PIECES OF AFRICA

"The standard string quartet configuration always has the first violin with the melody, the cello with the bass, and the 2nd violin and viola as filler. In African music every single part is equally important. If you take one away, it completely falls apart. That was a revelation." —JJ

"Every one of the composers on Pieces of Africa used different words to describe their music than I had heard before. Dumisani Maraire talked about 'gluing' when we were putting the four voices together, and Kevin Volans told us we should sound the way an elephant sways." —JS


One of Kronos' ground-breaking projects, Pieces of Africa drew the Quartet together into collaboration with seven African composer-performers, from the Egyptian Hamza El Din to the Gambian Foday Musa Suso. The double #1 classical and world music recording prompted engagements at the Montreux Jazz Festival and Central Park in 1992, and went on to sell more than a quarter-million copies worldwide.

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