12’ Bar Ramblin’ #35 'West African Blues' with Stefan Matussek 15.01.2019

The Origin of the Blues lies in the musical traditions of slaves brought over
to America from Africa. Call-and-Response work songs and free form field hollers
sung by the slaves and subsequently the sharecroppers in the southern United
States formed the basis of the genre. The pentatonic melodies and song
structures are likely the legacy of traditional African folk music. West African
Blues is a form of popular music that, on the one hand returns to the root of
blues music also fuses West African traditional music and American Blues music.
Local instruments such as the Ngoni, Kora, Djembe or Balafon are often used and
collaborations with US and English blues musicians are not uncommon. This music
received wider attention through the influential Malian guitarist Ali Farka
Touré...