo on Stevie Wonder & Beyonce hits, Leon Ware (Vocals), Armand Sabal Lecco, bass player for Sting, Peter Gabriel, Celin Dion and others, Jimmy Earl who played bass with Chick Corea and Toshi Yanaga on lead guitar.

The sound of the kora is a harp-like sound and sometimes sounds like a guitar. This African instrument is an original instrument from West Africa from the country called The Gambia. The Gambia was a part of the former Mandinka empire of West Africa in the 1600s. The instrument was used for accompanying poetry readers, kings' parades and war preparation. The music is inspiring and the songs carry messages of faith, strength, history and geneology. The kora carries a lasting value for the people of Gambia and their heritage.

Jaliba Kuyateh has released various music samples and musical styles with many artists around the world. He has toured France, the USA, Portugal, England, Holland, Sweden, Norwary and most of West Africa.

Jaliba Kuyateh has been appointed a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF for his service and benefit concerts to raise funds for community projects, social awaresss and cultural education.

His band consists of hard working musicians who have played with him for over a decade. They play Mandingo drums blended with Jazz drumming and spiced with hand percussions of various bells, bomboo and calabases.

He sings both in English and in the African langauges of Senegalese Wollof and Gambian Mandinka, which makes him the king of voices. He has a long, sharp winding voices that calls spirit from the deep forest. Jaliba can sing in seven octaves.

The album Kora Dance is a stage show of two hours with dancing and singing girls from The Gambia and an all-star band direct from Africa known as the Kumareh. The Kumareh is a singing bird found on the banks of the River Gambia in West Africa.

Jaliba Kuyateh is a legend in his lifetime. He is one of the great living luminaries of Gambian music. His whole life has been dedicated to playing music and he is soley responsible for the introduction of Gambian kora music to millions of people outside The Gambia and he has elevated the prestige of Gambian music in the music world. For this, his name will go down in letters of gold in the annals of the history of world music.

Also available from Soto Koto Music

Mandingo Beat CD
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Soto Koto Band CD
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Gumbay Dance CD
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