Africa - I Remember - ACE310.2

Tunde Jegede walking through London streets. Jegede VO says the impetus for composition came from his studies of African music, though he had been studying Western music as well. Jegede playing a kora (African harp-lute). The London Sinfonietta, conductor Markus Stenz, with Jegede playing kora. Arsenal Underground station. Jegede exits, walks home. Jegede VO says he was born in Britain but grew up surrounded by African culture and arts. Photo of Jegede’s sculptor father, Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede. Jegede VO says his father enabled him to meet people like Bob Marley and Bouly Cissokho. Photo of Bouly Cissokho, the Sengalese musician who set him off on his studies of the kora. Photo of Jegede playing kora. Photo of Jali Amadu Bansang Jobarteh whom Jegede met in 1980. Jegede talks about visiting the Gambia at age of eleven; with his sister looking out over rail of ship. Waterfront and riverside. Map of Africa showing the Gambia. Riverside with boys washing goats in the water, man in canoe, boys at water’s edge. Jegede VO talking about the duality of his experience, living in London but with this Gambian trip always in his mind. Jegede and Amadu Bansang Jobarteh playing Lamban, duet for kora. Jegede talks about "learning by listening". Jegede talks about wanting to document and record Jobarteh’s music as he’s one of the last of the Griot musicians, a line dating back to the thirteenth century. "They say that when a Griot dies, it’s like a library burning down." Jobarteh playing Tabarah with an ensemble of four koras (the other musicians are Jegede, Jegede’s sister, Maya Jobarteh, and Amadu Bansang Jobarteh’s son, Momodou Jobarteh), and women singers. Local people in Bakau at a naming ceremony attended by Jobarteh. Jegede VO talks about the importance and meaning of African names, and the role of Griots at such ceremonies. Maya Jobarteh playing with Amadu Bansang Jobarteh. Women singers, etc