N'famady Kouyate

N’famady Kouyaté is a young energetic master musician from Guinea (Conakry), who relocated to Cardiff (Wales) in 2019. A talented multi-instrumentalist who wowed audiences across the UK and Ireland during autumn/winter 2019/20 with his modern interpretations of traditional West African Mandingue songs and rhythms supporting Gruff Rhys on the Pang! album tour. N’famady’s primary instrument is the balafon – the traditional wooden xylophone, sacred to West African culture and his family heritage of the griot/djeli. In Guinea he founded ‘Les Héritiers du Mandingue’ a tradi-modern group that toured extensively in West Africa.

Special guests: 

Melodie Fraser is a gifted jazz singer, percussionist and bandleader from Aberdeen, offering unique interpretations of jazz, Latin Jazz and Latin Soul.  

New Zealand virtuoso pianist and songwriter Adam Usmani has become an integral part of the live jazz and Latin scene since making his home in the granite city.  In this collaboration, they explore music coming through Latin America and New York in the golden era of the 1950s and 1960s.