SOURCE w/Abdoulaye Diabaté was created by Quebecois flutist Sylvain Leroux, pioneer of African music collaborations in North America, as an improvisational group with a standard jazz formation of bass, drums, keyboard and wind, but was soon reborn as an explorative jazz unit with the advent of Mandeng vocalist and guitar great, Abdoulaye "Djoss" Diabate from Mali and Guinean fula flute Master Bailo Bah.
The current configuration includes Israeli keyboard virtuoso Shai Bachar who imparts jazz sophistication and contemporary atmospheric groove, and a solid rhythm section held down by Senegalese bassist Mamadou Ba and French drummer, Robert Bonhomme. Conga player Daniel Villeneuve, also French Canadian, has recently joined the band, adding a sensitive Caribbean touch to the skins.
Abdoulaye Diabate's voice soars with the depth and conviction conferred upon him by his legacy as a griot and his own infectious good nature; Bailo Bah's virtuosi playing of the 3-holed tambin flute combines phrasing and expression that reach emotional and textural heights. In addition to SOURCE's top-notch regular line-up, "Tonight's African Jazz Band" proudly features the contribution of Guinea's famed guitar-griot, "Djekorya" Mory Kante, who performed and recorded with the group in 2004-05. SOURCE has been delighting audiences at Soho's Zinc Bar for more than three years, holding down the first-of-the-month slot in this cool hot-spot's long-running series, African Fridays. With "Tonight's African Jazz Band" the vehicle, SOURCE W/ ABDOULAYE DIABATE delivers a message of human spirit, of individual and collective creativity, demonstrating how different cultures can meet and communicate through their personal relationship to music.
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Recorded by Radio Canada at 2007 Afrofest in Toronto.
Click on link then scroll down to "Source".