 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
Send us your review:
Describe the atmosphere and live music at a local pub, restaurant, festival, church or temple, club night.... inspire other people to check it out!
|
|
|
Musician: Malo Sonko
Location: London
Instruments: vocals / percussion
Music: Mandinka Drumming / Senegal
|
|
|
HOW I CAME TO THIS MUSICÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýWHERE I PLAYÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýA FAVOURITE SONG |
  
|
|
 ÌýÌýListen (2.26) to Amadou Sekou performed solo by Malo Sonko
ÌýÌýListen (2.00) to Malo Sonko talk about his music
'If I can't play I have to go somewhere where I can play. Drums are my medicine - music is my medicine.'
How I came to this music
I was born into music. I'm from Abene in the Casamance region of Senegal and from the Mandinka tribe which has it's own strong musical tradition. I first learnt seourouba, the traditional Mandinka drum, as well as djumo, the Mandinka word for bougarabou, with my father who was a drummer.
 I was six years old when I started to play. I would try and play my father's drum when he fell asleep but my playing would wake him up. He'd say 'Please leave the drum alone, only I'm allowed to play it'. I knew that this drum was very precious but when he fell asleep again I couldn't resist playing even though it might annoy him. In the end I begged my father to make me a drum which he did but it had a plastic top and I didn't like the sound so I threatened not to go to school unless he made me a good drum. Within a few weeks I had my first proper drum!
I started missing school; music was in my head all the time. My father had to take me to school himself to make sure I attended lessons. After school I would play my own small drums with friends. Sometimes if my favourite football team was playing in the village, my friends and I would go and play to support them.
When I was eight years old I met a Gambian who had a rumba group - rumba are four drums accompanied by one big bass drum. This group came to my village to rehearse and every day they went to the bush where the women worked, danced and sang and I went with them. Within a few weeks the group had a public performance in the village and they said that I was going to play with them but being so young I was worried about what my Mum would say about me performing in public. I was far more scared about what she would say than the performance itself and the fact that I would have to play four big drums that I had only been learning for a few weeks.
When the performance began the villagers couldn't believe it because they didn't know I could play the drums so well. My brother ran to get my mother who came and started crying because she was so proud and happy but also worried about what would become of me at such a young age. I will never forget that day as long as I live.
In my teens I started the initiation to the djembe with two master drummers. A few years later, I started forming small troups. After a few years of playing with older artists I founded Ballet Theatre Troupe Bitinibaa which I still perform with back home.
[next page]// page 1 | 2 | 3 |
|
