Duckpond
House Concert No. 46
The Calabash
3
March 2023
(photos by Adam
Cole)
It's certainly been a
long time between house concerts here at the Duckpond.
Three years down the spout - but what a way to emerge from the depths.
To kick us off in fine style we had an exciting West African trio, The Calabash.
Kofi Kunkpe has been playing and promoting West African music for many years
in Victoria,
as well as teaching drumming groups locally in his Yarra Valley home and throughout
the state
in community groups and schools. He arrived well before his bandmates to set
up the stage.
We
were thrilled to welcome Kofi with his two friends
Aboubacar Djelike Kouyate
and Amadou Suso to launch the return of music to the Duckpond.
Our audience embraced
this group and their music with enthusiasm, and it was obvious to see that
Calabash
threw their hearts into their music.
Kofi , who is originally from Ghana,
skilfully plays an extraordinary
array of percussion instruments and clearly enjoyed the concert.
Born in Mali and brought up in the
'griot' culture there,
Aboubacar is now based in Melbourne. He is a fine guitarist
and posseses a stunning singing voice.
f
Amadou, who is from Gambia, is a
virtuoso of the kora,
a traditional West African harp. His beautiful kora recently
met with an accident courtesy of the airline, but it didn't
appear to interfere with the stunning music it produced.
Their next gig is to be Womadelaide, and the size of that audience will give
them
quite a different experience than here at the Duckpond.
To find out more
about Kofi, go to his website
For more about Aboubaca, go to his website
and for Amadou, go to his Facebook
page
If you'd like to see a few highlightsof this concert,
Jonni has put up a video
on YouTube.