Abstract

Date: Saturday 3rd October at 6pm

Venue: Alliance Française Cambridge, 60 Hills Road, CB2 1 LA

Taking their name from a millet beer brewed in Burkina Faso and traditionally consumed at `cabarets’, open air bars where people gather to listen to traditional music, Les Frères Chapalo perform songs from the French speaking Sahel on the pentatonic xylophone or Balafon.

Students of hereditary musician and `griot’ balafon player Moussa Pantio Diabaté, Lucas Keen and Chris Peckham apprenticed in Burkina’s cultural capital Bobo Dioulasso, whilst Makhou N’diaye is a multi instrumentalist from Dakar, Senegal.

In this performance and talk Les Frères will explain the role music plays in both everyday and life cycle events in Burkina Faso and speak about how the instruments are constructed and learnt.