Foday Musa Suso

Who is Foday Musa Suso?

Foday Musa Suso was born into a Mandinka griot family in the Gambia, a lineage of jalis, the hereditary oral historians and musicians who preserve community memory through song. Tradition holds that a father does not teach his own son the kora, so at age nine his father sent him to study under master kora teacher Sekou Suso in the village of Pasamasi. He traced his family line back to Jali Madi Wulen Suso, credited in griot tradition with inventing the kora centuries earlier. In 1977 Suso emigrated to Chicago, becoming one of the first jalis to settle in North America, where he formed the Mandingo Griot Society with percussionists Hamid Drake and Adam Rudolph, fusing kora music with jazz and minimalism. He went on to collaborate with major international artists including Herbie Hancock, Philip Glass, Bill Laswell, Pharoah Sanders, and the Kronos Quartet, and contributed music heard at the 1984 and 2004 Olympic Games. He died in 2025, remembered as a leading ambassador of Gambian griot culture on the world stage.

Sources: Songlines, "Obituary: Foday Musa Suso (1950-2025)" · Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, "Foday Musa Suso, Kora Music from the Gambia" · Wikipedia, "Foday Musa Suso"