12/8 Mali rhythm family short:medium:long

[djembefeeling]

Manjanin song:

manjani daba
manjani daba
manjani daba keita
manjani daba bara bo

den tala daba
den tala daba
den tala daba keita
den tala daba bara bo

ah daba keita
ah daba bara bo


The song here is probably sung by Oumou Mariko and Drissa Koné with some people attending a workshop:

[djembefeeling]

I just listened over and over to the song Mady sings on Manjanin. Unfortunately, I don't know Bamana, so I am at a loss to the correct spelling and meaning of the words. But he seems to sing (min. 0:54-1:14) something like this (sorry guys for my german pronounciation here. "lee" does not sound like you guys usually do, but more like "leh", the first letter of the first word is something in between M and a soft B, I guess):

Mben a lee la nifa, mo ni fi la kalima dinu oeee-iyeh la dia e na(w)o, malien o mben a lee.

He sings along the konkonin like this:

[kosta]

Mben a lee la nifa, mo ni fi la kalima dinu oeee-iyeh la dia e na(w)o, malien o mben a lee.

Another excellent effort Jurgen

I wish I knew Bamana too and translate it. I ll ask Mady when I see him and he can enlighten us!

As far as Drissa's song concerns I dont think I ve heard it before but it sounds really nice and very straight forward!

Cheers
Kosta

[djembefeeling]

I finished a breakdown on the style of 5 distinct djembefolas playing Garanké: Drissa Koné, Sega Sidibé, Sidiki Camara, Sega Cissé, and Jaraba Jakité.

Garanké is a rhythm very poor on standard patterns -- there are only two of them. the first is
.1..2..3..4..1..2..3..4..
sb.s..s..s..sb.sttstts..s

and the second is
.1..2..3..4..1..2..3..4..
bsss..ttss..bsssoosoos..b

there are, of course, many variations and variants depending on the artist.

My interest in this research has been how these guys deal with the relative "destitution" of material, what are their strategies to form something interesting and beautiful out of this material.

Drissa Koné likes to add material by playing lots of excursions with "exit"-patterns, which are usually played to end a time of playing one signature pattern or after an echauffement.
Sega Sidibés strategy is very similar to Drissas. He also likes to play long excursions with the different structures you can use in the family - he simply binds those together. Also, he likes to play rolls in a dense structure over a comparatively long period of time. Additionally, he plays a signature pattern which is usually only used for the jina rhythm.

Sidiki Camara is much influenced by Sega Sidibé, it seems. His signature patterns are much alike Segas. But he sticks more to the basis, developes the signature patterns in different variations over two measures and also with roll, though less excessively than Sega. When he plays an excursion, he usually goes along the strucutre much like Mady Keitas excursion 0 for Manjanin.

Sega Cissé prefers to create a dense structure of beats. His standard patterns are very dense, and he has a very elegant and beautiful way of changing from one pattern into the next. The only structure for his excursions is the bell line of that family.

Last, but not least, there is Jaraba Jakité. He is the "purist" among those soloists. He plays nothing but the standard patterns with slight variations and echauffements. Its in the echauffements where he puts his creativety, plays lots of different ones. But his main instrument for creating thrill is time. His play has the most suspense, and he has the largest range of speed within his play. He starts out slow, and in the end its just frantic, though so much on the point.

It would be interesting to compare the recordings of some artist of the, say, last 20 years. I am curious about if and how teaching students from around the world for a long time changes the style of an artist. it is interesting to note, for example, how Sega Sidibé and Drissa Koné, the two most popular teachers from Mali, are also those who add the most material to the rhythm.

cheers, jürgen