Bringing the kora into the concert hall: Seckou Keita

DW (English)

The kora – sometimes known as the bridge harp – is a musical instrument from West Africa. Senegalese musician and composer Seckou Keita unites the instrument with a classical orchestra.

Transcript

00:00 Sekou Keita is a virtuoso of the kora, a traditional West African stringed instrument.

00:07 But how does Sekou bring it into completely different musical contexts?

00:13 And what challenges does he face in the process?

00:16 What I come from, a lot of the music is done by memories, to remember patterns.

00:24 And then when you write it, then I have to stick with the writing.

00:29 That's the challenge bit.

00:31 Sekou worked hard for 15 years to find a connection between the kora and European classical music.

00:43 The result is the piece "African Rhapsodies" that he and the BBC Concert Orchestra performed in the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham.

00:51 [Music]

01:00 The audience was moved.

01:02 This music just fills you full of joy. It brings tears.

01:08 Comforting to words from the heart.

01:11 Very seldom do I ever go to somewhere where I cry all the way through.

01:16 Absolutely wonderful, it was heavenly.

01:19 Sekou was born in Senegal and came to Britain in 1999,

01:25 where he's been trying out the kora's potential in various genres, like jazz, pop and world music.

01:31 Now he's moved on to classical.

01:34 The musical traditions may stand far apart, but Sekou focuses on the connections.

01:39 Back in the days, there was an empire called Gabu Empire.

01:44 So there, the kings used to order their compositions.

01:49 They would ask, some kora player will compose a special song for an event.

01:55 And I find a similarity. In fact, I've noticed writers back in the classical world, Bach or whatever,

02:01 they also have this system there.

02:03 So somehow, there's a similarity happening in different parts of this world.

02:08 I think here we've got something really special.

02:10 There's a real team vision of what we're trying to do.

02:16 We're always learning from each other's backgrounds, each other's music, and I think that's a wonderful thing.

02:21 Sekou came from a family of griots, the professional poets, singers and historians

02:30 that have passed on traditional knowledge for centuries.

02:33 Essentially, West African bards.

02:37 [Singing]

02:42 Sekou's been living in Nottingham, in England's East Midlands, since 2004.

02:48 I was born in the southern part of Senegal, a place called Kazamas, a town called Zigansho.

02:55 So I grew up there with my grandfather, my mom's father, who's my mentor.

03:00 So, age of seven, my grandfather taught me how to build my first instrument.

03:05 Age of 14, I started to learn the repertoire of some traditional songs

03:09 that dated back in centuries with a story behind them.

03:12 Age of 18, and I left the family.

03:16 The kora originated in West Africa, likely in the 13th or 14th century.

03:23 It's made of a calabash gourd covered with an animal skin with a long wooden neck attached.

03:29 It's played using only the thumbs and index fingers.

03:34 So that's the bass and the melody.

03:37 Only the two thumbs.

03:40 The two fingers are free to play, to improvise at the same time.

03:46 Like this.

03:48 [Music]

04:04 What makes a fusion of kora and classical especially tricky is that,

04:09 while music is written down on paper in Europe, Sekou learned his craft by ear.

04:14 [Music]

04:18 When I was young, I asked my uncle, Uncle Sola, I wanted to go to the conservatoire

04:23 to learn how to read and write music like that.

04:28 And he said no.

04:30 And I was really disappointed because he said to me, "You don't need it, you got it there."

04:34 So if you open this thing in the mail, it's just like, "Okay, lovely lines, numbers, what are they?"

04:40 [Laughs]

04:41 So I have to hear it.

04:43 The premiere in Nottingham proved that Sekou can successfully integrate the kora into classical works,

04:49 a mix of traditions that simply enriches the music.

04:53 [Music]

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