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The as you all will know, was a development of African instruments such as the (one maestro of that instrument is

The kora, though it can make wonderful music, is little more, basically, than a gourd covered with skin and gut strings.

It seems that when African slaves on the plantations of the Southern United States wanted to make music, they made themselves similar instruments with whatever came to hand.

Over the years, via jazz and jug bands and spasm bands, the banjo came to look more like the instrument we know and love today, both in its five string version, so loved of old-timey and bluegrass musicians, and the four string version played by Irish musicians.

A brilliant CD fell on the mat this morning called Africa to Appalachia by .

Stone is a master of the five-string banjo and Sissoko is one of Mali's greatest kora players.

The result is a brilliant synthesis of music from two different cultures in which you can hear echoes and resonances of the journey that the banjo has made in its crossing of the Atlantic.

I've played it over and over since the CD arrived and as soon as I can break the code of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ banjo filter I will lay a track or two on you good people. May the Lord have mercy on your ears.