SA composer Derek Gripper releases new live album

The album was released via global artist services company Platoon, and features 11 songs including ‘Kaounding Cissoko’, ‘Bakoye’ and ‘Mama FC’.

“In 2012 Derek Gripper spent a full night session in a small chapel on a farm four hours from the city of Cape Town,” Gripper’s management team said. “The session captured Toumani Diabaté’s virtuosic kora works with a 21-string harp on guitar for the first time. Almost 10 years on, during South Africa’s lockdown, Derek returned to this chapel to record a live concert of the same material.

“After a decade of touring with some of the world’s greatest musicians and visiting Mali to play with Toumani, the session is a simple, informal and unedited rendition, recorded on a vintage tape machine, with a live audience and the gentle accompaniment of South African night sounds, all until the tape runs out at the end of the final track.”

Gripper is well-known for his groundbreaking technique of evoking the West African kora on the guitar, and has transcribed the complex music of Diabaté, a a native of Mali. Gripper infuses interpretations of Bach’s music with lessons from African oral traditions. He has toured and delivered workshops around the globe in academic institutions, concert halls, festivals and conferences. His latest album is consistent with his experimental art form and could see fans revelling in the body of work.