“Get ready, America. Aba Diop, one of the hottest and most in-demand sabar percussionists out of Dakar, Senegal, has landed ...” —Afropop Worldwide

Aba Diop & The Yermande Family are on a mission to share the healing medicine of sabar drums with a global audience. At the heart of the music is the sabar, its rhythms, and a captivating live performance. Aba Diop is a master percussionist, composer, and arranger from Senegal, West Africa, descended from over a thousand years of unbroken griot lineage: the prestigious and hereditary wisdom-holders, historians, poets, and healers of their culture.

Sabar drums have been a communication device with the ability to relay messages from village to village for miles. The percussion sounds are very much a language which communicates messages of healing and praise: the call-and-response stories and codes of thousands of years of oral tradition.

The ensemble features Aba Diop (sabar, vocals), Noumoucounda (kora, vocals), Samba Ndokh (tama), and Jason Hosier (electric guitar).

This groundbreaking group interweaves the griot storytelling traditions from thousands of years with Sufi mysticism and rock and jazz influences. The unique combination of West African and western instruments creates a conversation between tradition and modernity, east and west, acoustic and electric. The overall effect is deeply mystical, uplifting, and undeniably dance-worthy.

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