The Whole Music Experience

photos: from Rock Paper Scissors Jayme Stone and Mansa Sissoko Africa to Appalachia Independent Release Canada Seckou Keita SKQ TheSilimbo Passage World Artventures UK Like some of you that visit this blog, I am also a huge fan of West African griot music and especially the West African harp, the kora. I am also keen on cultural exchange between West African countries and folk music of North America (blues, Appalachian, traditional folk). Not long ago I read an article on World Music Central regarding the banjo and its ancestor, the West African n'goni. I was fascinated with the article and through synchronicity, I would encounter Jayme Stone and Mansa Sissoko's exploration of the ordinary banjo--not so ordinary at all. While the banjo has been a staple of bluegrass, folk and other types of North American musical genres, it has also suffered a bad reputation as an instrument that can't seem to stay in tune and in some corners it might just seem rather outd...