From: Sandra Berlin [management_at_equatorfestival_dot_com]

Sent: 02 May 2012 15:58

Subject: Sura Susso, 12th May _at_ Ashford Youth Theatre

Press Release

Sura Susso

Virtuoso kora player, percussionist and singer songwriter is known to captivate his audience with his entrancing and infectious music

Gambia born Sura Susso, started his lifelong study of the African harp, called the kora, and a range of other percussion instruments at the age of four. His father, Mamudou Susso, is a renowned kora player, and his late mother, Fatou Bintu Cissokho, originally from the Casamance region of Senegal, was a formidable singer and percussionist. The family household was constantly filled with music, and this musical immersion in such a natural environment as a child provided the solid foundations for Sura?s musical development.

Sura came to the UK at the age of seventeen, as the percussionist in his brother?s band, the Seckou Keita Quintet. As a solo artist, he has always prided himself on promoting his traditional music from his cultural roots in The Gambia, as well as absorbing new genres into his own style. He has performed and recorded in a number of interesting cross-cultural settings: Collaborations with the great violinist and dear friend of Sura?s, Maximilian Baillie have seen the pair perform nationally in the UK and Berlin and artfully mix the complementary sounds of the kora and the violin. One particular collaboration with the duo Askew and Avis led to the recording of the Kora Song Radio Album, which was met with great appreciation from the musical world.

Sura also contributed to a project initiated by Brecon Jazz festival. This featured a joint performance with Blue Note?s French jazz trumpeter Eric Truffaz.

?Sila Kang is a beautiful, quietly experimental album brimming over with imagination and delivered with virtuosic authority that announces a startling new talent?

Rock & Reel

All of Sura?s musical journeys and adventures have certainly opened up his musical horizons. A great future as a solo musician in his own right is taking shape. The debut album Sila Kang was released on KuliMarow Music on the 20th of June 2011. It received critical acclaim in national publications and is extensive airplay on BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 3.

?Exquisite kora playing on this album, which is reminiscent of some of the best harp playing I grew up with?

Cerys Matthews, Songlines

Sura Susso

Saturday 12^th May, 7.30pm

Ashford Youth Theatre

1 Dover Place

Ashford

TN23 1HU (opp station)

Tickets: ?10, ?8 concession and ?3 child (up to 12yrs)

www.equatorfestival.com

www.myspace.com/jalisura

ENDS