Music has been described as a universal language. It lifts our souls and has no boundaries. Dating back 43,000 years, music is an expression of people from different cultures around the world. The average person listens to music every day and it often has a positive effect on how we think and act.
Last Saturday evening, Common Fence Music in Portsmouth held a performance by Trio Da Kali. The trio, from Mali, consists of a woman vocalist (Hawa Diabate) and two men who play traditional African instruments, the balafon (played by Fode Lassana Diabate) and the bass n’goni (played by Mamadou Kouyate). Music critics have compared Hawa’s powerful contralto voice to gospel great Mahalia Jackson. Lassana’s balafon (xylophone) unites the group with masterful, agile melodies. Mamadou’s bass n’goni (lute) produces creative bass sounds that resonate through one’s body.
Trio Da Kali is currently on a world tour that will take them to New York, San Francisco, and London.
The performance was so good that, even though I had never heard traditional African music before, they connected to me on a deep emotional level.
Exposure to music from other cultures enriches us and increases our understanding of all peoples on the earth. In these times, we need to look past boundaries and come together as human beings. Common Fence Music aims to do that.
Ron Catabia
Swansea