Roberto Fonseca and Fatoumata Diawara (Cuba & Mali)

An encounter between a young griot and Cuban music, both inherited from Africa.

As people were taken from Africa and forced into slavery, so their music went with them, giving rise to a multitude of hybrid musical styles in North America (blues, jazz, gospel, soul, funk, rap and rock) and in the Caribbean (salsa, rumba, merengue and calypso). Today, African musicians are reclaiming their universal African heritage.

This performance underscores the link between two musical styles originating in Africa.

Roberto Fonseca’s dazzling, funky finger work is exactly right for transposing the soul of Africa. This virtuoso pianist played for some time with the Buena Vista Club of the early 2000s, and knows more than anyone about the links between Cuban and African music, from salsa to the sacred origins of rumba.

Delicate, yet lively and spirited, Fatou Diawara’s  guitar picking is inspired by the Wassalou harp. She is part of a new generation of African artists bringing their own personal touch to tradition and tapping into an African culture that defines them in a new way across the world.