“Percussion is the bottom line. When you’re talking, crying, when it rains, there is percussion,” declared percussionist extraordinaire Mokhtar Samba. The African skinsman would know best. After all, he’s plied his trade professionally from 1977 and played with the likes of Carlos Santana, Joe Zawinul, Jaco Pastorious, Jean Luc Ponty and Youssou N’Dour in that time.

Mokhtar was swayed by African rhythms from the time he was a young boy attending weddings with his Moroccan mother. But it was only when he landed in France as a 12-year-old that his interest for the drums truly ignited.