• Foday Musa Suso & Tony Trischka and Joel Harrison
• 9:00pm

African Roots of Country Music:

Foday Musa Suso: kora, voice Tony Trischka: banjo, banza, cello banjo Joel Harrison: electric, acoustic, National Steel guitars, voice

This newly formed trio will perform both traditional songs of W. Africa and Appalachia and original compositions highlighting the connections between the two cultures. The deeply eclectic personalities of the players will bring considerable influence from the worlds of jazz and electronics, creating new worlds of imagination in the midst of timeless roots music.

Foday Musa Suso is one of the most important griots from W. Africa, due not only to his mastery of traditional Gambian music but his alliances with American artists such as Herbie Hancock, Philip Glass, and Kronos Quartet. Trischka is one of the most important banjo players of his generation having developed a virtuosic, modern approach to the instrument while remaining deeply rooted in Bluegrass and Old-Time tradition. Harrison is a guitarist/composer with a staggeringly diverse background including his break through project Free Country, in which he found new ways to arrange classic country songs from a jazz perspective.

Both Trischka and Harrison have considerable experience with African music. Some years ago Trischka developed a whole show devoted to banjo history and its roots in the African instrument called the “akonting”. Harrison studied W. African drumming both in Boston and Ghana in the 80’s and has investigated S. African mbira, Congolese guitar styles, and Malian balifon music as well. Suso was one of the first Africans to delve into electric fusion music in the 70’s with the Mandingo Giot society, and since then has collaborated with numerous Western artists.

www.fmsuso.com www.tonytrischka.com www.joelharrison.com