Momo Wandel Soumah--------Fèlenko Yèfè

A true king of swing and improvisation, Momo Wandel Soumah (1926-2003) was the doyen of African jazz. He created his music without composing it, by drawing inspiration from popular songs, and by bringing together around his voice - sounding like a kind of “Louis Armstrong who’s come out of his savannah“ - and his old, beaten up sax, the great masters of traditional African instruments: kora, balafon, pastoral flute, djembé, etc. Momo’s music resembled a magical cocktail capable of transporting you without a warning from traditional music to the avant garde. Born in Guinea in the late twenties, Momo Le Doyen was a privileged witness of contemporary African history: he experienced the colonial era with his orchestras only allowed to perform for whites-only balls and the independence of 1958, after which he spent twenty-six years in the national orchestras of President Sékou Touré’s Guinean revolution. A few years ago, his sensational entry into the new Circus Baobab