Transitional Times

Bai Konté, the grandfather of Dawda Jobarteh, was responsible for some of the classical kora repertoire still played today and was the first African kora player to perform solo in the US, when he appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1973. His father and two uncles carried on the griot tradition, performing at weddings and circumcision ceremonies in rural Gambia, but Jobarteh was determined to take the kora to a global audience and now resides in Denmark. Following on from 2011's Northern Light, Gambian Night, his second solo album smartly synthesises tradition with modernity.

The virtuosity of ancient strings informs the stately solo piece ‘Winter Trees Stand Sleeping’ and the haunting full-band version of ‘Kaira’, a traditional tune made famous by Toumani Diabaté. A supple workout on John Coltrane's ‘Transition’ finds him dueting delightfully with the saxophone of Jakob Dinesen, while ‘Bright Sky Over Monrovia’ is also a fine showcase for Dawda's powerful baritone voice. Most ambitious of all is ‘Jamming in the Fifth Dimension’, a freewheeling improvisation for percussion and electric kora, which has been treated to sound like a psych guitar; it resembles one of the more expansive global adventures imagined by former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart. Impressive.