Banjo player inspired by Africa

He'll perform in TC April 9 with string quintet

BY VANESSA MCCRAY
vmccray@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY -- Banjo player Jayme Stone traveled all the way to Mali, Africa, to discover the origins of the instrument he started playing as a teenager.

The result of that trip was his 2008 album "Africa to Appalachia." Stone will perform African-infused music at an 8:00 p.m. April 9 concert at the Dennos Museum Center in Traverse City.

Stone played the guitar, but when he started getting serious about music he gravitated to the "quirkiness" of the banjo. He picked up the instrument at age 16.

"That was part of what I liked about it. It felt like it was an untapped territory still," Stone said. "There were so many things that had never been done on the banjo."

He hails from Toronto but now lives in Colorado. Stone met Mansa Sissoko, a Malian singer who plays a 21-string African harp called the kora. The two made an instant musical connection when a mutual friend introduced them.

Stone listened to African music, but whenever it was a piece from Mali, particularly, "it would really blow me over."

"It was so inspiring that I just felt compelled to go and find out more," he said.

He visited Africa in 2007 and learned about the family of instruments that are the banjo's ancestors. When he returned, Stone took some time to digest what he had experienced and started working on an album with Sissoko, who had moved to Canada.

"In hindsight, what I feel like we were doing was finding a way to play music that was our music -- that wasn't necessarily Malian and wasn't necessarily North American," Stone said.

Stone's next record will feature music based on folk dances from around the world.

He will appear in Traverse City with kora player Yacouba Sissoko, who is no relation to Stone's album collaborator. Rounding out the quintet performing locally is a fiddle, upright bass and drums.

Tickets to the concert are $25 in advance and $28 at the door. For tickets, visit the Web site www.dennosmuseum.org or call the box office at 995-1553.