Traditional Djembe - What's the point?

[dununbabe]

what's the point? cuz it's FUN!

[Paul]

And it keeps me out of the pub, unless im playing there which is alright because its all in the name of tradition...

[e2c]

what's the point? cuz it's FUN!

You got it!

[mrswilsn]

Perhaps I'm a little late to this thread. I'm new to the site and this conversation is very fascinating to me. Currently taking a class in "Music and Globalization." Preparing for an ethnography project... I feel I've only dappled in West African drumming, meeting once a month to play "traditional rhythms."

Ultimately, I would love to pursue my interest in world music. Wondering if my interest in the subject stems from, being from the "Occidental" and lacking a true musical heritage of my own, wanting something genuine/engaging to latch on to.

I've got some friends who've done intense study of various non-Western classical/traditional instruments. And some of them have worked closely with teachers who are deliberately adding *new* things to the traditions and culture surrounding those instruments. Their teachers do get slams from people who feel that that kind of innovation is wrong, but one of the teachers has stated publicly that they believe it would literally be disrespectful to not be working on finding new contexts for the instruments, along with new and innovative ways to play, adding new pieces to the repertoire, etc.

With the globalization of music, is there a fear out there that soon there will not be a traditional. Will the new things that are added to the music become the norm and the traditional forgotten or replaced? Who's the keeper of that knowledge if it's constantly changing? Does it matter that it's kept?

[e2c]

My thought is that all living traditions are - like languages, cultures, and people themselves - undergoing a constant process of change.

I used to believe that traditions were extremely fragile; now I'm more of the opinion that intense efforts focused only on preservation - at the expense of innovation - tend to produce the musical equivalent of dragonflies trapped in amber. Amber is beautiful, but not a medium in which anything can live.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the great stalwarts of *any* repertoire were once innovators, and perhaps not always well-received in their day...

I also don't believe that "globalization" is a new thing in terms of music... trade routes and port cities have always made for places where ideas are traded as well as merchandise. If you look into Cuban music and Congolese popular music (and the way that one has affected the other), you can see that happening. (You might want to take a look at Gary Stewart's book Rumba on the River to get an idea of this.) Cuban popular music has also been highly influential in W. Africa, as has calypso, and James Brown, and... And the exchange of music goes both ways.

[the kid]

heres a good article here by rainer polak in which he discusses modern drumming and dance and its developement in an 'urban setting'. A european point of view any ways. Very interesting.
http://tcd.freehosting.net/djembemande/bamakofoli.html