First things first. The gyil is a traditional West African xylophone with dried gourd resonators hung below most or all of its hardwood keys. (A similar instrument is called a “balafon” in Francophone ...

SK. Kakraba was destined to play the gyil—a 14 bar wooden xylophone from the northern region of Ghana—at birth. Mastering the skill is a tradition passed down directly through his family, most notably ...

Out on Parrish beach on the afternoon of Tuesday September 11, a group of interested students gathered around a woman playing a unique instrument. The woman was Gina Ferrera, a Philadelphia-based ...

Kakraba Lobi is a virtuoso master of the gyil (pronounced JEEL or JEE-lee), the traditional instrument of the Lobi people of Ghana, Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast. After stints as a cab driver, ...

You’re inevitably familiar with the xylophone. In Western culture, it’s a staple in children’s music classes — a toy ostensibly anyone can play. But for the Lobi tribe of northern Ghana, an ancestor ...

SK Kakraba, a renowned virtuoso on the Ghanaian gyil, a wooden xylophone, will perform with the University of Wyoming Percussion Ensemble Friday, Dec. 2. (SK Kakraba Photo) SK Kakraba, a renowned ...

Ghanaian gyil melds with space-age electronics for a spluttering, time-warping and thoroughly compelling collaboration Percussionist Bex Burch was born in Yorkshire and trained at the Guildhall School ...

Although he was responsible for musical performance in Dagaare society, Thomas’ role was known publicly as gyil-maker, and the construction of the instruments, whose keys are made from sacred lliga ...

Eight musicians, aged 18 to 54, sit in a semicircle playing leather-cased bamboo flutes called atenteben. The sound of the atenteben resonates deep in the eardrums, creating eerie echoes in a variety ...