User:Hk5183/Kourou Fia

Kourou Fia, born Ibrahima Kourou Kouyate, is a Guinean Singer-songwriter born on November 13, 1976 in Conakry.

Biography
Born to a long line of griots, he was initiated very young in playing the kora, a 21-stringed traditional instrument, which his father first gave to him at age 5. He also plays bolon, a 4-stringed traditional instrument, traditionally used as a Bass. In 1993, he met the bassist Richard Bona, who convinced him to adopt the Bass guitar as his main instrument.

First Steps
With Ba and Keba Cissoko, his two cousins, Kourou founded his first group group "Tamale lalou" (The voyagers) in the beginning of the 1990s. The French trumpettist Gilles Poizat then joined the group. In 1995, Mark Ambrogioni, the director of production for the festival Nuits Metis, had them play in Marseille. This was the first international experience for Kourou. They played with the violonists of the No Quartet in a musical mixture of Guinean and Western. .

L'expérience Ba Cissoko
In 1999, the Ba Cissoko trio was born. Kourou and his brother Sékou joined the group. Ba Cissoko, the virtuoso of traditional Kora, was the leader of the group. Ils enchaînent alors les tournées internationales qui les mèneront à la sortie de leur premier album en 2004 : «Sabolan», qui sera suivi par 3 autres. Ils collaborent entre autres avec -M-, avec lequel ils jouent à Bamako. Ils l'accompagnent aussi dans le morceau «Mama Sam», dont le clip est tourné en Afrique.

Meeting with Philippe Eidel and début of his solo career
Kourou Fia met the composer Philippe Eidel when the latter was producing the fourth album of Ba Cissoko, Nimissa, in 2012. S'étant bien entendus humainement et musicalement, Philippe Eidel réalise donc le premier album solo de Kourou, "Nene", recorded in Paris courant 2015.

Albums
As author, composer and translator :


 * 2015 : Nene, Minuscule

As bassist :


 * 2004 : Sabolan, Ba Cissoko
 * 2006 : Electric Griot Land, Ba Cissoko
 * 2009 : Séno, Ba Cissoko
 * 2012 : Nimissa, Ba Cissoko

Concerts Principaux
As Bassist for Ba Cissoko :


 * Festival Roskilde, Denmark
 * New Orleans Jazz Festival, USA
 * Festival Les Vieilles Charrues, France
 * Sziget Festival, Hungary
 * Festival de Jazz de Montréal, Canada
 * Carnegie Hall, England