Sandia dunun phrases

[komadich]

Hi all,

Does anyone have some solo phrases for the Khassonke dunun for Sandia?

Some reccomandations on recordings would be very much appreciated as well - again, with a Khassonke dun inside. I got a couple of songs from Ibrahima Sarr and one from Mamadou Kanté which look like what is being played in these days. Any other?

Thanks,
K.

[michi]

Check out Mady Keïta's "Traditional Djembe Music From The Bamana & Manding Peoples". That's a great CD, and the Sandia on that recording has a very clearly played konkoni with plenty of variations.

Another very good recording of Sandia is on the instructional book/CD combo "Djemberhythmen Aus Mali", by Stephan Rigert and Drissa Kone. It includes one instructional and one performance CD. The Sandia on the performance CD is outstanding.

Another good recording is on Sidy Maiga's "Malidén". However, the konkoni isn't as clearly audible on that one because it includes singing, balafon, and tama. But the track is great (as is the entire CD).

Cheers,

Michi.

[Dugafola]

Ask 8aardvark8 or studymusic on this forum.

aardvark is famous around mali for his khasso dunun playing.

[rachelnguyen]

And just a note: Malidén is available on itunes and amazon.com for less scratch than on cdbaby.

Back to regular programing....
R

[komadich]

Thanks.

Check out Mady Keïta's "Traditional Djembe Music From The Bamana & Manding Peoples". That's a great CD, and the Sandia on that recording has a very clearly played konkoni with plenty of variations.

Michi, I find hard to find the beat on this recording. Is the konkoni doing the standard phrase?

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o.o..oo.

and the djembé therefore:

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ssttss..

[8aardav8]

with the konkoni playing
o-o--oo-o-o--oo-
here are some dunun solo phrases.

a basic one is
x-----o-oo-o----
the bell often plays
ooo-ooo-ooooooo-

another is
x--o----x--o----
bell could play
ooooooo-ooooooo-

also try
x---o-------o-o-o------o---o----
bell:
ooo-ooo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ooooooooo-

Then back to the beginning.
That should get you started. Keep in mind, I wasn't able to notate the funky swagger of it. All those straight lookin bells are actually shuffled.

Check out some videos on youtube, too.

http://www.khassonke-music.yolasite.com has a lot of youtube vids I compiled. some are of Sandiya.

[Waraba]

Michi, I find hard to find the beat on this recording. Is the konkoni doing the standard phrase?

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o.o..oo.

and the djembé therefore:

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ssttss..

Forgive me for getting "Western" here, but isn't the "one" on the first tone? As in...

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ssTtss..

...and on the final tone of the konkoni, as in,

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o.O..oo.

...because the ss.ttS.. is aligned that way (last "S" being the Western "one" there)?

Or am I "You-say-tomato-I-say-tomato"-ing the rhythm?

[8aardav8]

Forgive me for getting "Western" here, but isn't the "one" on the first tone? Or am I "You-say-tomato-I-say-tomato"-ing the rhythm?

That's a big can of worms for sure. They seem to have gotten real fat and squiggly from eatin so many tomatoes. ..or maybe tomatoes...

It doesn't really matter, actually, because as long as all the parts relate to each other in the same way, nothing has changed except the ear of the beholder.

That said...... In Mali, based on the dance, the way people clap their hands, and placement of calls, Many of us tend to think of it as
O.o..oo.
Tts..ss.
Ssttss.b

[Waraba]

Forgive me for getting "Western" here, but isn't the "one" on the first tone? Or am I "You-say-tomato-I-say-tomato"-ing the rhythm?

That said...... In Mali, based on the dance, the way people clap their hands, and placement of calls, Many of us tend to think of it as
O.o..oo.
Tts..ss.
Ssttss.b

I agree about the tomatoes.

But doesn't the first tone of the ssTtss have to line up with the loney slap in the international ttS..ss.?
That's how I learned it in Mali circa 1993.

[8aardav8]

Yup. That's the way i learned it, too. ...regardless of where the downbeat is perceived.

[komadich]

Thanks 8aardav8! That's great.

On the CD Khassonka Dundun, the songs 1 and 6 (I think) seem also to be sandya. But I find it weird because it sounds like very much like garanké to me. Any explanation for that?

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1..2..3..4..
o....o..x..o
i.ii.ii.ii.i



[michi]

Forgive me for getting "Western" here, but isn't the "one" on the first tone? [...]

Or am I "You-say-tomato-I-say-tomato"-ing the rhythm?

We discussed this ambiguity previously here and here. It's a rhythm where the perception of the down-beat is almost arbitrary. Either perception works (at least for the drummers).

The dancers need to agree on a common perception though. At Epizo's camp a few years ago, when he taught Djelidon, the dancers perceived the down-beat on the first tone and were struggling to flip their perception to perceive it on the first slap instead, where Epizo wanted them to feel it. But, the video posted by bops in the other thread suggests that even that is not a hard-and-fast rule, and that other ensembles choose to feel the down-beat half a pulse later.

Cheers,

Michi.

[8aardav8]

On the CD Khassonka Dundun, the songs 1 and 6 (I think) seem also to be sandya. But I find it weird because it sounds like very much like garanké to me. Any explanation for that?

Yeah, that rhythm is played by Khassonka people for a few reasons, not just one. Usually it's Jeli foli(although there are others like Sandagoundo and Sandiya) or Bire foli (female right of passage ceremony) or just to accompany certain wedding songs not associated with a caste. When it's played for Jeli, like on that CD, I've heard it called "Khalen".

When I've seen it played for Jeli in Kayes, it was preceded by a long, slow intro rhythm, and a certain song. It's played this way on the first track of Dra Diabates CD. On the CD cover, it's spelled "Kharlan". I've always heard it pronounced "Khalen" though.

Even to Bamana people, that rhythm can also be Jeli foli, as I've seen in Bamako.

[djembefeeling]

What about the konkoni in Sandia? So far the duns discussed here are mostly parts for the traditional played khassonka dunun. but I would like to play it on the konkoni, duo style. As far as I know, the basic rhythm is

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1...2...3...4...
o.c...o.o.c...o.

while traditional variations are based on these two types

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1...2...3...4...
o.c...o.o.oo.o..

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1...2...3...4...
o.c...oo.oo.....

But in Stephan Rigerts recording with Drissa Koné you can hear much more variations on the konkoni. Can anyone tell if those are typical for Khassonkha dunun and just transfered on the konkoni here or if those variations can also be played on the standard konkoni?

Also, I would like to know what standard solo patterns are taught by the masters. I know what drissa koné teaches, jeli mady kouyate from the jenbe realbook and abdoul doumbia from his book with matthew wirzbicki, too. but is there something more one shouldn't miss? Yesterday, I listened intensely to Ibrahima Sarrs cd "Ceremonial Drumming in Modern Bamako", and I like his style very much, but could you do this in "traditional" (I guess I mean a style more like the 60s to the 80s of the last century) jenbe drumming?

Mady Keita at least seems to teach much more "old school" style

in the first part mady plays a solo pattern that is not completely clear for me, since there is no konkoni to relate to. first it seems he plays

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1...2...3...4...
BTTTS.B...TTS...

as the basic pattern and

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1...2...3...4...1...2...3...4...
BTTTS.TTS...BTTTS..S..S..S..S...

as a variation
but then, of course, from the accompaniment afterwards it's obvious this isn't possible, for the accompaniment is fixed:

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1...2...3...4...
SSTTSS.BSSTTSS.B

thus, I see two different ways how this pattern is related to the "one":
1.

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1...2...3...4...
..BTTTS.B...TTS.

2.

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1...2...3...4...
B...TTS...BTTTS.

My best guess is the latter, cause it would be a variant of the basic djembe pattern Mady starts at 1:43

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1...2...3...4...1...2...3...4...
B...SS..B.TTSS..B..BTTSSSSTTSS..

Does anybody know for sure?

best, jürgen