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Formulaic variation procedures in Mande griot (jeli) guitar playing and improvisation
Article: English. Online- Author(s)
- Racanelli, David
- Title
- Formulaic variation procedures in Mande griot (jeli) guitar playing and improvisation / David Racanelli
- In
- Analytical Approaches to World Music, 2, 1, 2012, 1-25
- Subjects
- Jeli / Griot ; New York
- Content
-
Testu osoa
- Type of material
- Article
- ISBN / ISSN
- 2158-5296
In this article, I examine the extensive use of formulas in the guitar playing and improvisation of Mande griots, who are hereditary professional musicians of West Africa. Based upon five years of research as a close participant-observer of griots in New York City, I suggest that musical formulas act as expressions in forms of musical talk (parole) in determining the style (langue) of griot guitar music. As a part of shared discourse amongst griots and their non-griot collaborators, formulas are used to form larger structures or episodes in solos, which characterize improvisation in extended jam sequences. Once primarily a verbal art, diasporic jeliya or the art of the griot in New York City has been constituted as an improvisational instrumental practice by griot and non-griot musicians. Iturria: Argitaratzailea.