Sona Jobarteh

Sona Jobarteh (born 1983 ) is a Gambian multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer. She is from one of the five principal kora-playing griot families of West Africa, and is the first female professional kora player to come from a griot family. She is the granddaughter of kora virtuoso Amadu Bansang Jobarteh, cousin of the celebrated kora player Toumani Diabaté, and is the sister of the diaspora kora player Tunde Jegede.

Early life and education

Born in London, England, The instrument is an important element of the Mandingo peoples in West Africa and their playing is reserved only to certain families called griot.

She is the granddaughter of the griot of her line, Amadu Bansang Jobarteh, whose father migrated from Mali to Gambia. Her cousin is the well-known, celebrated kora player Toumani Diabaté. Her mother Galina Chester is English. She has a son, Sidiki Jobarteh-Codjoe, born in 2010.

Jobarteh has studied the kora since the age of three, at first taught by her brother Tunde Jegede, who is 11 years older, and with whom she traveled several times a year to the Gambia as a child, and then by her father, Sanjally Jobarteh. She attended the Royal College of Music, where she studied cello, piano and harpsichord, and soon after went on to the Purcell School of Music to study composition.

Musical career

She gave her first performance at London's Jazz Café at the age of four, and performed at festivals several times in her early childhood.

When still a music student, she worked on several orchestral projects, including the "River of Sound" with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, featuring Evelyn Glennie, and other collaborative works, including performances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Milton Keynes City Orchestra and the Viva Chamber Orchestra.

In 2002, Jobarteh performed in Vienna with the renowned jazz vocalist Cleveland Watkiss, also forming a part of his support act for Cassandra Wilson at the Barbican in London. She also featured on Damon Albarn's Mali Music Project, which was later performed for Jools Holland.

Jobarteh has collaborated on stage with Oumou Sangaré, Toumani Diabaté, Kasse Made Diabaté and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Jobarteh also teaches the kora in London. She worked with her father, Sanjally Jobarteh, in setting up a formal music school in the Gambia, named after her famous grandfather.

The score was an innovative exploration into the cinematic representation of a classical African sound world. While much of Jobarteh's score drew primarily on the West African griot tradition, she also had to reinvent it to accommodate for the demands of the visual realm.

To create this film score, Jobarteh explored instruments in different ways to that of their traditional setting. She has used the kora as a bass instrument as well as tuning it to an "Arabic" scale. She has used the guitar to emulate the sound of an African lute, as well as being influenced by the West African griot style of playing.

She invented a new instrument called the Nkoni for use in many of the compositions to capture a unique sound. This instrument is a cross between the kora and the Donso Ngoni, expanding the tonality and mood of the African musical sonic. Jobarteh's vocal style draws on the West African griot style, although there are aspects that also lean towards East African influences.

Factored into the creation of a unique African aesthetic was Jobarteh's avoidance of two crucial paradigms; first, the reliance on the cinematic familiarity of western stringed instruments, and secondly the stereotypical predominance of drumming as a signature of African musical representation.

Artistry

She is English-born of African heritage, and strongly identifies with the latter. The Idea (Actress) Broken Embraces (Kora player) The First Grader (Singer) Motherland (Composer) Beast (performer: "N'na Duniyaa") / (producer: "N'na Duniyaa") / (writer: "N'na Duniyaa")