Parables
A celebration of the kora with Gambian griots Mafu Conteh & Jali Bakary Konteh
Parables is a collaborative project featuring the music and performances of Gambian griots Mafu Conteh and Jali Bakary Konteh in partnership with the chamber orchestra forces of Contemporaneous. Mafu Conteh and Jali Bakary Konteh are the grandsons of legendary Mandinka griot and kora player Alhaji Bai Konte, the figure largely responsible for bringing the Gambian kora to international acclaim in the 1970s. Gambia’s Mandinka tradition of music and oral history has been passed down for hundreds of years and generations of griot families, and Mafu Conteh and Jali Bakary Konteh are the current bearers of that cultural legacy.
In 2019, Contemporaneous arranged and performed a song by Alhaji Bai Konte, the video of which was discovered by the grandsons of Bai Konte. Sensing an innate connection between the ensemble and their grandfather’s music, they reached out to Contemporaneous, and from that first seed, a collaboration was born. This show will see the culminating fruition of this years-in-the-making musical cross-cultural dialogue, as Conteh, Konteh, and Contemporaneous have worked together to create brand new orchestrations of the music of Conteh, Konteh, and their grandfather within an expanded musical context of the 23-member ensemble of Contemporaneous.
Parables features Konteh performing on kora, balafon, and voice alongside the full ensemble, arrangements of their music written exclusively for the ensemble of Contemporaneous created in collaboration with composers Jordyn Davis, Josh Henderson, Dylan Mattingly, and Zachary Ritter. Woven together, this years-long collaboration offers a unique celebration for the musical tradition of Mandinka culture within the modern musical context in New York City.
Music
Alla l'aa ke (arr. David Bloom)
Mbitta (arr. Jordyn Davis)
Sutakung (arr. Davis)
Jula Jekere (arr. Josh Henderson)
Jato (arr. Henderson)
Eliji Bamba Bojang (arr. Zachary Ritter)
Jelanka (arr. Dylan Mattingly)
Masane Sessay (arr. Ritter)
Alla l'aa ke (arr. Mattingly)
In Short
Music by Mafu Conteh & Jali Bakary Konteh arranged by Jordyn Davis, Josh Henderson, Dylan Mattingly, and Zachary Ritter
Duration: 30-35 min
Instrumentation: kora, balafon, and voice with chamber orchestra
Performance history:
Jelanka and Masane Sessay by Pa Bobo Jobarteh and Jali Bakary Konteh were performed by Contemporaneous on August 27, 2022 as part of the ensemble’s Geneology concert at Roulette Intermedium (Brooklyn, NY).
The full collaborative project was performed by Contemporaneous on October 10, 2023 at Roulette Intermedium.
Booking: For booking inquiries, contact Contemporaneous Executive and Co-Artistic Director Dylan Mattingly at dylan@contemporaneous.org or (510) 333.2543.
Listen
Artists
Jali Bakary Konteh, Kora & Singer
Mafu Conteh, Kora
