Mamadou Diabate, Masaba Kan (2014)

"isaw Mamadou playing on his balaphone [a gourdresonated xylophone]; the way he phrases, the complexity of the rhythms – I had never heard anything like it, so I went to Africa to learn. I lived with a tribe in Burkina Faso – they communicate with the balaphone. Mamadou plays two notes and his neighbour knows to bring him milk, or coffee. There is an entire language they speak through the balaphone. It changed my life: you might want to play all these chromatic, show-off licks, but in Africa you hear the spirit of music communication. It makes you question everything – what have I actually said on my instrument? People would hear me playing the bass-lines and start crying, because they were so honoured that a foreigner would take the time to learn their music. As a migrant from Colombia myself, being able to complete the migration as a musician and also as a human being was absolutely life-changing.”