Senny Camara music review: Hope and unity
The pioneering kora player impresses with a relaxed, optimistic performance
Empowerment is implicit in Senny Camara’s performance. As one of the few female kora players in the world (the instrument is viewed as inherently male in her native country, Senegal), the prodigiousness of her skill shifts from an impressive feat to a story of art against all odds. It is remarkable, then, that it is not defiance but unity that defines her songwriting. Backed by guitar, cello, percussion and violin, the harp-like trill of her kora merges rhythms of Senegal with a broader folk palette, at times channelling the fairytale mystery of Joanna Newsom, at others the determined soulfulness of Nina Simone.
Tackling themes of family, togetherness and hope, her transportive sound is both calming and driven, interested in teasing out swirling, looping rhythms and grooves that bolster Camara’s remarkable vocals. Welcoming her audience into the fold with singalongs in Wolof, she reveals that they had been singing about a global family. ‘Senegal and Scotland: we are the same,’ she concludes after the enchanting ‘Buur’. With a unanimous standing ovation, the audience feel likewise.
Senny Camara, Reviewed at The Hub.