Music & Dance
SANA NDIAYE
Northampton, Massachusetts
Senegalese ekonting
Senegalese master musician, Sana Ndiaye, performs on the ekonting (also akonting), a plucked lute played by Jola musicians in the Senegambian region of West Africa. The ekonting is three-stringed instrument whose cylindrical stick neck runs the full length of a skin-headed gourd body. A two-footed bridge holds the strings in place. It is one of many instruments that researchers are comparing to what is known of the banjo’s African American heritage from the 17th and 18th centuries in the Caribbean and colonial United States. O'teck (which means literally "to strike” or “hit") is a word often used by the Jola observers and players to describe the downstroke playing technique used to sound the ekonting. Banjo players often note a perceived similarity between this technique and other downstroking techniques associated with the banjo, such as stroke style, clawhammer, and frailing.
Sana was born in the Casamance region of southern Senegal in the village of Djembering where he learned and mastered the ekonting. As a young man, Sana balanced school with playing the ekonting for community functions and celebrations. In his mid-twenties, Sana moved to the Senegalese capital of Dakar to join his parents who were living there at the time. In Dakar, Sana became one of the founding members of the hip-hop group, Gokh-bi System, which was looking to expand their sound with the addition of traditional instruments. This combination of the ekonting with hip-hop interested American rap music producers and soon earned the group recording contracts and an invitation to participate in the Senegal-America Project, based in western Massachusetts.
It is the potential connection with the banjo that drew the interest of banjo historian Greg C. Adams, who says that Sana “is not only a gifted and accomplished musician, but, as an ekonting player, he is also an exemplary teacher and a notable innovator. As a teacher, Sana effectively contextualizes his knowledge about the ekonting tradition to both non-specialists and researchers. To members of the banjo community investigating the banjo's West African heritage, his stories provide meaningful perspectives about one of the many culturally distinct plucked lute traditions found throughout West Africa today. Sana has taken the traditional form, construction, playing technique, and repertoire commonly associated with the ekonting and reshaped them to meet his needs as a composer, performer, and collaborator.”
Ndiaye now divides his time between Northampton, Massachusetts and Dakar. In addition to touring with Gokh-bi System, he also concentrates on solo projects highlighting the melodic sound of the ekonting with both new and traditional songs that are now an integral part of ekonting music
Links
http://www.myspace.com/sanandiaye
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akonting
http://www.massfolkarts.org/object_detail.asp?ObjectID=8230159
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