Griotoubab - Salam Aleikum (Digipack)

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“Griotoubab” – a neologism forged together from the Senegalese terms “Griot” and ”Toubab.” The Griot are the Senegalese caste of musicians, bards, and storytellers, whom Pape Samory Seck and his family belong to. “Toubab” simply means: “white person.” 

Time and time again over the course of his musical career, Colognian Jazz pianist Mike Herting meets artists from Senegal, sharing both stages and recording studios with them. The rich percussion tradition of the Griot in particular, with their complex, mantra-esque rhythms proves to him a continued fascination. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2021, the idea of a crossover project in cooperation with the Germany-based Griot family Seck is born. The idea is to fuse these traditional Senegalese rhythms with western Jazz sounds: Griot and Toubab, side by side, sharing the same stage.

Even their earliest demos already hint at the conception of a visionary new genre mix: Together, Herting and Samory Seck play themselves ever closer toward an eclectic cocktail of Senegalese traditionals, Disco, African- and Kraut-Jazz. These early jams are refined and arranged for ensemble by Herting. In August of 2022, Griotoubab record their first EP featuring no less than 11 guest musicians in front of a live audience at producer Ralf Kemper’s Riverside Studios in Cologne. In these recordings, Griotoubab skilfully fuse the trance-inducing rhythms of the Griot with choir chants, passionate Jazz soli, and riveting vocal improvisations, conjuring up memories of African Jazz greats such as Mulatu Astatke and Francis Bebey, Canadian Afro-Beat ensemble The Souljazz Orchestra, or German Krautrock pioneers CAN.

Those who’ve had the pleasure of witnessing this unorthodox fellowship of musicians play live can attest: With their infectious joy of playing, Griotoubab are constructing an refreshingly danceable musical bridge – from Germany over France and the Sahara right into the deepest heart of Senegal. Whether you’re a Jazz nerd or coming straight from the latest rave: This wild melange is bound to get you grooving.

Mike Herting (born 1954 in Cologne) is a German Jazz pianist, producer, and composer living in Bornheim. After his graduation from Cologne’s Academy for Music and Dance, he participated in countless projects, working, among others, with US saxophone player Charlie Mariano and producing world hit “New York – Rio – Tokyo” with Trio Rio. Since 1998, Herting has been active as the musical conductor, arranger, and composer for the WDR Big Band in Cologne. He is currently touring as a pianist together with renowned German singer Wolfgang Niedecken. Over the course of his career, Herting continuously seeks out the meeting and symbiosis of western and non-western music. For example as part of the German-Indian year in cooperation with the Karnataka College of Percussion and the German Federal Jazz Orchestra – a project after whose completion he founds the GlobalMusicOrchestra – or as an artist in residence at the Goethe-Institute in West Africa in 2012.

Pape Samory Seck (born in 1977) comes from a Senegalese Griot family and has been living as a percussionist in Bonn since 1997. Among the countless concerts he has given in his life, he has played shows with the German Federal Jazz Orchestra, the Hamid Baroudi Band at a gala concert for Nelson Mandela, or at the world expo in Shanghai, as well as touring East Asia together with Mike Herting’s Sai Symphony in 2013. Since 2017, he has been teaching at the Pop Academy Mannheim and since 2018 at the Academy for Music in Detmold. After “Le Deggo” (2001) and ”African Melody” (2017), the year 2022 saw the release of his third studio album, “Baobab.”

Tracklist:

1. Kaye
2. Salam Aleikum
3. Mambambe
4. Djombodon
5. Tous