Herbie Hancock And Foday Musa Suso – Village Life

Herbie Hancock & Foday Musa Suso – Village Life

Village Life is a fascinating meeting of jazz, West African musical traditions and early-1980s electronic technology, bringing together legendary American jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock with Gambian kora player and griot Foday Musa Suso. Originally released in 1985, the album was recorded live in Tokyo in August 1984 and remains one of Hancock's more unusual and atmospheric recordings.

Following their collaboration on Hancock's 1984 album Sound-System, Hancock and Suso developed their musical partnership into a remarkably intimate two-person session. Suso's 21-string West African kora, talking drum and vocals are paired with Hancock's Yamaha DX-1 synthesizer and RX-11 drum machine, creating an unusual blend of traditional Mandé music and futuristic electronic jazz. The sessions were recorded live with no overdubs, allowing the interaction between the two musicians to remain spontaneous and organic.

The album opens with the atmospheric Moon/Light, where the shimmering tones of Suso's kora intertwine with Hancock's spacious synthesizer textures. Ndan Ndan Nyaria places Suso's intricate kora playing firmly at the centre, drawing on West African musical traditions, while the brief Early Warning introduces a more recognisably electronic Hancock sound, with synthesizer and programmed percussion creating a striking contrast.

The entire second side is devoted to Kanatente, an almost 20-minute piece that gradually develops from delicate, spacious passages into a more rhythmic and animated exchange between Hancock and Suso. It perfectly illustrates the album's central concept: rather than simply placing African instrumentation over jazz, the two musicians genuinely respond to one another, combining different musical languages into something distinctive.

Recorded at CBS/Sony Studios in Tokyo on 7–9 August 1984 and released by Columbia in 1985, Village Life sits at an intriguing point in Herbie Hancock's career, between the electronic experimentation of Future Shock and Sound-System and his more traditional jazz projects. It is an excellent choice for fans of Herbie Hancock, Foday Musa Suso, jazz fusion, electronic jazz, African music, world music, experimental jazz and the more adventurous side of 1980s jazz.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Moon/Light – 7:57
2. Ndan Ndan Nyaria – 9:50
3. Early Warning – 2:50

Side B

1. Kanatente – 19:59