A musical performance of the original poem "From Africa
to Bluegrass Sound, Let the Strings of Akonting Resound" by its author Steve Levitt.
To get more details or book a performance,
call Steve Levitt at 919-563-9527
This poem-story performance portrays/teaches the history of the banjo from
its roots and beginnings in the Casamance region of Senegal and The Gambia, West Africa to America. This poem-story
is brought to life with a variety of musical instruments including West African Sangba drum, hambone, the Akonting,
claw hammer banjo, fiddle, rhythm bones, flatfoot dancing and audience participation.
The music and dance performance of the poem is followed by playing the Akonting
to provide a musical background for singing songs both from Africa and from slave plantations,
including both 'step-it-down' songs and spirituals (these are not included in the video
below but some are shown further down on this page). Audience participation includes 'call and response' singing and
dancing.
Steve Levitt performing the original poem-story "From Africa to Bluegrass Sound, Let the Strings of Akonting
Resound."
This work is (c) 2007 Steve Levitt. All Rights Reserved.
This poem may only be performed with prior written permission or under license by the author. To book a performance
or obtain permission/license contact Steve Levitt at stevelevitt@earthlink.net
To get more details or book a performance,
call Steve Levitt at 919-563-9527
Recent Performances:
Chosen to be performed as the narrative story line in the dance concert "Bluegrass/BrownEarth" created by the internationally renouned choreographer and artistic director Chuck
Davis ('Baba') of the African American Dance Ensemble, Durham, NC. This wonderful music and
dance concert depicts the history of the banjo from Africa to America.
The Carolina Old Time Jamboree concert and benefit for the Music
Maker Relief Foundation, Durham, NC. Performed as part of a performance by musicians Terry Burtyk (bass), Randy
Johnson (banjo), Alan Julich (banjo, Akonting), Clare-Steece Julich (guitar), Charley Pennell (fiddle) and flatfoot dancers
Joan Levitt and Jimmy Holcomb. Steve Levitt-poem, rhythm bones, hambone and flatfoot dance. (Note: bookings
for the poem performance does not include musicians other than Steve Levitt).
The 1st Annual John Coltrane Edu-tainment Festival
in honor of John Coltrane at his birthplace in Hamlet, NC, Oct. 3, 2009. The poem performance was followed
by songs from Africa and 'step-it-down' and spirituals originating on the slave plantations of the Sea Islands off the coast
of Georgia and South Carolina. Audience participation included 'call and response' singing and dancing.
This 1st annual festival was created and organized by Hamlet, NC native Mr. Gerard Morrison who brought
together a wonderful variety of both local and invited performances in a wide range of musical genres.
Old Fashioned Farm Days at the Winery at Iron Gate
Farm in Mebane, NC May 1, 2010
The Akonting-A Root of the American Banjo
BELOW IS A SERIES OF VIDEOS USING THE AKONTING
TO CREATE RHYTHMS AND MUSIC FOR SONGS FROM VARIOUS COUNTRIES AND CULTURES IN WEST AFRICA AND FROM THE SLAVE PLANTATIONS IN
AMERICA
Akonting Session 1- Introduction : Discussion of history and demonstration
of construction, playing style and musical examples.
The Akonting is a full spiked folk lute played by the Jola people of the Casamance region
of Southern Senegal and The Gambia, a combined region sometimes now referred to as Senegambia. It is made
from a stick, a gourd and goat skin. It has three strings including a long bottom note string, a middle note string,
and a top short drone string.
The Akonting is of great interest to banjo historians because of all similar lutes found in West Africa,
this recently discovered folk instrument is the only one so far that has been found to have both the same top short
drone string as later developed on the American banjo, and also the same downpicking playing style (o'teck "to stroke" in
Jola, or clawhammer/frailing in English) as later developed for the banjo in early America. Added to this is the fact
that many thousands of Jola people were brought to America as slaves during the Atlantic slave trade. The Jola people
are rice farmers and live along major rivers, making it relatively easy for slave traders to come up river at night by boat
and capture many of them. With this as a background, many banjo historians therefore now believe that this instrument,
the Akonting, is an important root, a direct link and living African ancestor of what developed as the American banjo including
its construction, playing style, rhythms and music.
Some Details: The Akonting's short top drone string (other African instruments also have
a drone string) is found on the American 5-string banjo. It has a unique playing style (the only West African instrument
documented to have this style) of first brushing down on the long note string with the back of a finger (nail) followed
by the drone string plucked by the thumb. This constitutes the basic mechanics of the down picking, claw hammer
style of old time banjo playing that evolved in America. So, both the structure and playing style of the Akonting
strongly suggest that it is a very important source, a key root instrument, brought (literally or through memory) to America
by West African slaves where it contributed in a major way to the eventual evolution of the present day American 5-string
banjo.
The Akonting is a folk lute which, until recently, was in danger of becoming lost to time. Very
few young people in the birth place of the Akonting were interested in carrying on the tradition of making and playing this
instrument.
The scholar/musician Daniel Laemouahuma Jatta originally from The Gambia (now living in Sweden)
pioneered the research and documentation on the Akonting beginning in the mid-1980s. There is now a revival of
interest in the Akonting that has been catalyzed and supported by the efforts of a number of individuals from many different
places: Swedish banjo collector/researcher Ulf Jagfors; British banjo historian Nick Bamber, American old-time
country musician/scholar Ben Nelson; banjoist/instrument maker Paul Sedgwick; and other banjo musicians/enthusiasts/scholars
Tony Thomas, Greg and Maggie Adams, Shlomo Pestcoe and others. Tradition bearers today in Senegambia include Ekona Jatta
and Remi Jatta, Esa Jesus Jarju, Bouba Diedhiou, Sana Ndiaye and growing numbers of others.
The Akonting Center for Senegambian Folk Music in Mandinary, Gambia is a grassroots cultural effort
devoted to researching, documenting and perpetuating the many endangered string instrument traditions of the people of Senegambia.
