Cissoko Ablaye Storms Ghana on October 10
The acclaimed Senegalese Kora player, Kimitang Mahamadou Cissoko (aka Ablaye) will on Wednesday October 10, 2007 perform at the Alliance Francaise in Accra.
Cissoko, who began playing the Kora at the tender age of eight, had his first international exposure in the Norwegian capital, Oslo where he toured in 1986. Before then, he had fallen in love with the Senegalese city of Saint Louis, where he formed a band called Ninki-Nanka.
In 1996, he met French musician Jacques Hiligen and others during a multi cultural festival in Dakar as well as a kora festival in Casamance in Senegal. He performed with Ivorian balafonist Ali Keita, saxophonist Azize Diop and the guitarist Gille Rene.
During the Saint Louis Jazz Festival in 2002, Cissoko made a bold entry with an Afro European band known as Saint Louis Jazz Band. He played alongside big names such as the Senegalese bassist Kiki Bocande , Italian trombonist Philippe Selam and the German trumpeter Volker Goetze.
The Saint Loius Jazz Band was invited by the then French Cultural Minister M. Jack Lang to participate in the 2001 edition of Fete de la Musique in France. In the same year, the group recorded its first album during a tour of the former Soviet republics of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
The group has performed to audiences in several countries including France, Germany, Belgium, Portugal and Canada during festivals such as Chainon Manquant, Cour de Coeur Francophone, Rhino Jazz Festival and Sfinks Festival.
The Accra performance is being sponsored by the Alliance Francaise in collaboration with the French Embassy in Accra.
[Via Accra Mail]
