Frequently, when a North American musician creates a piece of music billed as "world music fusion," it's little more than two artists from different countries getting together in the studio to cut a few tracks.
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But that's not the case with Jayme Stone. The Canadian musician is on tour with Mansa Sissoko, one of Mali's premier kora players. They will be in this area tonight with a show for the Turtledove Folk Club in West Grove.
Stone, an accomplished banjo player, discovered that the roots of the banjo were in the West African nations of Mali and Senegal. So he packed his bags and flew to Bamako, the capitol of Mali, for an extended musical journey.
"I knew the banjo came from Africa, so I went to Mali for three months," Stone said during a phone interview this week. "Bamako was my home base. All the best musicians from all over Mali end up in Bamako because it's the hub.
"I traveled out of the city for a few weeks at a time. I went out to the villages. I took public transportation, which was a real experience. I'm glad I rode the buses -- but I'd never do it again. In the villages, through friends and connections, I'd meet with different people."
Stone took a digital recorder and played the role of a musicology explorer as he traveled around the West African nation.
"I've loved music from all over Africa for a long time," he said. "Mali was always my favorite. But I never tried adapting Malian music to banjo until I met Mansa. We met about five years ago in Canada and hit it off immediately.
"When I went to Mali, I wanted to get a good cross-section of music. I went to rural areas where there was no electricity or running water - to places where people never left their village. It was a real experience for them, too, because I was playing a new stringed instrument they had never seen, but I was playing music they knew.
"The trip was very much about meeting people, listening to music and collecting the songs. I learned a lot of regional styles. I focused a lot on the ngoni (a type of African lute), which is a really old instrument. I made a lot of field recordings of ngoni players."
Stone is touring with Sissoko in support of a new album they recorded together, "Africa to Appalachia." Their band also includes Grant Gordy on guitar and Harris Eisenstadt on percussion.
What: Jayme Stone and Mansa Sissoko in concert
When: Sept. 27, 8 p.m.
Where: Turtledove Folk Club, West Grove Friends Meeting House, 153 E. Harmony Rd., West Grove
