Mystery dundunba

[michi]

This is an excerpt from the DVD "Djembe A'nice!", performed by Tahirou Djembé and produced by Patrick Kersale.

The rhythm is labelled as "Dundunba" on the DVD, with no further information. Can anyone help identify it?



Cheers,

Michi.

[djembefeeling]

Hi Michi,

this one is really strange. It's not a traditional dununba at all. The kenkeni plays a pattern that is usually played in Mali on rhythms of this family, instead of the Guinean .xo.oo.xo.oo
this one is played by the sangban on top of the dunun, whenever the guy finds some time to play it, while the dunun sounds almost like the line of the dunun in Gberedu -- almost, because this "dununba" has a 10-beat cycle, i.e. two and a half bars.

I guess either the guys made this one up or got confused on the rhythms length that has been shown to them some time ago. so why don't we call this dununba "Charlie Sheen"

Its curious how africans from countries close by Guinea play dununbas. I know a guy from Senegal who plays a rhythm he also calls "dununba" that sounds like "soli", no offbeat involved, everything very straight and easy to dance to. Another guy from Senegal wants me to play Mendiani with the first open stroke of the sangban on the one, calling it domba, while he calls the rhythm I know as "soli" "mendiani". There is so much confusion when traditional rhythms convert into other cultures...

[Dugafola]

i think it's made up....creation.

outside of guineans, the only other african djembefolas i've seen/heard play dununba 'correctly' or close to correct are soungalo coulibaly, harouna dembele & his brothers, and baba toure.

[michi]

Yes, I suspected that it might be an adaptation or creation. These guys are from Burkina Faso, which isn't exactly dundunba heartland...

I've come across the Mendiani with the start of the cycle on the first open note on the sangban too. Unfortunately, that's a common mistake. Mamady often makes fun of the way traditional Malinke rhythms are played in Senegal, specifically quoting the Mendiani mistake, as well as how they often mutilate dundunba rhythms.

Still, the Tahirou Djembé guys are outstanding musicians and, even if this dundunba is a creation, it still sounds like a dundunba. I guess the crime could have been much worse

Cheers,

Michi.

[archetypo]

This sounds like a rhythm I learned from Billy Konate, which he called Loumato Dunun - I heard some of the younger kids playing this a lot in Guinea (i.e. Billy's son Fode & his buddy Aboubacar Kaieta, Noumoudy Keita's youngest son, & pals) - same rhythm, and they just called it 'dununba'. It's also on a CD called Benkadi, which was a group of artists including my husband Seydou Kourouma and Bangaly Konate, and they ALSO title it simply, "Dounounba.

In this video, the sangban phrase is almost the same, but placed a little differently, and the version I learned has a cyclical variation that they aren't using here either, but otherwise... inconclusively similar.

So really, that's probably no help at all

[michi]

It's also on a CD called Benkadi, which was a group of artists including my husband Seydou Kourouma and Bangaly Konate, and they ALSO title it simply, "Dounounba.

In this video, the sangban phrase is almost the same, but placed a little differently, and the version I learned has a cyclical variation that they aren't using here either, but otherwise... inconclusively similar.

So really, that's probably no help at all

To the contrary, that's a lot of help, thanks! Can you tell me where I can get a copy of the CD?

Cheers,

Michi.

[archetypo]

Why certainly, I have a box of the CDs here in my studio - or you may still be able to get a copy from Leo Brooks (not sure if he's on here or not). They're selling for $15 CDN.

If you send me an address, I can mail you a copy of the cd, or I could even just email you the track in question directly.