In this article, I examine the extensive use of formulas in the guitar playing and improvisation of Mande griots, who are hereditary professional musicians of West Africa. Based upon five years of research as a close participant-observer of griots in New York City, I suggest that musical formulas act as expressions in forms of musical talk (parole) in determining the style (langue) of griot guitar music. As a part of shared discourse amongst griots and their non-griot collaborators, formulas are used to form larger structures or episodes in solos, which characterize improvisation in extended jam sequences. Once primarily a verbal art, diasporic jeliya or the art of the griot in New York City has been constituted as an improvisational instrumental practice by griot and non-griot musicians.