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Jali Sherrifo Konteh - kora
Suntou Kouyate - balafon
Ismaela Suso - djembe

ISMAELA SUSO

Ismaela is the younger half-brother of Sherrifo; they have the same mother. Ismaela's father was Bakary Marong Suso ; a well-known percussionist in The Gambia, famous also for his singing. When he was small, he started to learn percussion playing from his father, but his father died when he was young. For further lessons, Ismaela went to Casamance in southern Senegal and spent several months studying and playing the djembe with the late Zang Marakoto Suso. He feels that he has developed his own distinctive rhythmic style since returning to The Gambia.

He has played with a number of bands in The Gambia, notably Pa Bobo Jobarteh and his Kaira band. as well as with Salam Ban, Pa Bobo's older brother. He plays in hotels with these bands, but will play in duos, usually with Pa Bobo and with Suntou Kouyate for weddings, naming ceremonies and the like.

The most prestigious place that he has played so far was in representing The Gambia at the 2003 African Nations Conference in Libya. He flew there as a member of The Kaira Band with the president of The Gambia and heard a wide range of music from other musicians from the 42 countries that were participating and clearly regards this as a very rich experience.

Although, he is still in his early twenties, he is established as a teacher as well as a player of the djembe and has already had a number of European students, mainly from Germany and Sweden.