Description
In Oslo you may find one of Mali’s very best percussionists. Sidiki Camara, a virtuoso in Djembe, Calabash and Balafon, in addition to being an outstanding vocalist, has travelled worldwide as a solist with Mali’s national ballet, and is considered to be one of the creators of the modern wave of West African Manding music.
After moving to Oslo, he has collaborated with a number of Norwegian musicians, not least Bugge Wesseltoft. Together with Bendik Hofseth, Sidiki has formed his own Norwegian dream band. Sidiki Camara Group!
The group consists of Sidiki Camara (vocals, percussion and string instruments), Audun Erlien (bass – including Mathias Eick and Bernhoft), Jacob Young (guitar – published among others at ECM!), André Viervoll (keyboard, A. From Noor Noor, Nosizwe and Queendom) and Bendik Hofseth (who has collaborated with John McLaughlin, Tony Levin, Django Bates, Rickie Lee Jones, played in Steps Ahead, just to name a few!).
Camara is a regular member of Bill Frisell’s The Intercontinentalals and frequent guest artist with Frisell’s New Quartet. He has worked with artists like Toumani Diabate, Oumou Singer and Habib Koite and Mamady Keita.
Sidiki has also made a strong impression on various jazz environments worldwide. He has performed on a significant amount of world tours and has played at many great scenes and jazz festivals, such as the Stockholm Jazz Festival, Montreux, North Sea, Rio De Janeiro and the San Francisco Jazz Festival.
His band has already been booked at several venues outside Europe in 2016 and at the National Jazz scene Victoria in Oslo. Last year they played at the Oslo World Music Festival, where they shared the scene with Salif Keita.
In 2015 they released the album NAKAN.
Sidiki Camara Group is one of the two main concerts on the main scene during Sacred Saturday.
