''Village Life'' is an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

Herbie Hancock and Mandinka

griot A griot (; ; Manding: jali or jeli (in N'Ko: , ''djeli'' or ''djéli'' in French spelling); Serer: kevel or kewel / okawul; Wolof: gewel) is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician. The griot is a repos ...

Foday Musa Suso Foday Musa Suso (born 9 December 1953, in Sarre Hamadi, Wuli District, in the Upper River Division of The Gambia) is a Gambian musician and composer. He is a member of the Mandinka ethnic group, and is a griot. Griots are the oral historians ...

, recorded in Japan and released in 1985. Hancock and Suso had worked together as part of a larger ensemble for Hancock's 1984 album '' Sound-System'', and ''Village Live'' was recorded shortly after a world tour. There are no overdubs, ''Village Life'' was recorded live in the studio.

Track listing

# "Moon/Light" (Hancock, Suso) - 7:57 # "Ndan Ndan Nyaria" (Suso) - 9:50 # "Early Warning" (Hancock) - 2:52 # "Kanatente" (Hancock, Suso) - 19:59

Personnel

Musicians *Herbie Hancock - detunable

Yamaha DX1 The Yamaha DX1 is the top-level member of Yamaha's prolific DX series of FM synthesizers. Background The DX1 features two sets of the same synthesizer chipset used in the DX7, allowing either double the polyphony, split of two voices, or dua ...

synthesizer, Yamaha RX-11 drum machine programming *

- kora,

talking drum The talking drum is an hourglass-shaped drum from West Africa, whose pitch can be regulated to mimic the tone and prosody of human speech. It has two drumheads connected by leather tension cords, which allow the player to change the pitc ...

, vocals Production *Herbie Hancock - producer *

Bill Laswell William Otis Laswell (born February 12, 1955) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, ...

- producer *Tony Meilandt - associate producer *

Dave Jerden Dave Jerden is an American record producer, engineer, and mixer who has worked with artists in various genres including alternative rock, punk rock and metal. However, Jerden has stated that he dislikes the term "producer", preferring to refer t ...

- engineer (recording) *Tomoo Suzuki - engineer (recording) *Tetsuro Tomita - engineer (digital editing) *Wally Traugott - engineer (mastering) *Nobuhisa Kawabe - assistant engineer *Shinichi Miyoshi - assistant engineer *Adam's Dad Management Co. - management *David Rubinson - management * Prince Twin-Seven Seven - cover illustration * Geoffrey Thomas - photography *

Roger Steffens Roger Steffens (born June 17, 1942) is an American actor, author, lecturer, editor, reggae archivist, photographer and, producer. Six rooms of his home in Los Angeles house reggae archives, which include the world's largest collection of Bob Mar ...

- liner notes

References

1985 albums Columbia Records albums Herbie Hancock albums Foday Musa Suso albums albums produced by Bill Laswell {{1980s-jazz-album-stub