The ArtLab

The other night, NPR's All Things Considered had a really interesting segment on Jayme Stone's quirky new collaboration with West African musicians called "Africa to Appalachia". Stone is a Juno-winning banjo player and composer who picked up his passion for music from an eccentric music-loving uncle. His inherited musical eccentricities are never more evident than on this musical partnership with West African songwriter and singer Mansa Sissoko.

What's fascinating is that this musical collaboration really is a full-circle historical exploration of the banjo and banjo stylings. Banjo history in our country has typically been associated with traditional bluegrass, country and jazz, but the instrument itself can be traced back to travels across the ocean on slave ships coming from West Africa in the 1600s and 1700s. "More than anything," says Stone, "it was the blueprint of the banjo that traveled over in musicians' minds, and they built a similar thing with what they had here: dried-out gourds, goat skin, whatever they could find."

In Africa, the banjo's early predecessor's had as few as one string and as many as 21 and many different names depending on the region and dialect - ngoni, the two-stringed konou, the akonting and the one stringed juru keleni. Despite the parallel evolution of the instrument, the "sound of the notes are complementary" Stone says. "You have this nylon against metal, but the playing style and the melodic sensibility is quite similar."

So why is this all interesting? Africa to Appalachia is something different. It's a coming together of two traditional styles of banjo and banjo-like instrumentation from different parts of the globe. It's a blending of what most would probably think are two completely distinct and different musical cultures that - as it turns out -- have surprising similarities. The result is a new creation, a brand-new musical style - call it Afrilachia or maybe Aprika.

What does this all mean for the future of music? Increasingly collaborative efforts from musicians across the globe are rapidly blending rich and distinct musical styles and influences to create entire new genres of music. What happens when we combine British Ska and country or Irish folk and Latin salsa -- not simply "remixing" existing songs and styles electronically, but rather getting musicians from different cultures to sit down and actually collaborate to blend influences? It's anybody's guess, but if Stone and Sissoko's ingenuous Africa to Appalachia is any indicator, the blended results will be a polyrhythmic smorgasbord for the ears.