Biography of Foday Musa Suso

Foday Musa Suso (b. Sarre Hamadi Village, Wuli District, in the Upper River Division of eastern Gambia) is a musician and composer from the West African nation of Gambia. He is a member of the Mandinka ethnic group, and is a jali. His primary instrument is the kora, but he also plays the gravikord and several other instruments. Suso emigrated to Chicago in the 1970s, being one of the first jalis to relocate to North America. He has performed with Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet. He was also a co-founder of the fusion jazz band The Mandingo Griot Society. His electrified kora can also be heard on several tracks on Herbie Hancock's 1984 fusion jazz 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 drums, and vocals.