Foday Musa Suso is a Mandingo griot (the griot is the hereditary musician/oral historian of the Mandingo people).  Griots are a living library for the community, providing history, entertainment, and wisdom while playing and singing their songs. The history of empires and kingdoms, tribal conflicts, cultural heroes, and family lineage are all part of a griot's traditional repertoire. It is an extensive verbal and musical heritage that can only be passed down within a griot family.

Foday is a direct descendent of Jali Madi Wlen Suso, the griot who invented the kora over four centuries ago. Foday spent his childhood in a traditional Gambian village, in a household filled with kora music. He began to play his father's kora even before he could hold the instrument on his own. Though his father was a master kora player, in griot tradition a father does not teach his own children the instrument. So from age 9-18, Foday studied music and history outside his home.  

He is a virtuoso kora player, drummer, and composer. Suso was born in the Sarre Hamadi Village, Wuli District,Upper River Region. Initially taught by his father, at the age of eleven Suso was sent away to study under a master kora player, Saikou Suso, of the Pasamasi Village. After undergoing seven years of rigorous study, at age eighteen he became a full-fledged griot. He then journeyed throughout Africa singing traditional Mandingo songs, and played club, concerts, and radio and television programs in Germany, France, Sweden, and Finland.

After many years of rigorous study, in 1974 Foday spent 3 years teaching the kora at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Legon, Ghana. In 1977, he moved to Chicago and became the first kora player to establish himself in the United States. He formed The Mandingo Griot Society with 3 American musicians, playing a fusion of traditional and jazz that is now known as "world music". Since 1977, he has performed as a soloist and with other musicians throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America.

Interested in both traditional and cutting-edge music, he has also written many original compositions, toured and recorded with many prominent musicians. In addition to his virtuosic kora playing and singing, Foday Musa Suso is very skilled in playing traditional West African drums, as well as many other instruments.

In 1984, through the introduction of Bill Laswell, the organizing committee of the Olympic Games approached Herbie Hancock for the composition of the official theme music for the field events. Wanting to evoke the roots of man, Herbie turned to Suso. Their collaboration resulted in the rousing "Junku," and continued with Suso composing for Herbie's next album, "Sound System," and later with the highly acclaimed duet album, "Village Life.

"Suso was a featured instrumentalist on the Philip Glass soundtrack for the film Powaqattsi, and collaborated with Glass on the score for the American premiere of Jean Genet's The Screens, which opened at Minneapolis' Guthrie Theater in the fall of 1989, and was recently released on Glass' Point Music label for Philips. Suso also toured with the Kronos String Quartet and their recordings are part of the Pieces of Africa release on the Elektra Nonesuch label. Performed by the Philip Glass Sensemble with Foday Musa Suso.

Between 1987 and 1997, the musical collaboration between Foday and Bill Laswell resulted in a myriad of recordings and live performances. They co-produced 2 of Foday's solo CDs, 2 Mandingo Griot Society CDs, and a compilation entitled 'Ancient Heart: Mandinka and Fulani Music of The Gambia'.

In 1991 and 1993, Foday joined Bill and Ginger Baker to tour Europe and Japan, which resulted in the release of 2 live CDs, 'Imabari Meeting' and 'Material: Live in Japan'. Bill also introduced Foday to Pharoah Sanders and produced the 1996 'Message From Home' CD that featured a collaboration between Foday and Pharoah. In 1997, Foday and Bill traveled to Gambia, Senegal, and Guinea Bissau to record 'Jali Kunda: Griots of West Africa & Beyond'. Foday performed on and co-produced this CD, which was accompanied by a 96-page full-color book of photos and interviews from Foday, his family, and the other griots involved.

Foday also has a long history of collaboration and performance with renowned composer Philip Glass. In 1985 they co-wrote the soundtrack for the movie 'Powaqqatsi', and in 1990 co-wrote the music for a revival of the Jean Genet play 'The Screens'. In 2004 they collaborated on the music for 'Orion', a concert work commissioned by the Cultural Oympiad which premiered in Athens Greece preceding the Olympic Games. Since the early 1990's, Foday and Philip have performed in concerts together at venues all over the world, including Carnegie Hall, and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Barbican Center in London, and the Melbourne Arts Centre.

In addition, Foday has worked closely with the Kronos Quartet, an ensemble who commissioned him to compose five works. 'Tillyboyo' (Sunset) was released on their 1992 CD 'Pieces of Africa'. Foday and Kronos have performed together at venues such as Lincoln Center in New York, Staatsoper Opera House in Vienna, and the Royal Festival Hall in London. From 2003-2005, Foday and Jack De Johnette toured extensively together and recorded 2 CDs, 'Music from the Heart of the Masters' and 'Ripple Effect'.

In 2008, Paul Simon invited Foday to perform with him in 'American Songs', a weeklong musical retrospective at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Also in 2008, Foday composed music for the acclaimed Susan Cohn Rockefeller documentary about Dr. Rick Hodes work in Ethiopia, entitled 'Making the Crooked Straight', which was released on HBO in 2010. After 32 years in Chicago, Foday Musa Suso now makes his U.S. home in Seattle, Washington state.
“As in Music , So in life”

•1970 - Kora Music from Gambia (Folkways Records)
•1979 - Mandingo Griot Society (Flying Fish)
•1982 - Mighty Rhythm (Flying Fish)
•1984 - Hand Power (Flying Fish)
•1984 - Herbie Hancock, Sound-System (Columbia) (guest appearances)
•1985 - Village Life with Herbie Hancock (Columbia)
•1986 - Mansa Bendung (Flying Fish)
•1990 - The Dreamtime (CMP)
•1992 - Philip Glass and Foday Musa Suso: Music from The Screens (POINT Music)
•2005 - Music from the Hearts of the Masters (with Jack DeJohnette) (Kindred Rhythm)
•2008 - The Two Worlds (Orange Mountain Music)