This is a good time to be alive.
December 16, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
The music of the entire world is accessible. The music I would have missed, being born too late. The music I grew up hearing is still alive. And how cool is it that I can hear traditional and modern music from every corner of the globe?
Rhythm is at the heart of if. But there is more~ Drummers create, manipulate and move time and space, and if we are generous with the space, we invite melodic weavings and swoops and curls to dance in between the one and the two. I feel fortunate to have access to so much of this beauty magic.
Right now, it is the West African Harp called the Kora that is sending me swooning. This will be my sacred/holiday/ atmosphere music this year. I have some new beautiful CD compilations to share. MADOU SIDIKI DIABATE , playing Traditional Kora Music From Mali, and a young man named KELONTAN CISSOHKO following his father’s lead. There are a couple of Mbira albums I can’t wait to hear. I’ll be posting some samples when the order arrives, so I can introduce you to [or remind you of] these treasures, and the musicians who poured them into the world.
As this seems to be turning into a plug for the business end of my job, I shall tell you that we also have books and DVD’s for the new [or used] drum explorer in your life. I have and use many of these if you want my experience and opinion about them. There are some that are great for classes, wonderful for teachers, excellent for personal study and stair steps to cultural traditions. Come play. There is a song, somewhere in the history of world, calling to you.
Is there Native American music in American Music?
January 18, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
There is always music playing with me. I am soaking in it. There is nothing I would rather do, if I am not playing music with my hands with other people, than to listen to music or talk about music. As I have been fortunate enough to live more than 50 years, the available library of All The Music Ever Recorded is what I have to choose from. Music is the wet in the water. The up in the sky. The reason math explains life. It is the voice of God that comes out of us and we all understand….
My younger daughter once posed the question. “Do you like American Music?” My first response was to to react badly to the thought of pop music, which I don’t care for much at this age. At this moment, there is some intoxicating gift playing from some other part of the world; Dobet Gnahoré, Fela Kuti, Sanjay Mishra.… and as I write, the music of Sean Blackman and Mickey Hart - both Americans playing the music of the world. And any minute, on any one of the music boxes in my house, something from either Miles Davis or Jerry Garcia is likely to pop up. America came from somewhere else. We all brought our songs. All American music started somewhere else. All music is World Music. Music is One Voice.
As a drummer and jazz lover, the story of how the music I love came to be born is a fascinating, easily tracked story, with brave and brilliant characters. The heros of my music are African. Their stories travel from Guinea and Ghana and Nigeria to England and Cuba and Latin America; to New York and San Francisco and Boise Idaho. I can hear through Jazz and Jams and rock and roll and blues who our parents are and how the world transcended and included its roots.
Then a beautiful song by Robbie Robertson called “Mahk Jchi (Heartbeat Drum Song).
That just twisted my root map all up. What about Aboriginal American music? Where is the music of the First Americans? Where is Native American Music in American music? I feel completely naive. Did we include American music in American music and I cannot hear it? Is there a motif or a signature somewhere in the songs of our day to day that include the first songs people played in this land? Did we let it slip away?
I could use some more information…..
