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Back Home David O'Byrne listens to Seckou Keita's new LP, Homeland

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David O'Byrne listens to Seckou Keita's new LP, Homeland

by David O'Byrne, International Desk
first published: October, 2024

approximate reading time: minutes

He has a commitment to experimentation that has seen him collaborate with such west African luminaries as Youssou N'Dour and Baaba Maal. 17102024125415-secoukieta-main.jpg

cover artSECKOU KEITA 
Homeland (Chapter 1)
Hudson records
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Seckou Keita is a Senegalese musician and composer descended from a family of griots - traditional, hereditary west African musicians, poets, story tellers and popular historians. As such Keita is a virtuoso on the kora, a west African instrument consisting of a calf skin covered gourd with two bridges and 21 strings, resembling a cross between a lute and harp, known to have existed in pretty much its current form for at least 800 years. 

Fuelled by that impressive legacy he has spent his near 30 year professional career building a sizeable body of work that has focused on crossing musical boundaries, blending and mixing diverse styles earning himself  the soubriquet "the master of collaboration". He has a commitment to experimentation that has seen him collaborate with such west African luminaries as Youssou N'Dour and Baaba Maal. Not to mention recording an album with Cuban jazz pianist Omar Sosa, three albums with well as Welsh harpist Catrin Finch, and perform live with a host of western musicians including English jazz pianist composer Zoe Rahman, Italian jazz guitarist Antonio Forcione. 

His own headlining performances have included a spot at the 2021 Proms, dates at the Brighton Festival and the London Jazz festival, and  performances with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and (hauntingly..!) the  BBC concert orchestra.Homeland (Chapter 1) is Keita's thirteenth album over the past 23 years is co produced by Moussa Ngom, whose previous credits include albums by Youssou N'Dour. Recorded in four countries - Senegal, UK, Belgium and Germany with vocals in four languages Mandinka, Wolof, English and French, and with a long list of collaborators, the album mixes acoustic and electronic music, traditional rhythms and urban beats.

 Contributors include Senegal's premier hip hop vocalist Daara J on the track Home Sweet Home, a multi lingual number which blends traditional African acoustic strings with very western piano, overlaid with hip hop beats and vocals. 

No less memorable are tracks featuring vocals by Hannah Lowe who supplies a chilling monologue on "deportation Blues" and Zena Edwards whose poetic number Reflections is a haunting elegy on the album's central theme of "home".

The various collaborations are bookended with two pieces; Bienvenu and Kibara in the traditional griot "storytelling" tradition", with Keita provides the haunting kora strings and words supplied by Mandinka vocalist Abdoulaye Sidibé. One source of possible influence and collaboration that noticeably doesn't appear to feature on Homeland is that of Keita's current home city, Nottingham.

Tindersticks and Sleaford Mods take note.

Seckou Keita will be touring UK through October and November with his specially assembled Homeland Band

UK Tour Dates
24/10/2024 - Southampton - Turner Sims
25/10/2024 - Salisbury - Wiltshire Music Centre
26/10/2024 - Shoreham-by-Sea - Ropetackle Arts Centre
27/10/2024 - Milton Keynes - The Stables
28/10/2024 - Bury St Edmunds - The Amex
30/10/2024 - Nottingham - Metronome
31/10/2024 - Sunderland - The Fire Station
02/11/2024 - Sheffield - Foundry
03/11/2024 - London - Koko
06/11/2024 - Kendal - Brewery Arts Centre
07/11/2024 - Leeds - Howard Assembly Rooms
08/11/2024 - Manchester - The Stoller Hall
09/11/2024 - Bangor - Pontio
10/11/2024 - Liverpool - Tung Auditorium, Yoko Ono Lennon Centre
12/11/2024 - Bristol - SWX

David O'Byrne
International Desk

David O'Byrne is a former fanzine writer and indie band manager, turned full time freelance journalist, travel writer and occasional fiction author based in Istanbul.


about David O'Byrne »»

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