akonting

Adams says the akonting is a folk instrument, played not by griots, but by ordinary people in the Jola tribe.

NPR Topics: News 2011

Adams says the akonting is a folk instrument, played not by griots, but by ordinary people in the Jola tribe.

NPR Topics: News 2011

Adams says the akonting is a folk instrument, played not by griots, but by ordinary people in the Jola tribe.

NPR Topics: News 2011

In turn, Fleck is awestruck by their presence and the acoustic instruments he gets to accompany, including a 12-foot xylophone, a three-string lute called the akonting (which is a likely antecedent of the banjo) and palm-size pianos called mbiras.

ScrippsNews - current events, culture, commentary, community 2009

Mr. FLECK: Well, the thing about the akonting is you can still hear the music, the slave music sometimes, there's people that play it and some of it was transcribed.

Bela Fleck And Toumani Diabate: Banjo Roots 2009

And when you hear the akonting music, to me, it really sounds like the music of that time - that was later played on the plantations, then gradually turned into bluegrass and old time music.

Bela Fleck And Toumani Diabate: Banjo Roots 2009

Mr. FLECK: Well, the thing about the akonting is you can still hear the music, the slave music sometimes, there's people that play it and some of it was transcribed.

Bela Fleck And Toumani Diabate: Banjo Roots 2009

So I'd say play a song from the Gambians, from the akonting.

Bela Fleck And Toumani Diabate: Banjo Roots 2009

And when you hear the akonting music, to me, it really sounds like the music of that time - that was later played on the plantations, then gradually turned into bluegrass and old time music.

Bela Fleck And Toumani Diabate: Banjo Roots 2009

So I'd say play a song from the Gambians, from the akonting.

Bela Fleck And Toumani Diabate: Banjo Roots 2009