Joe Driscoll And Sekou Kouyate

Joe Driscoll And Sekou Kouyate

Joe Driscoll And Sekou Kouyate is a collaboration between US-born musician Joe Driscoll and Guinean kora player Sekou Kouyate. Kouyate is from Conakry, Guinea, and is raised in a respected musical family there. He is trained in the traditional playing of the kora, but is also known for extending that tradition into other styles and for an intense, effects-driven approach on the instrument. In France, he is known as the “Jimi Hendrix of the kora” because of that playing style.

Kouyate tours internationally as part of Ba Cissoko, a group made up of his cousin and brothers, and is identified as an ex-member of the band. Driscoll lives in Bristol, England, and has toured widely with a solo set built around live looping. His performance style uses beatbox, guitar, harmonica, percussion and other sounds to create layered arrangements. Cee-Lo Green calls him “the gangsta with an iron lung”.

As a duo, Driscoll and Kouyate bring together reggae, hip-hop, folk and West African kora traditions. Driscoll describes their work as rooted in shared musical interests rather than shared language, with Kouyate drawing on African rhythms and traditions and Driscoll coming from a background in reggae and hip-hop. Their partnership is framed by an emphasis on rhythm, melody and craft, and they record and perform as a cross-cultural live act.

Driscoll has performed at Glastonbury Festival, Electric Picnic in Ireland, and many other major stages worldwide. The collaboration also plans a follow-up album.