It was in 1999, on a trip to study Mandinka drumming with an ethnomusicologist from the US, that I first heard the kora. Late one evening I was taken to the compound of Kausu Kuyateh (now sadly not with us) for an impromptu evening of music and stories. Sitting outside his mud hut with his wife feeding their new born child – they played and sang as the sun set. A very special memory and the moment when i started enjoying this incredible instrument. It is still one of my favourite stringed instruments.
