Folk Bands and Artists
Derek Gripper
Cape Town, S Africa
For over ten years Derek Gripper has produced some of South Africa’s most extraordinary works by fusing the country’s disparate creative traditions with styles throughout the world. His music draws on European classical traditions, avant-garde Brazilian works, Malian kora works, Cape Town’s folk styles such as ghoema and vastrap, and even Indian classical music, all the while synthesizing them into a style uniquely his own.
Derek Gripper offers an extraordinary voice in post-apartheid South African cultural landscape, one that demonstrates the country’s new musical confidence in forging fresh paths though cross-genre, cross-generational and cross-cultural collaborations.
Libraries On Fire, a collection of kora compositions, is the latest album from this incredible musician, whose passion and attention to detail have earned him widespread acclaim the world over.
