Jali Yankuba Conteh and Katuš Young first toured the United Kingdom in 2015, since 2019 have toured in Senegal, Gambia and Mauritania, produced two albums and established the Gambia Music School. They slip seamlessly between Mandinka melodies and songs to English, French, Gaelic, Czech, Russian, and more. Add dashes of story telling and you have a cross cultural duet. Their concerts are like roving the world in their backpack. Jali Yankuba Conteh: Gambian Kora virtuoso, oral historian, grandson of Alhaji Bai Konte, son of Dembo konte Katuš Young, Welsh-Czech troubadour, performing on guitar, Chinese hulusi and Western Flute. The Conteh family are traditional Griots (musicians, story tellers and oral historians), celebrating their people’s history and culturefor more than 400 years. Katuš has toured all over the world and performed on stage with Nigel Kennedy, the Levellers, Seth Lakeman, Lenka Dusilova, and Donovan. The pair met en route to Festival au Desert in 2013 where Katuš was performing with Tinariwan.
Jali Yankuba Conteh shall also be offering Kora Workshops throughout the Solfest weekend.