Jérome Jouannic spent twenty years playing alongside Alpha Blondy, Manu Dibango, Tiken Jah Fakoly, Ballaké Sissoko, and Rokia Traoré before stepping out as a band leader.

“Papas Gombos,” released 23 April on Badala Music, is the Val-d’Oise drummer’s new single, and it comes from the name of the collective he built for his 2022 debut album Ko Zom Silaga. The line-up draws on the Burkinabè music world Jouannic has worked in for two decades: griot-lineage multi-instrumentalist Dramane Dembélé on peule flute and ngoni, balafonist Abdoulaye Dembélé, kora player Seydou Koueta, guitarist Moussa Koita, vocalist Losso Keita, and Ivorian-born bassist Isaac Tafari. each of them a friend long before they were a bandmate. What Jouannic asked of them was to take peule flute, kora, and balafon outside their traditional roles entirely, a hybrid approach built at the acknowledged risk of antagonising purists.

Stream and listen to “Papas Gombos” HERE and get your copy of Ko Zom Silaga following THIS LINK