Dear Dundun Village,

[jamsa]

an ancient practice ive heard of. when the village gets to small for the population, all the villagers build a new village. then all the villagers prepare to move all of them pack. then the day comes,and people are randomly selected to go to the new village. and the empire begins.

[jamsa]

when i first went to west africa i never saw players not playing or half playing accompaniment,just waiting for the soloist to blink so the could "steal"the solo time. now its common site. ballet and competative djembe has taken a toll on the soul of the experience of anke dje anke be. ballet brought djembe to us ,but can we bring it back to the village?

[e2c]

Hmm... my guess is that this is something for W. Africans to decide, no?

[jamsa]

i think its an individuals decision and responsibility to decide what type of energy they serve in this life.

[bubudi]

i'm totally with you on that one, jamsa.

i can't help wondering, though, if you were in such an environment where that kind of competition takes centre stage, would you smile and take more of a back seat, or would you step up to the competition, or would you move to somewhere where there was a more sharing spirit (if you had that luxury). i'm addressing this question to everyone.

[e2c]

jamsa, I understood your initial posts to be referring to West Africa. So again, I think it's up to the Africans to choose what to do in terms of new musical developments. (" ballet brought djembe to us ,but can we bring it back to the village?")

Anything we here in the US do - those of us not from Africa, that is - is not part of what's happening in Africa. We may innovate, just as they do, but I can't see how we could ever begin to call what we do "African." Derived from West African culture and music, yes; "African" - no.

Just my .02-worth...

[jamsa]

sorry dundun village is a gathering here in california. at which there seems to be a focus on competitive drumming. which no doubt in my opinion stems from teachers attitudes. which stems from the competition to get into ballets.

[jamsa]

i'm totally with you on that one, jamsa.

i can't help wondering, though, if you were in such an environment where that kind of competition takes centre stage, would you smile and take more of a back seat, or would you step up to the competition, or would you move to somewhere where there was a more sharing spirit (if you had that luxury). i'm addressing this question to everyone.

i would move, competitive djembe makes me piss cola, and they hardly hit marks anyway. if i didnt have a choice i would support the dancers, no dancers id go home

[Marc_M]

i can't help wondering, though, if you were in such an environment where that kind of competition takes centre stage...

I seek out environments where people encourage a healthy competition... where people improve for the sake of personal challenge. I believe when the ego becomes involved, the art suffers.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I don't think drumming is popular enough in this town to make that much of an issue. I believe there is only a handful of pro-drummers - most of them teach.

[e2c]

sorry dundun village is a gathering here in california. at which there seems to be a focus on competitive drumming. which no doubt in my opinion stems from teachers attitudes. which stems from the competition to get into ballets.

No worries, jamsa - and thanks for explaining!

I'm not a fan of that kind of "competitive drumming," either. My thought is that too much ego can wreck a lot of things, music being one of them. I'm not at the point where I can solo well by any means, so ... I'm happy to be in the back, playing accompaniment.

[jamsa]

from circles to squares{lines} from unity to competition this is a very masculine direction djembe is headed. we must reflect on the reasons why djembe players were/are dressed in head wraps and many events attended only by females and players.the male ego must be played down, so that participants may come together for healing and understanding, so that unity the cornerstone of civilization may bless their lives. what kind of energy is shared when the male ego is empowered in djembe?

[jamsa]

and most important what about my grandkids, what kind of djebe culture will they know? im sure there is a place for those sort of energys ie. dununbas and such. but with sandia or domba i dont think the dancers are signing up for that. and what about spirit dances empowered by that competitive nature.

[bubudi]

I seek out environments where people encourage a healthy competition... where people improve for the sake of personal challenge. I believe when the ego becomes involved, the art suffers.

that's pretty much where i stand on the issue. i believe that in some situations, slight competition, done in a friendly way, is a good thing. but it can easily be taken too far and i've seen both sides of the spectrum.

also, i believe the knowledge should be shared around a bit. i have no problem with going up to someone and saying, 'damn, that solo you did for soko was tight. can you show me that phrase you did right after...'. and people know they can come ask me stuff. with that spirit, people don't feel like they have to come up with some ridiculous solo phrase, or to make a long, ranting solo.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I don't think drumming is popular enough in this town to make that much of an issue. I believe there is only a handful of pro-drummers - most of them teach.

within your drumming scene, how much competition is there, and how much sharing goes on? i don't think it matters so much how popular drumming is in your town. sometimes one person can have enough ego to spoil it for everyone.

[bubudi]

and most important what about my grandkids, what kind of djebe culture will they know?

i have faith that you will educate your kids and grandkids about what djembe means.

[Dugafola]

sorry dundun village is a gathering here in california. at which there seems to be a focus on competitive drumming. which no doubt in my opinion stems from teachers attitudes. which stems from the competition to get into ballets.

jamsa, how many dunun villages have you been to? what teachers are you referring to? africans or non-africans?

to say that competitive drumming stems from teachers and that they got it from comp. to get into a ballet is a stetch. Wadaba Kourouma is a regular at DV he never played in any ballet. bolokada conde was a ballet drummer but he didn't have to compete to get into any ballet...he was sought out by koumbagna conde and the guinea govt. there's a ton of Abdoulaye Diakite students that frequent DV and AD preaches about the consequences of competition.

i've been to many many DVs and have seen some very special things. some serious music being laid down by africans and the non-africans alike. there's been an impressive list of master drummers who've come to DV to play and teach and party down and see what all the tubabs are up to. i think that the collective knowledge and training of the drummers and dancers at DV is 2nd to none when we all get together. it didn't used to be like that 10 years ago when only a handful of people had been to africa. now there's dozens of people that show up who train in africa regularly and bring it all back to teach perform etc.

it's true that DV can get pretty competitive in the tent, but it's mostly friendly competition. everyone knows each other and will leave space for other people to step in/step up. it does take a little bit of assertiveness on one's part though that's for sure. but, if there's some solo dancing going on in the tent and whoever is playing solo is either not loud enough or just blatantly not playing for the dance, they will get cut off almost 100% of the time and/or the dancers won't dance for them.

bubu...you should know my answer to your question