By Seydou Dembele | Head Administrator and Language Teacher
Jeff and Robert, two musicians from New Orleans, visited Ecole de Musique de Kirina on January 31st, 2015. Jeff, who has his own band, plays an African drum called a Dundun and teaches many kids at music schools in New Orleans. He said there is a hundreds-year history between Mali and New Orleans. According to that history some of the first people to arrive in the land of New Orleans were Abu Bakr II, a Malian emperor, and his men.
Jeff was very excited and happy to be in Mali and particularly in Kirina. Having visited all of the music institutes in Mali’s capital, Bamako, he also said Ecole de Musique de Kirina has the best teachers in Mali. Jeff suggested to those teachers at schools in Bamako to come to Kirina and have workshops with the teachers at Ecole de Musique de Kirina.
Jeff's main dream is to have a Playing For Change music school in New Orleans so that this connection between Mali and New Orleans can be reestablished, and to bring some of the teachers from Ecole de Musique de Kirina to New Orleans to have a cultural exchange. In addition to his band in New Orleans, Jeff wants to create another band in Mali, to which he gave the name “Africabrass." His hope is to strengthen the connection between musicians of New Orleans and those of Mali.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
