Bassekou Kouyate is a musical wizard and one of Africa's most innovative bandleaders. He plays the ngoni, the traditional lute from Mali that dates back hundreds of years and is the musical forebear ...

PALOS HILLS, Ill. (RNS) – A musical play explores the shared history of Islam, Africa and blues music through the eyes of an enslaved storyteller-musician. PALOS HILLS, Ill. (RNS) – The history of ...

In West Africa, Europe and the world-music scene, the beloved Senegalese singer-songwriter Baaba Maal is a superstar. He's long been known for bridging the griot tradition of West African bards with ...

Mauritanian Griot master Noura Mint Seymali has unleashed an utterly triumphant, infectious, and energetic new desert ...

Just over a decade ago, world music label Putumayo released Mali to Memphis, a guitar-drenched compilation that pondered the connections between Delta blues and West African griot music. The ...

When the lineup was announced for the 25th Concert of Colors — Detroit’s free annual diversity-themed music festival — Griot Galaxy immediately jumped out. No Detroit jazz ensemble is more legendary ...

Bucknell's Griot Institute for Africana Studies marked its fifth year with an opening ceremony that "epitomized the spirit of the griot," said Director Carmen Gillespie, invoking the West African term ...

Bassekou Kouyate is a griot, meaning that he’s part of an ancient, hereditary caste responsible for maintaining a body of songs and stories that have been passed down for generations. In precolonial ...

Somewhere in the world tonight, the music of Philip Glass will be playing. Maybe it's The Light, performed by the Budapest Festival Orchestra this week in Hungary; or String Quartet no. 2 on Monday in ...

The reaction was overwhelmingly positive when we broke the news that a vinyl-centric jazz bar had opened in Midtown last month. The Griot Music Lounge – situated at 66 E. Forest in between Seva and ...