This recording was made July 2002 in Banjul and shows a Jali/Griot Xhalam lute player.The Xhalam is semi spike lute that has been used in West Africa for more than 1000 years. Visit my Blog site for more info www.myspace.com/banjoulf
There is a direct link between the today existing West African lutes and the Ancient Egyptien lutes. Court bard Har-Moses lute (about 1500 B.C) which is on display in the Cairo Museum is in many ways very similar in construction. I have examine that lute on spot. There are a few differencies. The Egyptin lutes were mostly played with a wooden plectrum. They had no short thumb string as on nearly all Griot/Jali lutes. They also encompase frets made of a twisted rope around the neck. Ulf Jagfors
No offense sir, but there is absolutely no "direct link". They are just vaguely similar because of the internal-spike construction. It doesn't mean that there is a direct link. To claim a "direct link", you would need concrete evidences of transmission from North-East Africa to the Western sahel and the Northern savannah region, and as of now there is nothing that proves such thing. There are many differences between Ancient Egyptian lutes and West African plucked lutes. The way it's played is different. As you noted, Ancient Egyptian lutes are played with a plectrum. On top of that, Ancient Egyptian depictions shows the player's hand coming from bellow the strings to strike them, which is a different from West African lutes where the fingers strike the strings from above, making for a different playing technique. West Africans also strike the strings in different places than the Egyptians, by striking near the bridge, instead of further up the neck. West Africans also usually play with the instrument lower on the body, while Ancient Egyptians usually depicted themselves playing with the instrument high up on the chest. Apart from the internal-spike style, the construction is different. Ancient Egyptian lutes have longer necks and smaller resonators. The bridges are different. As you noted, the Egyptians used frets, and West African lutes do not. Egyptian lute necks are threaded through the skin soundtable differently than West African lutes. If anything, East African bowl lyres are much more plausible to be derived from an Ancient Egyptian instrument than West African lutes are. There is absolutely no evidence to date that West African plucked lutes are related to Ancient Egyptian lutes.
@@AB-gx5vh liar. You know why they very similar? Because Xalam instrument is played in senegambia and senebambia came from the river nile in Egypt. They immigrated to the western Sahara which is part of Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, mali. 😂
@@AB-gx5vh but they are tho? Why are you fighting hard? Where do you think the wollof came from? The wollof people of Senegal and Gambia came from ancient Egypt 🇪🇬
Nice observation but everything about him is long it called by tropically adapted to dissipate heat your cousin here has such feature while cold adapted have more rounded features to ensure heat retention.
@@mrmister1657 I don't think that's true at all. Even if it was, those are still unusually long fingers. Pretty sure he could pass the Marfan's wrist test. In fact, Marfan's or something similar is likely the cause.
@@bluesmusicandwhatnot2845 late but I think it just what the previous reply says, adaption to heat it’s for people in hot climates to have slightly longer fingers, I think in my last reply I said “I think it’s just he’s African my family is and some have long fingers” I was basically saying adapting to heat, from the pictures I saw marfan hands are small in width too and it might just be him being older that make his hands seem long
You should check out the Manjango buchundu/buchundo if you haven’t already. It is identical to the Jola akonting but is played in a two-finger style and incorporates tapping on the skin. The “singing” style is also strikingly reminiscent of the delivery style of some elderly black banjoists recorded in the 20th century.
