Sabouyouma

About

A seven-piece Afro-funk groove machine led by Guinean-born balafonist Ousmane Camara. Based in Burlington, Vermont, they combine traditional West African dance music with contemporary funk and reggae, take listeners on a cultural journey to West Africa, as well as to the roots of the genres they blend. If Camara is the heart and soul of the band, then Senegalese percussionist Assane Coly is the backbone. With his fluency in the Senegalese vocal-drum language, and his religious roots in the Bayefal sect of Sufism, his rhythms often feel like percussive praise poetry that mystically conjures the audience into motion.