Frank Bessem's Musiques d'Afrique: Djéour Cissokho

Frank Bessem's
Musiques d'Afrique:

Djéour Cissokho
(Senegal)

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Djéour Cissokho comes from a family of griots that have served Mandingo kings during their conquest wars. Djéour is the son of the great Soundioulou Cissokho, who died in 1994 and who was known as the king of the kora and had recorded a few albums with his wife Mahawa Kouyaté.

As all children of griots, Djéour Cissokho has learnt music since his dearest childhood both from his father and from his brothers. He grew up between Thiès, Dakar and the Casamance region, but in the evenings, the whole family was making music with Soundioulou. One day, Djéour took the kora and started to play, and his father sung with him. After a few years, Djéour started to be invited alone for to play at ceremonies. In 1990, he forms his own group Allalaké and he start to create his own style. Based in Dakar, he made a few cassettes, resulting in the album « Unité ».

In 1999, he decided to open up new horizons by playing with foreign musicians, and settled in Paris. From 2002 onwards, he performs quite regularly in various Paris venues, as well as on several world music festivals. Two albums, the 2003 « Guisna » and the new 2006 « Au fond de l’inconnu » show for an innovating approach, mixing traditional mandingo griot music with mbalax rhythms on the one hand, and influences of reggae, jazz and latin music.

On his album « Au fond de l’inconnu », recorded in Paris, he invited Super Etoile's keyboard player Moustapha Faye. In order to reach a larger African public, he sings two songs in French (lyrics by Josée Lapeyrée), addressing modern day issue such as immigration and the danger of money.

Sources:
Zoom-Zoum Productions press kit;
Musafrique.com;
djeour-cissokho.com.

Musicians on Au fond de l’inconnu:
Djéour Cissokho kora, lead vocals
Banta Cissokho vocals, backing vocals
Ousseynou Diouf percussion
Ablaye Kane guitar
Mamane Thiam tama
Alioune Wade "Marcus" bass
Kiki Bocandé bass on track 3, 7 and 9
Moustapha Ndiaye drums
Nakhte Ndiaye keyboards
Moustapha Faye keyboards on track 3, 5, 7 and 10
Thierry Deffrêne saxophone (9)
Jean-Yves saxophone (7)
Marie M. backing vocals (2, 4)
Fifi Diabaté & Fatoumata Kanoté backing vocals (6)
Madioula Manga backing vocals (1, 10)

Born: in Thiès.
Style: kora music / neo-traditional

Discography:

Title	Year	Label	Remarks
La nuit nous voit	2009	Zoom-Zoum / Rue Stendhal
Au fond de l’inconnu	2006	Zoom-Zoum / Africa Productions / Rue Stendhal 05110-2
Guisna	2003	Africa Productions 03075-2
Unité	1999	Compiled of two previously released cassettes