Arts Program to explore Southern music's African roots
| Program to explore Southern music's African roots |
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| Thursday, June 19, 2008 | |
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The first banjo to arrive on American shores was from Africa, and made out of a gourd. This 1740 version of the instrument will be among topics of a multimedia program on the influence of African musical traditions on fiddle and banjo music in the southeastern United States, set for June 26 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The free public program will be from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, off South Road just west of the Morehead Patterson Bell Tower. Limited parking may be available on Stadium Drive or in the Rams Head deck off Ridge Road. For campus maps, visit http://www.maps.unc.edu/. Cece Conway, a folklore professor at Appalachian State University and fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, will trace origins of the gourd banjo brought to Virginia in 1740. She will explain connections between African musical traditions and the music of the southeastern region. Video clips from Conway’s fieldwork will feature African musicians, Virginia and North Carolina black banjo songsters and fiddlers, and other mountain musicians. West African musician Cheick Hamala Diabaté and singer and old-time fiddler James Leva will provide the music. Diabaté will play the n’goni, a Malian stringed instrument, and Leva, who has recorded more than a dozen albums, will fiddle with the skill born of 30 years of rendering traditional music. The Atlantic Monthly called Conway’s book, “African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia,” “a landmark study,” and her co-produced Smithsonian Folkways compact disc, “Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia,” “a rare and fascinating collection” of recordings. (The disc was supported by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the North Carolina Arts Council and Appalachian State University.) Diabaté’s collaboration with banjo player Bob Carlin on “Mali to America” was nominated for the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Traditional World Music Album. Diabaté began touring the U.S. in 1995 and has played from Merlefest in western North Carolina to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He has worked as an instructor, choreographer, and performer with U.S.-based traditional African dance companies. Diabaté appears in “Throw Down Your Heart,” Béla Fleck’s just-released documentary chronicling his recent trip to The Gambia and Mali to work with local musicians to trace the origins of the banjo. Leva has played traditional music since the mid-1970s, when he apprenticed himself to fiddler Tommy Jarrell, banjo player Fred Cockerham and ballad singer Doug Wallin. He has played from Merlefest and Telluride, Colo., to the Nyon and Avignon Festivals in Europe. Leva’s most recent album is “Winkin’ Eye,” recorded with his band, Purgatory Mountain. Articles in Sing Out! and Acoustic Guitar magazines and Dirty Linen, a magazine about traditional, folk and world music, praise his songwriting and his haunting fiddling and vocal solos. UNC’s Center for the Study of the American South and the Stone Center will sponsor the June 26 performance. Program Web site: http://www.unc.edu/depts/csas/Conferences/AfricanMusicalInfluence.html Béla Fleck Web site with documentary information: http://www.belafleck.com/ Photos: For images of Diabaté, visit http://www.malimusic.net/presskit.htm. For images of Leva, visit http://www.jamesleva.com/photo%20gallery.htm. Center for the Study of the American South contact: Reid Johnson, (919) 962-5665 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it News Services contact: LJ Toler, (919) 962-8589 |