Balla et ses Balladins and West African musical influence
By: Rafael OvalleĀ Balla et ses Balladins were a musical group deriving from the West African country of Guinea. They were a Guinean state-funded band formed in 1962 in the country's capital, Conakry. Their music fuses traditional Guinean folk music and dance, which are accompanied by trumpets, saxophones, guitars, and bass, along with traditional instruments found largely in the West African region, such as: The Djembe (traditional West African drum) and the balafon (West African gourd...