Re: West Afrikan Akonting lute musik Old Time Herald web site

Lyle
Thanks
I appreciate that you like the article and the sound clip.

I will come back with a more scientific report in a another magazine next
year. The most important thing is to get rid of the general believe  that it
was the Griots who were the main carrier of the Afro-American music to the
New World. They were  according to what I have found so far, not so at all.
Different folk lute instruments and the folk tradition in different ethnic
groups had a much more important impact on the common music life in the New
World than the very few bards, Griots, that by accident could have been
brought over from Africa.

Another side of the coin is that  some Africans in the New World took up
part of the Griot traditions. Things like that is something that always
happened when there is an sudden empty field old traditional power
structures. The main problem for me is to get rid of this misconception that
had been cemented over the last fifty years of  historical music writings.
Everyday of work with this topic have given me more and more proof that the
banjo history written by Michael Coolen and others are not based on correct
facts. Sam Charters has been my guest in my hose this fall and admits that
he perhaps took a hasten wrong standpoint in his book Roots of the Blues
about the Griot music as the forefather of the banjo music. Time will give
me right in this matter

I have been accused that the Jola Akonting music we have found has been
influenced by modern Western music. But the same people then accept the
Griot music as genuine African folk music and roots of the Banjo music when
we now that the Griots took up Western influenced music as early as in the
1920s i.e. when they made the six string guitar a Griot instrument.
Most musicologist both on the white and black side don´t care, but they
should, as this concerns all contemporary music of the last 150 years in the
western world.

Akontings supplied by me can now be seen in all temporary banjo exhibitions
in Kentucky, Katonah N.Y, Stone brook of Long Island and in MIM, Brussels.

J is pronounced as Y like in the name Yeager or Japan both in Sweden and
West Africa ( by all languages). Lofgren spelled with umlaut, two dots, for
the O is a rather common name in Sweden.

Ulf

"Lyle Lofgren" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> skrev i meddelandet
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> "Ulf Jägfors" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Steve Terrill" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 8:41 AM
> > Subject: Old Time Herald web site
> >
> >
> >  Hi Ulf- I wanted to let you know I have put the sound files and photos
> > for the Akonting article you sent, on the OTH Web site.
> >    http://www.oldtimeherald.org/ or direct
> >   http://www.oldtimeherald.org/akonting/index.html
> >
> >  Great stuff you sent,
> >  THANKS!
> >  Hope you enjoy it!
> >  Steve
> >  Steve Terrill
> >  Webmaster, Old Time Herald
> >  336.275.7286 (phone & fax)
> >  http://www.oldtimeherald.org
>
>
> Ulf, thanks for posting this to the group, and thanks for the OTH
> article, which I just finished reading. It's great to have a website
> where I can also listen to the examples. Good work!
>
> All my grandparents came from Sweden, so I have a pretty good idea how
> to pronounce the "J" in your name, but how is  "J" pronounced in the
> part of Africa covered by the article? I notice it's used a lot.
>
> Lyle