ProStudioMasters.com

Celebrating West African songcraft, Mali in Oak brings together two of the world’s most unclassifiable string players, performing in the intimate, candle-lit ambience of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. South African guitarist Derek Gripper and Nigerian kora player Tunde Jegede follow a series of concerts at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2014 and 2015 with this album, Gripper's first recording with the 21 string kora. A combination of duets and solos, the release features modern interpretations of classics alongside original compositions. "I listened to this recording for the first time about a year after we made it. With the distance of time I heard it without reference to a memory of the event, as for the first time. What struck me immediately is that we had approached playing together differently to how it is commonly approached by today’s griots, perhaps because of a Western classical conception of music that neither of us has left behind. When Tunde and I play these pieces it is almost as if two complete versions of the compositions coexist, creating a form of counterpoint that is part Bach and part griot. I would like to believe that, in some small way, this is what we have done together ..." - Derek Gripper