I first encountered Ba Cissoko in their home in Marseilles during a packed performance at Club de Sud. Guinean kora master Ba Cissoko and his troupe feature not one, but two kora players, a bassist, and a percussionist. They started out in a pretty standard Afropop groove and then one of the kora players would quick his effects box rack and start wailing out an improvisation kora lead like you might hear from Eric Clapton -- except he's playing with two fingers...his whole body would light up and lift off the stage. the crowd just went nuts!!
On their latest album, 'Seno', they manage to create a brand new sound which has rare cross-generational appeal back home in their native Guinea. The old people love it because it reveres the venerable tradtions of the griot and the kora. The youth love it because it twists and moulds that tradition into enticing new forms.
Check out the new album by these boys, you won't get dissapointed!
