Fatala

Biography

Traditional drum and dance troupe shaped in 1981 by professional percussionist Yacouba Camara. Camara still left Guinea within the ’60s, vacationing through Western Africa and European countries and surviving in Paris and Holland. After creating a name for himself, he came back to Guinea and recruited music artists and dancers for the ensemble that steadily became Fatala. Their instrumentation contains traditional drums, balafon, kora, and electrical guitars, plus they perform traditional materials with no Western influences, stating that Europeans make an effort to duplicate African rhythms without keeping them African. Their debut recording was due to two gigs with Peter Gabriel, plus they toured the U.S. in 1989.

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