Foday Musa Suso (18 February 1950 – 25 May 2025) was a Gambian musician and composer.

Biography

He was a member of the Mandinka ethnic group and was a

griot A griot (; ; Manding languages, Manding: or (in N'Ko script, N'Ko: , or in French spelling); also spelt Djali; or / ; ) is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician. Griots are masters of communicatin ...

. Griots are the oral historians and musicians of the Mandingo people who live in several west African nations. Griots are a living library for the community providing history, entertainment, and wisdom while playing and singing their songs. It is an extensive verbal and musical heritage that can only be passed down within a griot family. Suso was a direct descendant of Jali Madi Wlen Suso, the griot who invented the kora over four centuries ago. He spent his childhood in a traditional Gambian village, in a household filled with kora music. Though his father was a master kora player, in griot tradition, a father does not teach his own children the instrument. When Foday was nine, his father sent him to live with master kora teacher Sekou Suso in the village of Pasamasi, Wuli District. He trained with Sekou Suso until the age of 18. Suso's primary instrument was the kora, but he also played the gravikord and several other instruments. Suso emigrated to

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, United States in 1977, being one of the first jalis to relocate to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. Once in Chicago, he formed the Mandingo Griot Society with local

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

s Hamid Drake and Adam Rudolph, which played fusion music around the world. He had performed with

Bill Laswell William Otis Laswell (born February 12, 1955) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, wo ...

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

Pharoah Sanders Pharoah Sanders (born Ferrell Lee Sanders; October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound", San ...

Jack DeJohnette Jack DeJohnette (born August 9, 1942) is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. Known for his extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians including Charles Lloyd (jazz musician), Charles Lloyd, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, B ...

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, Yousif Sheronick, and the

Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classical musi ...

('' Pieces of Africa''). He had contributed to music for the

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in 1984 and 2004. His electrified kora can also be heard on several tracks on

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. He started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of ...

's 1984

electro-funk Electro (also known as electro-funk, and sometimes referred to as electro-pop)
Gl ...

album '' Sound-System''. The following year, Suso and Hancock came out with another album, '' Village Life'', that consists entirely of duets between them, Hancock on synthesizer and Suso on kora,

talking drum The talking drum is an hourglass-shaped drum from West Africa, which can be used as a form of speech surrogacy by regulating its pitch and rhythm to mimic the tone and prosody of human speech. It has two drumheads connected by leather t ...

s, and vocals. Suso died on 25 May 2025, at the age of 75.

Discography

* 1970 – ''Kora Music from Gambia'' ( Folkways) * 1979 – Mandingo Griot Society: ''Mandingo Griot Society'' (

Flying Fish The Exocoetidae are a family (biology), family of Saltwater fish, marine Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish in the order (biology), order Beloniformes, known colloquially as flying fish or flying cod. About 64 species are grouped in seven genus, ge ...

) * 1982 – Mandingo Griot Society: ''Mighty Rhythm'' (Flying Fish) * 1984 – ''Hand Power'' (Flying Fish) * 1984 – Mandingo Featuring Foday Musa Suso: ''Watto Sitta'' (

Celluloid Celluloids are a class of materials produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, often with added dyes and other agents. Once much more common for its use as photographic film before the advent of safer methods, celluloid's common present-day ...

), produced by

* 1984 –

: '' Sound-System'' ( Columbia), guest appearances * 1985 – with Herbie Hancock: '' Village Life'' (Columbia) * 1986 – ''Mansa Bendung'' (Flying Fish) * 1988 – ''The Dreamtime'' (CMP), solo recording produced by Bill Laswell * 1985 – with Herbie Hancock: '' Jazz Africa'' ( Verve) * 1992 – with

: ''Music from "The Screens"'' ( POINT Music) * 1995 – with Possession & African Dub: '' Off World One'' (Sub Meta), produced by Bill Laswell, FMS plays balaphone * 1996 – with

: '' Message from Home'' (Verve), guest appearance * 2005 – with

: ''

Music from the Hearts of the Masters ''Music from the Hearts of the Masters'' is an album by American drummer Jack De Johnette and Gambian Kora (instrument), kora player Foday Musa Suso. It was recorded in January 2002 in New York City, and was released in 2005 by Golden Beams Produc ...

'' (Golden Beams) * 2005 – with Jack DeJohnette's The Ripple Effect: ''Hybrids'' (Golden Beams) * 2008 – ''The Two Worlds'' (Orange Mountain Music) * 2012 – with Gretchen Rowe: ''Koralations: Heart to Heart'' (African Kora meets American Poetry)

Sources

*''Jali Kunda: Griots of West Africa & Beyond'' (1996). Book and CD set. Ellipsis Arts

References

External links

Foday Musa Suso official siteFoday Musa Suso page
from Other Minds site
''Kora Music from Gambia'' Album Details
at

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was f ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Suso, Foday Musa 1950 births 2025 deaths Jazz fusion musicians Gambian singers Gambian emigrants to the United States American people of Mandinka descent Gambian Kora players Griots People from Upper River Division