Jenbe mas­ter to teach in Fort Wayne

The clear beauty and explo­sive power of the jenbé drum in the hands of a mas­ter is a work of art, and in less than three weeks a mas­ter of that art and the folk­lore of the Malinke peo­ple of West Afrika will debut ina 9-day Sum­mit City res­i­dency. TRIAAC, the Three Rivers Insti­tute of Afrikan Art & Cul­ture, will host Guinean mas­ter artist Moussa Bolokada Condé, an inter­na­tion­ally rec­og­nized mas­ter of Malinké cul­tural music and folk­lore, from Octo­ber 22 to 31.

Steeped in the rich his­tory and tra­di­tion of the Malinké peo­ple liv­ing in the Sankaran region of Upper Guinea, Bolokada has trav­elled the world teach­ing and per­form­ing. “We are excited to wel­come mas­ter drum­mer Bolokada Condé for his pre­miere appear­ance in Fort Wayne,” said TRIAAC’s Ketu Oladuwa. “This is an edu­tain­ment res­i­dency that we don’t want our com­mu­nity to miss!”

A world class musi­cian, who has per­formed with Elvin Jones, Joan Baez, and Mickey Hart, Bolokada per­fected his skills at tra­di­tional vil­lage cel­e­bra­tions through­out the Sankaran region of Guinea for more than 30 years before 1996 when he became the lead soloist for Les Per­cus­sions de Guinée, Guinea, West Afrika’s pre­miere national ballet.

On Octo­ber 22, from 5-7PM, TRIAAC will host a Potluck Wel­come for Bolokada at its stu­dio at 501 E. Brack­en­ridge Street. Dur­ing his res­i­dency, Bolokada will teach classes at IPFW, per­form at St. Joe Ele­men­tary School, con­duct work­shops for Peace, and Oak Farm Montes­sori schools, and con­duct open com­mu­nity drum work­shops at TRIAAC, and Walb Ball­room, on the IPFW cam­pus. The high­light of the res­i­dency is a free con­cert at IPFW’s Rhine­hart Music Center.

Since 2008 Bolokada has been a main­stay as vis­it­ing artist, at the Robert E. Brown World Music Cen­ter, at the Uni­ver­sity of Illi­nois, Urbana­-Champaign. For 13 years TRIAAC’s Vis­it­ing Artist Forum has been the con­duit for Guinean mas­ter artists, who trace their his­tor­i­cal lin­eage back to the 13^th cen­tury Mali Empire. Bolokada is unique among Guinea’s inter­na­tional coterie of artists in that most of his expe­ri­ence play­ing is rooted in the vil­lage tra­di­tion, where he played for more than 30 years as the regional “go-to-guy.”

The undis­torted clar­ity of his sound, the melodic lilt of his phrases, the speed of his talk­ing hands, and his ency­clo­pe­dic knowl­edge of Mandé cul­ture and tra­di­tion ren­der Bolokada a walk­ing uni­ver­sity for one of West Afrika’s most respected tra­di­tional music.

The res­i­dency is a col­lab­o­ra­tion between TRIAAC and IPFW’s Col­lege of Visual and Per­form­ing Arts, and Office of Diver­sity and Mul­ti­cul­tural Affairs. It is spon­sored by the Down­town Improve­ment Dis­trict, AEP, ProFed, and Blue Mar­ble, Inc.; and is sup­ported in part with funds from Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne.

For more infor­ma­tion: TRIAAC at 260 969‑9442, Ketu Oladuwa at 260 413‑4430 triaacexad@comcast.net  www.triaac.org

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