Zal Sissokho & Laurent Perrault Jolicoeur – Racines

With Racines, the new Jazz Fusion album by Laurent Perrault-Jolicoeur and Zal Sissokho, the two virtuoso composers seek to reweave and retrace the links between Mandingo music and jazz. Their ethereal compositions hybridize the rhythms, harmony and improvisation of each of these age-old traditions.

His story is written on the strings of his kora… This is how artist Zal Idrissa Sissokho presents himself in all his mystery. Faithful to the tradition of the African griot, this purveyor of age-old stories and messages from Kolda in southern Senegal takes a frank, poetic look at both his contemporary environment and the past. A sacred member of the great griot family of the 13th century – including the very first griot Sissoko, “man of science and truth, lord of words” – Zal stands proudly with his muse, the kora. The singer-songwriter honors his lineage by singing in Malinké and Wolof, the noble oral mark of Soundiata Keïta’s Mandé Empire.

Laurent Perrault-Jolicoeur is a double bassist, composer and improviser active on the Montreal scene since 2017. He completed his jazz double bass training with renowned Montreal masters such as John Hollenbeck, Ira Coleman, Marianne Trudel, Rémi-Jean Leblanc and Christine Jensen, both at Cégep de Saint-Laurent and McGill University.