Balimaya Project

Part of Norwich Jazz Festival.

Led by composer, arranger and djembe master Yahael Camara Onono, Balimaya Project are redefining what contemporary African diasporic music can be. This powerful collective fuses the ancestral rhythms of the Mandé peoples of West Africa with the creative pulse of London’s jazz, soul and hip-hop scenes, forging music that is both deeply rooted and thrillingly modern.

Their name means kinship in the Mandé language, and that spirit runs through everything they do, from the conversation between djembe and horns to the way the kora’s delicate threads weave through the band’s bold, percussive grooves. The result is a sound that’s not just expansive and spiritual, but infectiously rhythmic.

Following acclaimed albums Wolo So and When the Dust Settles, Balimaya Project have electrified audiences on worldwide stages from Austin to Dakar. Critics have called them ‘one of the most important ensembles to emerge from the UK jazz scene in a generation’ (Songlines), and comparisons to Marvin Gaye, D’Angelo and Fela Kuti are apt and deserved.

Expect blazing brass, virtuosic kora, and a percussive core that moves body and soul alike.

‘A vital, rhythmically explosive expression of contemporary Black British identity.’ Jazzwise