Biography
Foday Musa Suso belongs to West Africa’s Mandingo tribe and works as a griot, a hereditary musician and cultural curator whose lineage reaches back to the first known player of the 21-string kora lute. After completing his traditional apprenticeship on the continent, he moved to the US in 1977 and established The Mandingo Griot Society to present his indigenous music to an emerging audience eager for those traditions. The ensemble featured Adam Rudolph, who later appeared on Hassan Hakmoun’s Gift of the Gnawa CD, and hosted jazz trumpeter Don Cherry as a guest, foreshadowing world-music fusion long before the worldbeat era.
Albums