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 ...

Local balafon player Balla Kouyaté joined WBUR's Morning Edition to talk about his family's legacy with the ancient instrument. He first picked it up as a child in his native Mali and played alongside ...

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 ...

CHICO — When Lansana Kouyaté taps out a rhythm on his balafon, he not only pays the bills but keeps his 800-year family history and tradition from Guinea alive and vibrant. Kouyaté started playing the ...

Early on in his new book, “Custodians of Wonder,” BBC Travel writer Eliot Stein tallies some recent effects of globalization, a process that seems to only speed up. Nine languages, he notes, are lost ...

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 ...

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 ...

The West African country of Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) has long been a musical hub, attracting artists from across the continent as well as producing its own talent -- like international reggae star, ...