The Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society is bringing us what promises to be a splendid musical evening this fall. The six-piece American African fusion band, co-led by Malian balafon player Balla Kouyaté and Mike Block Band, will grace the stage at the Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center on Oct. 6.
MVCMS board president Kimberly Baumhofer notes about bringing the band to the Island, “The Chamber Music Society always wants to provide excellent music to the entire community. Mike is classically trained, but explores, enjoys, and plays a range of music that will appeal to a different and wider audience than ‘classical’ music. We want to be an organization that provides music performances that appeal to many people.”
Block is a pioneering multistyle cellist, singer, composer, and educator who grew up steeped in the classical tradition. His family are classical musicians, and he was raised playing the classical cello repertory.
“But during and after college, I was inspired by learning multiple musical languages and becoming comfortable with different styles and multicultural collaborations. Through that process, I had to change a lot about the way I thought about music. One of those things was inventing this strap so I could stand up while playing cello, to be a part of the physical experience on the stage during the performance,” Block said.
Block was the first standing cellist to perform at Carnegie Hall, which The New York Times characterized as “breathless … half dance, half dare.”
Kouyaté plays the balafon, a cousin of the marimba or xylophone, but which has a unique buzzing sound. Traditionally, spiderwebs are wrapped around the resonant whole of the gourd on the backside, creating polyrhythmic layers. Kouyaté’s family lineage goes back more than 800 years to Balla Faséké, the first of an unbroken line of djelis in the Kouyaté clan. Djelis are the oral historians, musicians, and performers who keep alive and celebrate the history of the Mandé people of Mali, Guinea, and other West African countries.
Kouyaté explains that the word “djeli” derives from the Mandinka language: “It means blood, and speaks to the central role we play in our society.” One must be born into it. The Kouyaté family is regarded as the original praise singers of the Malinké people, one of the ethnic groups in much of West Africa.
Block relates, “Traditionally, the instrument is played seated on the ground. But when Balla moved to America, he put it on a keyboard stand. In both our journeys to engage with different musical styles, we find ourselves going from sitting to standing.”
Kouyaté and Block have been collaborating since 2008, bonding over their shared interest in music from across the world and a commitment to innovating on their instruments. They have teamed up with friends from America and West Africa to create an exciting fusion of musical styles that features Sekou Dembele (djembe/vocals), Idrissa Kone (talking drum/calabash/percussion/vocals), Luke Okerlund (electric guitar) and Mike Rivard (bass/sintir).
The concert will include traditional music from Mali and America, and a significant number of original compositions. Although the final program is not finalized, it will likely include the traditional West African piece “Diaraby,” which means “beloved.”
Block has arranged “I’ve Endured,” a bluegrass song. “So much of American folk music is indebted to the influence of enslaved Africans,” he explains. “It’s been very gratifying to bring American folk music back into this project, and hear West African–infused influence.”
The lyrics in Block’s original song, “Iniche Cosebe,” translate as “thank you very much” in the Mandinka language that Kouyaté’s community speaks. Says Block: “That’s me trying to find a compositional voice within their musical environment. Even our traditional pieces are brought into a contemporary sound, because we have an electric bass and electric guitar mixed with the four acoustic instruments. It’s a great combination of Old and New World.”
Block promises that audience members will feel a sense of joy at the performance: “But apart from that emotional experience, I think the cross-cultural work is very meaningful. To see in real time two different things, which on the surface you wouldn’t expect to see together, you start to realize that anything is actually possible. The ability of people from different backgrounds to get along and thrive in collaboration is a zoomed-out metaphor that can help people feel hopeful and inspired, and more connected to the world around them.”
The Balla Kouyaté and Mike Block Band will perform at the Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center on Oct. 6. For more information about the event, visit mvcms.org/events.html. To see videos of the Balla Kouyaté and Mike Block Ban performing, visit mikeblockmusic.com/ballamike.
