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Banjo music originated informally as a form of African folk music over a hundred years ago probably in the sub-Saharan region. When the Americans forced African slaves to work on the plantations, banjo music followed them, and stayed primarily a form of African folk music, up to the 1800s.
The akonting ([ə'kɔntiŋ], [1] or ekonting in French transliteration) is the folk lute of the Jola people, found in Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau in West Africa.It is a string instrument with a skin-headed gourd body, two long melody strings, and one short drone string, akin to the short fifth "thumb string" on the five-string banjo.
The annual Banjo Collectors Gatherings also serve as the principal forums for the presentations of new research on the banjo's history and organology. Jatta's presentation, in which he performed on the akonting and showed film footage of other Jola musicians playing the instrument, made for quite a sensation.
"The banjo had its first big site of growth in this country among the enslaved population in the Chesapeake Bay region, who were my ancestors," Blount says. Meet the musician teaching the banjo's ...
The following is a list of musical instruments from the Africa continent as well as their countries or regions of origin. A Adungu ... Banjo music; Batá drum (Nigeria)
Joel Sweeney. Joel Walker Sweeney (1810 – October 29, 1860), also known as Joe Sweeney, was an American musician and early blackface minstrel performer. He is known for popularizing the playing of the banjo and has often been credited with advancing the physical development of the modern five-string banjo.
As the name suggests, it is usually played with a guitar-style pick (that is, a single one held between thumb and forefinger), unlike the five-string banjo, which is either played with a thumbpick and two fingerpicks, or with bare fingers. The plectrum banjo evolved out of the five-string banjo, to cater to styles of music involving strummed ...
The banjo, of African origin, became a popular instrument, and its African-derived rhythms were incorporated into popular songs by Stephen Foster and other songwriters. Over time the banjo's construction adopted some European traditions such as a flat fingerboard. Some banjos had five strings, in contrast to the West African three-string version.