Culture Griot by Aka Moon

Aka Moon, Baba Sissoko and his ensemble Black Machine present the result of their energetic collaboration, their album Culture Griot. While the musical touch of Aka Moon is immediately recognized, it is the African rhythms and melodies that dominate the work. They bring us amazingly powerful music and hypnotical chants. The album opens up to a ?griot? universe. How could it be otherwise knowing the roots and the present of Baba and the interest of Aka Moon for the subtleties and the realities of the African continent? The combination of the virtuosity of Aka Moon and the compelling rhythm of Black Machine work wonderfully well, it is neither pure jazz nor pure music from Mali, they deliver the fusion of two musical universes. Aka Moon adds a sonority topped with grooves to the stirring rhythms of Black Machine. Together they boldly reinvent a musical style that defies the stereotypes of categories or fusion. This is a language of sound made up of rhythmical experiences, melody, form, space and the energy abundantly present in the music. It is a novel outcome composed of chants, of bold musical forms and of harmonies unusual in the traditional culture griot.

Since their debut in 1992, it has been hard to imagine the Belgian jazz scene without the innovative Aka Moon. Their refreshing approach to jazz gives the trio a highly distinctive sound. Since their first encounter with the Aka Pygmies in 1992, Aka Moon’s focus has shifted towards various different African, Indian, Maghrebian, Cuban, Arab, Afro-American and European traditions.