Mamajowali - featuring Joe Craven, Mamadou Sidibe, and Walter Strauss

Mamajowali features three veteran musicians – one from Mali, West Africa and two from the United States – that have found common ground in a new and unique sound. Interweaving two continents and three uniquely different musical sensibilities, their cultural and instrumental blend of kamale ngoni (the hunter’s harp), six string guitar, percussion, fiddle, mandolin and singing is traditional, innovative and uncommon – all at the same time. Mamajowali overlays West African and Latin American music with old time Americana and spirited originals with hoppin’ high energy grooves and tons of improvisational trialogue. Come listen to the sound you’ve never heard ~ “Afromericana!”

Joe Craven – Award winning creativity educator, former museum curator, actor, festival emcee, Director of RiverTunes Music Camp and Co-Director of Wintergrass Youth Academy, multi-instrumentalist Joe Craven’s love of performing music has put him in many musical genres and alongside many musicians, from Jerry Garcia, David Lindley and Jason Marsalis, to fusion banjoist Alison Brown and groups such as Psychograss and The Horseflies. For 17 years, he was percussionist and violinist for mandolinist David Grisman. With presenting workshops and lectures in Costa Rica, to thousands of school kids in Scotland, from house concerts to major festivals and from Carnegie Hall to busking at Cannery Row – Joe’s at home and loving every minute.Master kamale ngoni player,

Mamadou Sidibe is from the Wassoulou Region of Mali, West Africa. Twenty-five years ago Mamadou played a groundbreaking role in transforming the music of this region from it’s origins in hunters’ sacred melodies- -played on six string donso ngoni (hunter’s harps)– to a music of philosophical observations, politics and daily life. Mamadou was one of the first to expand the instrument’s range with two extra strings, creating the popular kamale ngoni. He has recently enhanced the kamale ngoni even further, by creating 10 and 12 string kamale ngoni. Mamadou, with artists Coumba Sidibe, Oumou Sangare and Ramatu Diakite, spread the new sounds through recordings and performances in Europe, Africa and the United States. Not only is Mamadou an award winning musician and master of the kamale ngoni, he is accomplished on several other African instruments as well.

Fingerstyle guitarist Walter Strauss’s multi-layered style draws on cultural guitar traditions – Spanish, American roots, classical, jazz. But what makes his playing utterly unique is the influence of other global stringed instruments. He has delved deep into the gourd harp traditions of West Africa, translating traditional kora and kamal’ngoni pieces to the guitar. Malian kora legend Toumani Diabate calls Walter’s guitar rendering of kora music “inspirational”, and proposed Walter's duo with his son, Sidiki Diabate, a West African star in his own right. Walter's collaborators have ranged from Grammy-winning kora player Mamadou Diabate to Scottish fiddler Johnny Hardie & Grammy-nominated guitar maestro Alex de Grassi. He has performed internationally at venues like Lincoln Center, the Celtic Connections Festival in Scotland, and Le Diplomate in Bamako, Mali.

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