Dave Bainbridge - Keyboards, Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Piano, Bouzouki, Mandolin, Balafon, 15 String Harp, Star Bells, Bongos, Hand Drum, Indian Tambourine, Shakers, Finger Cymbals
The xylorimba recalls the African balafon; the vibraphone, the Balinese gamelan; and the guitar, the Japanese koto, though "neither the style nor the actual use of these instruments has any connection with these different musical civilizations" ("Speaking, Playing, Singing" (1963) in Boulez 1986, 341).
All the instruments of malian traditional music are employed by les ballets : Djembé, Dundun, Balafon, N’Goni, Tamani, M'Polon, Buru, Yabara, Karignan, Daro (bell)
In the early 1970s, he became the most prominent musician in the region to marry traditional music with modern international styles, combining tom-toms, traditional balafons and other instruments with electric instrumentation.
The town is the home of the world's oldest balafon and an important object for the Maninka people, the 13th century Sosso-Bala, which has been labeled as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
From early on the band featured electric guitar, electric organ, saxophone, horns, and a western drum kit alongside Mande music using kora, balafon, Ngoni, talking drums, Islamic-style, Mande hunter co-fraternity song, and Griot praise-singing vocals .