Internationally renowned as the world’s first female professional Kora virtuoso, Sona Jobarteh returns to North America this winter and spring for a tour that will take her from coast-to-coast. Blues legend Taj Mahal shares the bill with her for several stops in February and March. For tickets and information about the tour, visit sonajobarteh.com.
Born into a Griot family from the Gambia, a tradition that dates back seven centuries, Sona is a living archive of the Gambian people. Her music is uniquely poised between the preservation of her rich cultural heritage and an accessible, modern style that relates to the current era and to audiences from all over the world. While fronting her electric Afropop band, she sings about cultural identity, gender, love, and respect.
Sona generally sings and records in Mandinka, a traditional language spoken by one of Gambia’ many ethnic groups, rather than in English, which would be expected to garner more commercial success. Yet her debut album in 2011 was a surprise hit both internationally and in Gambia. In a New York Times profile, she said “It makes Africans feel something, to see that someone is being respected to sing in their own language, dress in their own clothes, play their own music,” she said. “That is a message not just for Gambians — it’s for the whole African continent.”
Sona’s most recent release Badinyaa Kumoo is a musical manifesto expressing her vision of empowering women, children, artists, and African societies to effect positive change. Showcasing her skills as an innovative composer and multi-instrumentalist, the album also includes guest appearances by renowned World Music artists such as the Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour, Malian kora master Ballaké Sissoko, and American saxophonist Kirk Whalum. The album has well over 6 million streams on Spotify and over 23 million views on YouTube, and led to a feature about Sona on CBS’ 60 Minutes.
At the heart of Sona’s success as an artist is her dedication to humanitarian activism in the areas of social development and educational reform on the continent of Africa. Badinyaa Kummo, named one of the “10 Best Album of the Year” by Songlines Magazine, was released more than a decade after her debut solo recording. During that time she was bringing her broader mission, that aligns with her role of a griot, to reality.
In 2015, she founded The Gambia Academy, the first institution in the country to educate young Africans in their culture, traditions, and history seamlessly alongside their everyday academic education. Sona says “Education is a vital foundation block in changing mind-sets, which in turn determines the degree of success of a nation in its journey towards self-determination, self-dependence, self-governance, and economic self-sustainability."
Since founding The Gambia Academy, Sona has become a highly sought after speaker on education reform and advocate for replacing the existing Euro-centric "replacing the existing Euro-centric education framework, which historically has marginalized and disempowered young Africans, with curriculum and teaching methods that develop engagement, agency, critical thinking, self-determination, tenacity and excellence within students.
She has lectured and held university residencies in Africa and across the United States and Europe. In 2023, Sona received an honorary doctorate from the Berklee School of Music, joining an elite list of other notable honorees, including Aretha Franklin, Justin Timberlake, Sting, and Herbie Hancock
2024 Winter/Spring North American Tour
February 22 Santa Barbara, CA with Taj Mahal
UC Santa Barbara Campbell Hall
February 23 Los Angeles, CA with Taj Mahal
Cal State, Los Angeles Luckman Fine Arts Center
February 24 San Luis Obispo CA with Taj Mahal
February 25 Palm Springs, CA with Taj Mahal
Palm Springs International Jazz Festival
February 26 Mesa, AZ with Taj Mahal
Ikeda Theatre, Mesa Arts Center
February 27 Tucson, AZ with Taj Mahal
February 28 Albuquerque, NM
The Dirty Bourbon Dance Hall and Saloon
March 1 Santa Fe, NM with Taj Mahal
March 2 Colorado Springs, CO with Taj Mahal
March 3 Denver, CO with Taj Mahal
March 5 Ridgefield, CT with Taj Mahal
March 6 Portsmouth, NH with Taj Mahal
March 7 Albany, NY with Taj Mahal
March 8 Montreal, QC
March 9 Toronto, ON with Taj Mahal
Koerner Hall at The Royal Conservatory of Music
March 10 Ottawa, ON with Taj Mahal
March 30 Boston MA
April 3 New York, NY
April 4 New Haven, CT
International Festival of Arts & Ideas
April 5 Wilmington DE
April 7 Bethesda, MD
The Music Center at Strathmore
April 9 Northampton, MA
BOMBYX Center for Arts and Equity
April 11 Kennett Square, PA
April 13 Norlina, NC
Seven Springs Farm and Vineyard
April 17 Kalispell, MT
April 20 Hamilton, MT
Bitterroot Performing Arts
