The djembe is my life

[gerhardkero]

aw ni sogoma, jenbefolau. (good morning djembeplayers).

I am new here and I was asked to introduce myself in a few words:

Since 25 years I travel to the djembe-heartlands to study the wonderful maninka-music.
On my way I met a lot of phantastic musicians, one of them the today famous jenbefola Drissa Kone. In the early 90´s we founded together SANZA and toured through Europe until 1997. In this time we released several CD´s.

Later on I founded the Phoenix Percussion Project and the show had to go on with numerous concerts and some CD´s.....

During all theese years I established the BEATFACTORY http://www.djembe.at in Vienna, which came to be a much-noticed Djembe education institution in german language area. We developed dj.e.m.be (djembe education moduls beatfactory) on a very professional level, and Drissa Kone is one of our instructors. We are running Djembe courses in 7 different levels, from beginners to professionals. Students can visit ethnomusicology-classes and djembe-specific music theory as well as workshops, where they learn how to play for dancers.

Apart of this school my heart never stopped beating for making music on stage, actually I am on tour with Drissa Kone and Oumou Mariko from Mali.

In the 2000´s I released my solodjembe-CD Keromono and the audio-workshop DjembeSpielenLernen in three parts.

With one of my current groups SHANTA NOIR http://www.shantanoir.com/ I released the debut-album CONNECTED. There I play Djembe, Darbuka, Congas, Bongos, Framedrums, Tamanis, Berimbao, Kirins and some more to funky electronic beats.

Even if I kept myself busy with quite a lot of different percussion instruments in all theese years.... not one of all the wonderful musical traditions around this world can delight my heart as much as the westafrican tradition of maninka, bamana, soninka, kasonka.

The djembe is my life.

[bubudi]

welcome, gerhard!

with such extensive experience i look very much forward to seeing your contributions on this forum!

i will have to have a listen to your solo djembe cd soon!

[Afoba]

Hello Gerhard,
nice to see you here!
German speaking forums aren't that lively at the moment. This is better here or in some french speaking ones!
read you soon,
Daniel

[bops]

not one of all the wonderful musical traditions around this world can delight my heart as much as the westafrican tradition of maninka, bamana, soninka, kasonka.

The djembe is my life.

Amen brother. Thanks for joining us!

We met briefly this January while you were helping to facilitate Drissa's courses outside of Bamako. I hope you're well. Looking forward to talking more with you.