Hard Kora

The first time I heard the Kora (a West Africa 21-string lute-bridge-harp) played live, was back in the 1980s in a pub in Nottingham. The musicians were the late Dembo Konte and Kausu Kuyateh. I was blown away by the hypnotic rhythms, it was like nothing I’d heard before. When I moved from Leicester to Leeds I immersed myself in West African music and started playing it out at DJ sets. This mix is presents a different take on kora music, showing how it can be fused with western idioms such as latin and jazz. The one is dedicated to Pete Buckenham from https://www.mixcloud.com/PystolPete/. Thanks for the Twitter sparring!