Alalake from Due West by Althea SullyCole

“Alalake” translates from malinke as “god has willed it” and is a song traditional to the kora’s Mandé jeli repertoire. It was first conveyed to Althea by New York-based kora virtuoso Yacouba Sissoko, with whom Althea studied for many years. Althea reimagines the tune in an improvisatory dialogue between kora and the steel pan, performed by Jeffrey A. Jones, who also performs percussion on the track.

Althea SullyCole is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and ethnomusicologist originally from New York City, currently based in Montreal, QC, where she is Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. Althea studied her primary instrument, the kora, a 21-stringed West African harp, under korists Yacouba Sissoko and Edou Manga.

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