SAMINA !

Hi folks, here comes definitely the best version of SAMINA! Forget about Shakira, our version is from 1997, long ago before South Africa was chosen for the FIFA World Cup 2010!

Kind regards,

Gert Kilian & Tom Hiltner

Here you can order the CD LOVE BREEZE with the title song SAMINA, long version and 10 more catchy songs!

That’s how kids dance SAMINA, soon around the world! (school of Loubajac near Lourdes) 

music:  Gert Kilian & Tom Hiltner
danse:  Macoura Traore & Katrin Kilian 
film & montage: Theo Grossmann

Gert: www.gert-kilian.com  
Tom: http://www.berufsfachschule-fuer-musik.de/lehrer/hiltner.php 
Macoura: http://pascal.ryter.free.fr/SITE%20MACOURA/index.htm 

"The DVD "The Balafon with Aly Keita & Gert Kilian" has been released!

A package of two DVD with a learning method, play-alongs, duos with Aly and Gert, a concert with the group "Super Zamaza" and a documentary shot at Konsankuy / Mali, Aly's home village, in which, amongst others, is shown the construction of a balafon. The package is completed by a booklet which contains the history and legends around the balafon, the role of the griot, an interview with Aly and the scores of the pieces.

>more details<

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Make the Soul dance

balafon-workshop in Africa from 28 déc. 2008 – 12 jan. 2009

We came from Germany, France and Switzerland and we met for the first time at the Paris airport. Our destination was Konsankuy, a village in the south-east of Mali in West Africa. Here, in the heart of the savannah, in the middle of the Bobo country, took place the workshop organized by Gert Kilian.

Aly Keita, the famous balafon master, grew up in Konsankuy and that is where the film for the DVD “The Balafon with Aly Keita & Gert Kilian” was shot.
Our teachers are Youssouf and Kassoum, Aly’s brother and his cousin.

We play in the shade of the mango tree and we really enjoy ourselves and have a lot of fun! We work for about six to seven hours a day for ten days and learn seven traditional pieces of the Bobo, Bambara and Senoufo with, in all, thirty patterns, melodies and “chauffés”.

Meantimes, Fatoumata and Fanta serve delicious meals of authentic African cuisine. Pretty soon we become members of the big family in the Keitas’ court. We feel delighted by the hospitality and friendliness of the people and the natural behavior of the children.

Together with Kassoum’s group SUPER ZAMAZA we go to Fangasso to attend an overwhelming feast with music, dance and dolo, the millet beer. There is a day off in the middle of the workshop, so we visit the old town of Djenné with its magnificent mosque. We eat fresh “capitaine”, fish from the Niger and then we go for a pirogue trip on the rivrer.

But we are already looking forward to getting back to the balafon music, longing for its glowing energy and its magic groove, digging its power in the weaving of the different counterpoints, making the soul dance!

On the last day we have a “recording session”. We play and film the whole repertoire, and we are very satisfied with the result of the workshop (extracts on YOUTUBE below).

Then we have to say Good bye. But we don’t go with empty hearts nor empty ears! The music is still lingering inside us and we are looking forward to sharing it with others.

Brigitte Garcie

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