Results for "Balafon"

Lassana Diabaté

Aly Keїta

Born: June 17, 1969

West African musician Aly Keita earned worldwide renown for his mastery of the balafon, a marimba-like instrument native to the region. The balafon is traditionally the instrument of the griot, or the oral historians and songsmiths of West Africa. Although the tradition lives on, it is not as a griot that Keita became famous. Rather, it was his ability to take this millennium-old instrument into a modern musical context. While rooted in tradition, Keita's Afro-pop, funk-fueled rhythm section and taste for complex jazz-oriented arrangements set him far apart from most balafonists. Aly hails from a famous musical family, the same that produced Salif Keita, one of West Africa's most treasured songwriters and musical talents

Julian Calv

Julian Calv is an American composer, singer, and trimbist. Born February 18 1999 in New Brunswick, NJ, Julian grew up in Bethlehem Township, NJ. He graduated from Moravian University in 2021 with a Bachelor’s of Music focusing on composition, education, and classical piano. While there he studied piano with Barbara Thompson and Dan DeChellis and composition with Larry Lipkis and Scott Watson. In his senior year he completed an independent study of the  20th c. American composer Moondog's creative life. Throughout the course of this impactful project he established an apprenticeship with Stefan Lakatos.