Dévaluation concert workshop-orchestra

Make the Soul dance
balafon-workshop in Africa from 28 déc. 2008 – 12 jan. 2009

We came from Germany, France and Switzerland and we met for the first time at the Paris airport. Our destination was Konsankuy, a village in the south-east of Mali in West Africa. Here, in the heart of the savannah, in the middle of the Bobo country, took place the workshop organized by Gert Kilian.
Aly Keita, the famous balafon master, grew up in Konsankuy and that is where the film for the DVD “The Balafon with Aly Keita & Gert Kilian” was shot.
Our teachers are Youssouf and Kassoum, Aly’s brother and his cousin.
We play in the shade of the mango tree and we really enjoy ourselves and have a lot of fun!We work for about six to seven hours a day for ten days and learn seven traditional pieces of the Bobo, Bambara and Senoufo with, in all, thirty patterns, melodies and “chauffés”.

Together with Kassoum’s group SUPER ZAMAZA we go to Fangasso to attend an overwhelming feast with music, dance and dolo, the millet beer.
On the last day we have a “recording session”. We play and film the whole repertoire, and we are very satisfied with the result of the workshop! Then we have to say Good bye. But we don’t go with empty hearts nor empty ears!The music is still lingering inside us and we are looking forward to sharing it with others.
more infos: www.gert-kilian.com