WOMAD

Tama

From Guinea-Bissau, Mali, United Kingdom

Sam Mills, composer, arranger and founder member of avant-garde ethno-funksters 23 Skidoo, is just one of the talented trio that make up Tama. Malian singer and ngoni player Tom Daikite and percussionist Djanuno Dabo from Guinea Bissau complete the multi-cultural trio. Tom is the main singer and in addition to ngoni (Malian harp), he plays the kora and the balafon. Djanuno plays djembe, congas, talking drums and other percussions.Together the group creates a mixture of rhythms and flavours from West Africa, with a definite input from European music. Songs of the migrant, they capture musical influences from lands visited and parted.As the name Tama (a Bambara word meaning ‘to walk’) suggests the band’s approach was to collect years of travelling memories rather than trying to represent or revive traditional folklore.