BIOGRAPHY

Seckou Keita has been riding the wave of global success since the early 2000s. The Senegalese musician now lives the U.K., where the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards once declared him, “Musician of the Year.”  His dazzling success is a family tradition and even his charismatic grandfather Jali Kemo Cissokho was a renowned West African griot. Three centuries of mysteries and legends associated with the kora live on through this musical legend, who often plays his kora like a percussion instrument.

Seckou Keita, who has made his home in Nottingham, earned praised from the BBC Orchestra, which accompanied his magical fingers to the create the musical masterpiece, African Rhapsodie, a remarkable undertaking guided by the enchantment and subtleties of Keita’s kora and arrangements by renowned Italian composer Davide Mantovani.

Had he lived in another era, Keita’s kora playing would surely have made Bach and Beethoven blush with pleasure! The way he divinely treats each of the 22 strings of his African harp has the effect of leaving the listener in complete awe. Keita draws from his inner being an ancestral faith that comes alive in each of his musical performances. Inhabited by his art, the musician enhances his space at the junction where great family of world musicians comes together. He often collaborates with his many musician friends, such as the South African cellist, Abel Selaocoe, Gambian Kora player and percussionist, Suntou Susso, and Cuban pianist, Omar Sosa. With Sosa and Venezuelan percussionist Gustavo Ovalles, Keita has completed yet another poetic fusion project under the name, SUBA Trio. He also paired up with Welsh harpist, Catrin Finch, a duo that has received praise from press and music lovers alike, and has led to the release of three albums of instrumental bliss in ten years. Seckou Keita is guaranteed to carry your spirit up to the heavens and beyond.