Whats happening in African music lately?
I’ve just come back from Senegal, where I accompanied master drummer Mamady Keita in this wonderful project we’ve decided to make an annual event there. And I’ve just composed four songs that still need refining. I have so many projects in my head, but my work with the quintet and my drumming projects are my priority at the moment. How did the kora make its mark on you? I was born to a family of kora players, so it will always have an important part in my life. It’s such a complete instrument – you have to play the bass, the accompaniment and the improvisation at the same time. You’ve experimented with different tunings. There’s still plenty of ground to explore in terms of tuning. My kora has 22 strings – plenty to experiment with. How do you find non-African audiences in general? My music is quite special in the sense that it’s not typical or traditional African music. So whether you’re African or not, you react the same. We’ve travelled to 20 countries and always had the same reacti
