A 16-piece supergroup of driving polyrhythms, blazing horns and virtuosic kora, Balimaya Project deliver a dynamic meeting of traditional Mandé music and contemporary jazz.
Led by composer/arranger and leading UK-based Djembe player, Yahael Camara Onono and featuring members of bands including Kokoroko and Seed Ensemble, the group synthesize and bridge London’s bustling jazz circuit with traditional repertoire and folklore of the Mandé peoples of West Africa. Five years in the making, Balimaya Project are releasing their debut album Wolo So on Jazz Re:freshed in July 2021.
Translating as the essence of kinship in Mandé’s Maninka language, Balimaya Project articulate the complex experiences of being children of the African diaspora in the UK, connecting the future facing and the ancestral in the spirit of Felt Kuti or Sun Ra big bands before them.
