The Mimbres Region Arts Council celebrates Black History Month, on February 25, with a performance by the African Guitar Summit, an international touring sensation featuring award-winning guitar and drum masters from Guinea, Ghana, and Madagascar. The performance will be at WNMU Fine Arts Center Theatre, on Saturday, February 25, at 7:30 pm. Doors open at 7 p.m.
African Guitar Summit was a project created in 2004 under the guidance of a Canadian CBC radio station that invited several Canadian-based African-born musicians to do a series of collective recordings and performances. All performers were selected based on their personal interpretations of guitar music of their respective native countries, which included Guinea, Rwanda, Ghana, Kenya, and Madagascar. African Guitar Summit proved successful with world music lovers and brought the project the two Juno Awards for the World Music Album of the Year.
This star-studded collective unites the talents of five musicians, each an expert in their individual style and together creating musical magic with African Guitar Summit. Experience live this superb and unique achievement for African music; the mix of musicians who are distinct in cultural backgrounds and languages yet sharing stories and singing each other's praises, the inspiration of these skilled hands and voices joined in common to reach the summit.
African Guitar Summit features: From Guinea, the smooth fire of Juno Award winner Alpha YaYa Diallo; from Madagascar, the quicksilver guitars and harmonies of Donne Roberts and multiple Juno Award winner Madagascar Slim, and the heartbeat of drummer Kofi Ackah from Ghana. They are backed by electric bass and ballafon, the African marimba played by Naby Camara from Guinea.
"What makes the songs unique is that we all add our culture," Roberts said. "When I play a song, I have a Kenyan guitar player and another guy from Ghana and they all put their input into my song. It's not 100 percent from Madagascar, which makes it unique."
Don't miss this international touring sensation.
Tickets on sale now at the MRAC office in the Wells Fargo Building, 1201 Pope Street, by phone at 575-538-2505, or online at www.mimbresarts.org.
Additional video for viewing/posting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpMHYzme3BY