ABOUT THE MUSICIANS

YERMANDE /YAIR-mann-day/ noun (Wolof)

Affection, compassion, love, sympathy, mercy

Aba Diop & the Yermande Family

Yermande Family is a Senegalese supergroup formed by master sabar percussionist and griot lineage holder Aba Diop.The band has a rotating all-star membership to accommodate various configurations but no matter the constellation, the live performances are electrifying and wholly unique: never before has “sabar” like this been offered to a world stage.

Aba Diop was born to play sabar.

A griot’s griot, his father was griot, as was his father’s father, as was his mother’s father, and both his grandparents’ parents: wisdom-keepers of the talking drum. Even in Senegal, where Aba lives and works, this unbroken lineage is a rarity.

West African Sabar Fusion

Aba Diop & The Yermande Family and the various constellations of performer groups all have in common the sabar drum, its rhythms, and a captivating live performance at the heart of the music.

Sabar drums have been a communication device with the ability to relay messages from village to village for miles. The percussion sounds are very much a language which communicates messages of healing and praise: the call-and-response stories and codes of thousands of years of oral tradition.

Rhythmically the music is influenced by traditional West African polyrhythms, the modern, Latin-influenced syntax of Senegalese pop music known as “mbalax,” and Aba’s own original compositions.

Melodically you hear the Sufi-influenced hovering microtonal singing and maqam scales accompanying the elastic, improvisational guitar styles found in the rock and jazz music of the west.

The overall effect is deeply mystical, uplifting, and undeniably dance worthy.

Aba Diop &
the Yermande Family

Yermande Family is a Senegalese supergroup formed by master sabar percussionist and griot lineage holder Aba Diop. The band has a rotating all-star membership to accommodate various configurations but no matter the constellation, the live performances are electrifying and wholly unique: never before has “sabar” like this been offered to a world stage.

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The Aba Diop Trio

Aba Diop, Noumoucounda Cissoko and Jason Hosier are a power trio transmitting a new genre of West African sabar fusion music featuring the propulsive rhythms of Diop’s sabar drum percussion, the kora, a 21-stringed double-bridged African harp-lute played by the renowned Cissoko, and the elastic fluidity of Hosier’s jazzy, meditative guitar riffs.

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Aba Diop & Jason Hosier

Aba Diop and Jason Hosier’s duo project blends West African sabar rhythms and vocals with jazzy, lyrical guitar melodies in an unexpected emulsion of polyrhythmic fusion.

This unusual collaboration is a conversation between tradition and modernity, between east and west, both acoustic and electric, where the listener is invited into the adventure unfolding in the songs.

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