As a boy in Mali, Balla Kouyaté remembers playing the balafon to motivate workers on a farm. He was so small, he had to stand on a large rock to be seen by the crowd. An opportunity like that would ...

WORCESTER — Balla Kouyaté inherited a family musical tradition that goes back centuries in the West African nation of Mali. Since coming to the United States in 2000 he's been sharing it in different ...

Why settle for a recorder when you could wield a contrabass clarinet – or something you invented yourself? Meet the players drawn to the unusual In the 2022 film Alice, the titular heroine – a slave ...

Music often captures what words cannot. The collections of sounds coalesce to form ideas and phrases that mean something to those who listen to them. When you introduce new types of sounds and ...

Mamadou Diabate and Percussion Mania is known for its virtuosic balafon playing and rhythm and is characterized by two balafons as lead instruments. This ensemble is the only one of its kind worldwide ...

Sue Krogsgaard has been to Africa many times before, but she never got the chance to play a balafon until she was home in Regina. “(My husband, Richard, and I) love African music. We love the drumming ...

Mawdo Suso is a Griot, which is commonly known as 'jali'. A 'jali', is someone who tells legendary stories and history about his community, ancestry and genealogy. Mawdo Suso was born in Sutu koba in ...

Aly Keïta is testament to the adage of an apple not falling far from a tree. Brought up in a family of griot musicians, the award-winning Ivorian grand master of the balafon could not resist adopting ...