Press Release
Tryon Fine Arts Center
Toubab Krewe will appear at Tryon Fine Arts Center on Tuesday, April 29th at 7 PM with special guest Kokanko Sata, a West African musician and singer on tour in the US. This distinctive program will bring focus to the connections between West Africa and the Americas through music.
Since forming in 2005, the magnetic instrumental quintet Toubab Krewe has won a diverse and devoted following at performances everywhere from Bonnaroo to the legendary Festival of the Desert in Essakane, Mali, the most remote festival in the world. The band developed their unique sound over the course of numerous extended trips to Mali, Guinea, and Ivory Coast, where they immersed themselves in the local culture and studied and performed with luminaries. The group has its roots in Asheville, NC, where many of its members were childhood friends and long-term musical collaborators.
Kokanko, the “Malian Songbird”, is on her first tour of the US since playing at Lincoln Center in 2008, and is West Africa’s only female ngoni player. The stringed instrument made of a gourd and wood, came across the Atlantic during the slave trade. It was the African sound like Kokanko’s ngoni and song, fused with Western musical ideals, which eventually transformed into jazz and the blues in the US.
Kokanko is hosted in the US by Cradle of Jazz, a Landrum, SC nonprofit whose mission is to illuminate the influence of West African music, theory, and culture in American music traditions and through this illumination, encourage the academic success and advancement of West African scholars, students, and musicians.
Tryon Fine Arts Center, located on Melrose Avenue in the town of Tryon, has been a center for participation in the visual and performing arts for 45 years attracting a diverse range of audiences. CooperRiis is the event sponsor. Tickets for this event are on sale online at www.tryonarts.org or by calling 828-859-8322.
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.