#akonting

[stepfreedance-blog]

Kamalan Ngoni: The #ngoni is known to produce fast #melodies and appears to be closely related to the #Akonting and #Xalam and #Kora. #Londonisopen #TheFolaProject #Music #Strings (at South Bank Centre)

[stoopvillefarms]

Monday #Meditation - #Akonting Meditation (#We are all one) Healing Farmer

[shotgunbattleax]

The first video that got me really into the ekonting. Geez, it's been like four years since I found this piece. What all's happened since then...

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At least I have some friends who can say hi to me...

[willbrant]

a brief history of the banjo.

[willbrant]

recently watched this great documentary of bela fleck's trip to africa to explore the roots of the banjo and its music, while also recording an album of collaborations with african musicians. some really powerful and beautiful music. enlightening and ultimately transcendent.

[amaliaetedgeeworld]

Daniel Jatta: I am dedicating this post to my dear cousin who is currently in the Gambia. I found out about this on NPR and got super excited! 

In this video, Jatta, a native of Gambia, is playing an akonting.  After a trip to the US in the 70s, Jatta discovered the banjo, immediately finding similarities between the two instruments. For many years now he has been performing extensive research about the banjo. Over the years, many researchers have found several different instruments to be the prototype of the banjo, but Jatta became convinced that the akonting is the closest one yet. Not only are they both built similarly, he also discovered that they are played the exact same way with the same fingers.  A pretty interesting discovery!

[nprmusic]

Laemouahuma Daniel Jatta plays the akonting, an African instrument that may be a precursor to the banjo.

"Among all the instruments ever mentioned as a prototype of the banjo from the African region," he says, "the akonting to me has more similarities, more objective similarities than any other that has ever been mentioned."

The Banjo's Roots, Reconsidered