Mamajowali ft. Joe Craven, Mamadou Sidibe, & Walter Strauss

Name: Mamajowali ft. Joe Craven, Mamadou Sidibe, & Walter Strauss
Start: 2025-10-16T20:00:00-07:00
Location: 230 Petaluma Ave Sebastopol CA 95472

Schedule

Thu, 16 Oct, 2025 at 08:00 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

230 Petaluma Ave Sebastopol CA 95472 | Sebastopol, CA

HOPMONK PRESENTS
Mamajowali ft. Joe Craven, Mamadou Sidibe, & Walter Strauss

HopMonk Sebastopol - The Abbey
DOORS: 7pm | SHOW: 8pm
21+ | MOSTLY STANDING

NO REFUNDS | ALL SALES FINAL
Tickets: After completing your purchase on See Tickets, you will receive an email confirmation with your attached PDF ticket(s). You MUST print and bring your PDF tickets AND VALID PHOTO IDENTIFICATION to be admitted for the event. You may download the See Tickets app and show your ticket on your mobile device for entry in lieu of printing.

ABOUT:
Mamajowali features three splendidly unique veteran musicians – one from Mali, West Africa and two from the United States – who have found common ground in a new ecstatic sound. Their colorful blend of kamale ngoni (hunter’s harp), six string guitar, percussion, fiddle, mandolin and singing is traditional, innovative and uncommon – all at the same time. Mamajowali overlays deep West African music with old time Americana and spirited originals, with hoppin’ high energy grooves and tons of improvisational trialogue. A sound you’ve never heard – “Afromericana!

Joe Craven – Award winning creativity educator, former museum curator, actor, festival emcee, Director of RiverTunes Music Camp and Co-Director of Wintergrass Youth Academy, multi-instrumentalist Joe Craven’s love of performing music has put him in many musical genres and alongside many musicians, from Jerry Garcia, David Lindley and Jason Marsalis, to fusion banjoist Alison Brown and groups such as Psychograss and The Horseflies. For 17 years, he was percussionist and violinist for mandolinist David Grisman. With presenting workshops and lectures in Costa Rica, to thousands of school kids in Scotland, from house concerts to major festivals and from Carnegie Hall to busking at Cannery Row – Joe’s at home and loving every minute.

Master kamale ngoni player, Mamadou Sidibe is from the Wassoulou Region of Mali, West Africa. Twenty-five years ago Mamadou played a groundbreaking role in transforming the music of this region from it’s origins in hunters’ sacred melodies- -played on six string donso ngoni (hunter’s harps)– to a music of philosophical observations, politics and daily life. Mamadou was one of the first to expand the instrument’s range with two extra strings, creating the popular kamale ngoni. He has recently enhanced the kamale ngoni even further, by creating 10 and 12 string kamale ngoni. Mamadou, with artists Coumba Sidibe, Oumou Sangare and Ramatu Diakite, spread the new sounds through recordings and performances in Europe, Africa and the United States. Not only is Mamadou an award winning musician and master of the kamale ngoni, he is accomplished on several other African instruments as well.

Guitarist Walter Strauss' playing is held in high regard in varied corners of the musical world. The great Malian kora player Toumani Diabate called Walter’s guitar renditions of West African kora music “inspirational”. British guitar icon Martin Simpson praises Walter’s playing as “beautiful, fluid, and sophisticated”. His guitar is a rich blend of texture and syncopation, influenced by diverse global stringed instruments, contemporary and ancient. Walter has toured internationally both solo & in collaborations - with Malian kora greats Grammy-winner Mamadou Diabate and Sidiki Diabate, West Coast songbirds MaMuse, in Havana with violinist Tanmy Lopez Moreno and Scotland with Old Blind Dogs fiddler Jonny Hardie.