Cheick Kouyaté, Julien Pérez and Davy Sur, La Trésorerie, Nice, France, Wednesday 19th March 2025

Cheick Kouyaté -  kora, Julien Pérez -  soprano and tenor saxophones, Davy Sur - drums/percussion

Billed as a fusion between Mandinka culture and jazz, this gig brought together a kora player and singer who is possibly a griot (traditional praise singer/ oral historian) from Guinea but now living in the Var valley, a sax man from Tourrettes-sur-Loup and a percussionist, possibly from Marseilles.

The full house in this enthusiastically run community arts centre were told by Cheick Kouyaté that while the three have known each other for a long time this was the first time they had played together, though an internet search confirmed he and Julien Pérez do have history of performing together as Linbagni.

After some problems with the sound the gig got going. There were about six songs from Cheick Kouyaté, split into two short sets. He sang in what I think was Mandinka with a strong if somewhat monotone singing voice, and in the declamatory style characteristic of griots delivering a message. The songs may have been ancient or newly written in traditional style by Kouyaté. Little information was given about them and what there was defeated my poor French.

Whatever the origin the combination of the instruments always set up a strong groove, both when Kouyaté was singing and during the songs’ quite long instrumental passages. The kora and Davy Sur’s percussion formed a rhythm section that while not being that jazzy did have that swing, and Julien Pérez especially when on soprano sax, displayed great sensitivity in blending soft textures with the kora and taking care not to overwhelm the traditional instrument.

Davy Sur did at moments threaten to do this with a profusion of hard strikes on what were a couple of hand or frame drums fixed to stands and set horizontally. This was part of his fascinating drum/ percussion set up that has been reported as using “Andalusian cajon, handmade Turkish cymbals, and Indian handbells and various hand percussion”, which he plays “with sticks or fingers. A mosaic of Mediterranean and Indian influences” (http://www.citemusique-marseille.com).

These influences showed through with Davy Sur using his hands as much as drumsticks in what was his very distinctive contribution. Kouyaté’s playing was delightfully melodic and at times energetic while staying well within the confines of conventional kora playing. There was not much sign of him exploring whether the kora has potential as a jazz instrument as for instance Seckou Keita does at times on two albums that he’s made with Cuban pianist Omar Sosa. Kouyaté did not play a substantial solo, and for me his best moment came when using the kora’s gourd as a drum and engaging with Davy Sur, with the two creating a cinematic loping ritualistic beat. It wasn’t hard to imagine that this could have been theme music for a walk to the scaffold or for a documentary about a camel train crossing the desert.

When Julien Pérez joined in with a sinuous a spacey middle-eastern riff on soprano the number became even more atmospheric. Julien Pérez who also is a DJ and producer, did rather steal the show. He was self-effacing in doing so, no ‘look at me’, just fine playing serving the music. Most of the jazz came from him when soloing. According to what’s on Facebook, Coltrane is an influence and you heard that, particularly when he switched to tenor sax. An angular tenor solo in the last number was particularly memorable.

Though the fusion of Mandinka culture and jazz did not come off consistently, it would be mean spirited to focus exclusively on this as the three musicians created an engrossing atmosphere into which the audience entered fully. They did not talk much, but they spoke with their music which was joyful and full of life.

COLIN MAY