Among the many artists at this year’s Visa for Music in Rabat, a fair for music professionals from across Africa and the Middle East, was Guinea’s Sekouba Bambino, one of West Africa’s most popular musicians. <br /><br /> Born into a musical family, Bambino comes from a long line of griots or African storytellers and poets. He has toured throughout Africa and Europe. <br /><br /> Karyna Gomes is a vocalist and percussionist from Guinea Bissau. She grew up listening to both traditional and world music, from Africa, America and Europe. She was particularly influenced by Cuban music she says. <br /><br /> “After independence when I was born, there were many Cubans in Guinea-Bissau who shared their music. I had uncles who studied in Cuba and who brought back music from there, so I was influenced by what you call Latin music,” she says.<br /><br /> Gomes’ trumpet player is the talented Jéssica Pina. “I did not choose the trumpet, the trumpet chose me because I was trying different instruments and I could only play the trumpet,” says Pina, who started playing the trumpet as a child. <br /><br /> As for Karyna Gomes, she started singing gospel as a student in Sao Paolo. She now lives in Lisbon, where she’s working on her second album.<br />
