Dudu Kouate

Member since 2017 of the historic Art Ensemble of Chicago, with whom he has recorded a double album and played all over the world, Dudù Kouate sings and hits, blows, touches his 200 instruments with which he leads on a journey to the roots of the sounds of the earth . He was born in Dakar, au Sénégal from a family of griots, the guardians of the word and the musical tradition of West Africa. In 1988 he left his land for Europe. He has played at the Atlantic Music Expo in Cape Verde and in almost every corner of the planet: from the Kennedy Center in Washington (USA) to the Casa da Música in Porto, Portugal, passing through Australia, South America, Israel and southern and eastern Africa. Among the main festivals in which he participated: Festival d'Assilah au Maroc, Festival de jazz d'Utrecht, Festival de jazz de Sant'Anna Arresi, Festival de jazz de Roma, Tampere Jazz Finland, Festival de jazz de Stockholm, Festival de jazz de Madrid, Primavera Sound Barcelona, Jazz Mi, AJMI Avignon France, Festival de jazz de Roccella, Musica sui mouths (Sardaigne), Winter Sounds Festival Paris, Jazz Jamboree Poland, Festival Lugar de Encontrar Mexico, Sesc Santos Jazz Festival, Brasil, Vilnius Jazz Macedonia, Chicago Jazz Festival, Jazzfest Berlin, Melbourne Jazz Festival and in almost all the european Philharmonic. Dudù Kouate lives in Bergame where he holds seminars on the history of traditional African instruments in libraries and museums. He conducts workshops in schools, teaches percussion and body percussion and construction of instruments with recycled objects with kids and focus on the care of the planet.

In 2018 his first album - Africation - was released, which obtained a good critical success and can be listened to on Youtube. Not only percussion but also string and wind instruments mark his new creative phase: from the Berber lute (xalam) to the kanjira, from the djembè, the Senegalese drum, to the African flutes and the Australian didgeridoo. An exciting journey, also for the songs in Wolof, his mother tongue, and Bambare del Mali. He Collaborates with many musiciens as Famoudou Don Moye, Roscoe Mitchell, Moor Mother, Abel Selaocoe, Hamid Drake, James Brandon Lewis, Mats Gustafsson, Silvia Bolognesi. Dudù Kouate is not just a musician: he participates in theater, cinema, dance and poetry projects. He is a qualified cultural and museum mediator at the Ca 'Foscari University of Venice , at the Ismu in Milan and the Pinacoteca of Brera in Milan.