The Gambian kora virtuoso, vocalist, educator, composer, and activist Sona Jobarteh is a modern pioneer of the kora - the 21-stringed harp-lute of the Manding peoples of West Africa. The mainly male tradition dates back over seven centuries was passed on from father to son, until Sona, who is the first professional female Kora virtuoso to come from any of the five principal West African Griot dynasties. She has recorded with her brother, fellow kora master, cellist, and composer Tunde Jegede, is the cousin of Toumani Diabaté, and was invited by Ballake Sissoko to play a duet for his 2021 record, Djourou.
Sona Jobarteh plays at Pioneer Works on Sunday, April 23.
Sona Jobarteh is classically trained (Afropop interview) having studied cello, harpsichord, and piano at the Royal College of Music, and subsequently pursued composition at the Purcell School of Music, (Big Ears Festival); her music both embraces tradition and stretches it. She’s performed with British jazz singer Cleveland Watkiss, works in her brother’s group the African Classical Music Ensemble, and scored the documentary film Motherland, where she used the kora in non-traditional ways, as a bass instrument and tuned it to an Arabic scale and invented a new instrument called the Nkoni - a cross between the Kora and the Donso Ngoni. In 2015, she founded the Gambia Academy, which teaches new curriculum designed to take on the colonial influence and teaching about history, traditions, culture, and languages of the Gambia, including music. More recently she worked on the soundtrack of the Idris Elba film Beast, co-wrote a track on LL Cool J’s latest with Q Tip, and in 2022, released her latest record, Badinyaa Kumoo.
In this interview, recorded in Knoxville, TN, where she performed recently at the Big Ears Festival 2023, Sona Jobarteh describes her career journey, her instrument, the kora, and growing up in one of the great griot families. Sona Jobarteh, as a role model, admits that she has carried a resentful burden of being the first (and only) female professional kora player. Well, first she was working to achieve that in football (soccer), then, later, in music. She has just mainly wanted to be a player, like any other, and yet is quite aware of the power of being seen and inspiring future players who are women and girls. Jobarteh, as the educator, further says that what inspires her is creating the opportunity of neutralized spaces, at the academy, and on stages for students who are women, and may not necessarily come from a griot family. Listen to music by Sona Jobarteh and the whole conversation for this New Sounds. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4741, with Sona Jobarteh from Big Ears (First aired 4/18/23)
ARTIST: Toumani Diabate
WORK: Elyne Road [1:30]
RECORDING: The Mande Variations
SOURCE: Nonesuch #433724
INFO: nonesuch.com
ARTIST: Maya Jobarteh & Tunde Jegede
WORK: Maya Jobarteh: Song of the Waterfall [7:40]
RECORDING: Lamentation
SOURCE/INFO: tundejegede.com
ARTIST: Sona Jobarteh
WORK: Mali Ni Ce [4:57]
RECORDING: Fasiya
SOURCE: African Guild Records
INFO: https://sonajobarteh.com/fasiya or Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon.com, AppleMusic
ARTIST: Sona Jobarteh
WORK: Ubuntu [5:12]
RECORDING: Badinyaa Kumoo
SOURCE: African Guild Records
INFO: sonajobarteh.band
ARTIST: Ballake Sissoko and Sona Jobarteh
WORK: Djourou [4:50]
RECORDING: Djourou
SOURCE: No Format
INFO: https://ballake.bandcamp.com/album/djourou
ARTIST: Sona Jobarteh
WORK: Gambia [5:11]
RECORDING: Gambia
SOURCE/INFO: sonajobarteh.com
ARTIST: Ali Farka Touré / Toumani Diabaté
WORK: Hawa Dolo [5:01]
RECORDING: In the Heart of the Moon
SOURCE: Nonesuch World Circuit #79920
INFO: www.nonesuch.com