Concert preview: Béla Fleck Wednesday at the Granada

by Sarah Crisman

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One musician's pilgrimage exploring the African ancestry of the banjo brings beautiful music from around the world to Dallas tonight.

DALLAS — American banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck returns to Dallas after a pilgrimage to Africa exploring the little known African roots of the banjo and recording his album Throw Down your Heart. The music and accompanying documentary provides a glimpse into the diverse beauty and complexity of Africa.

Béla has brought the banjo to many unexpected places including jazz, pop, classical, and world music settings, earning eight Grammys and 20 nominations in the process along the way.

While many equate the banjo as a uniquely American instrument, the banjo is actually a descendant of an West African instrument. Béla wanted to go to Africa to trace the roots of the banjo, the instrument that defines who he is.

Béla’s deep love of African music inspired his year spent collaborating with musicians in Uganda, Tanzania, The Gambia, and Mali. The resulting documentary features villagers who play a twelve-foot xylophone, a family that makes and plays the akonting (thought by many to be the original banjo), and the Malian diva Oumou Sangare.

Bela will be joined tonight by Bassekou Kouyate, and his band Ngoni Ba. They're known to meld contemporary jazz, blues, rock, bluegrass, and pop influences with Afro-beat and the centuries-old musical traditions of the griots of Mali.

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