Do you speak djembe?

[James]

Wow, cool!
Do you speak djembe?

[the kid]

This MAkes me wanna ......

[bkidd]

I thought it was really cool too. Thanks for posting this James!

The kid, I'm curious, what about this makes you want to ?

[the kid]

I just found that really cheesy.I don't like the marketing wow effect of the clip either.
Suppose it's good to introduce so many people to djembe on some level but I really don't think the classical musicians fit into the african percussion vibe.
I'm sure there were parts in the performance which were cool considering there are some good artists there.

[Afoba]

I don't liek it either.
I would say it the other way around: would haven been better without djembe, some congas would do.
It's a very good example for NOT speaking djembe.

[fa_ramiro]

Im totally agree with AFOBA!

Do you NOT speak djembe? jajajaja

salut!

[Michel]

Well, as a lover of some real tradition I don't really like it. But I could hear a nice effort of mixing instruments. And I saw Adama Bilorou there. So I suppose the effort was nice. But every time I hear djembe's in non-traditional context, I get shivers. I can't help it.

[davidognomo]

so, you get it now, Brian?

I wouldn't say I don't like it, wich I don't, really, but it doesn't interest me.

Turning something traditional into a mass phenomenon, where you can't really understand what's the primary goal, if it's team building, cultural exchange, or making money, makes me sad.

It's somehow like turning traditional cuisine into fastfood. I understand that musicians have to make money, and there is a door for these initiatives, there's people and coorporations buying these products, these team building sessions (I'm guessing that's what it is), but the choices that these artists are making are shaping their careers. It's on them if they want to take them in that direction. I guess it is less chocking seeing africans doing this rather than if it were whites. To me, at least.

[bkidd]

Turning something traditional into a mass phenomenon, where you can't really understand what's the primary goal, if it's team building, cultural exchange, or making money, makes me sad.

I get this perspective and understand where you and other people who have shared this viewpoint are coming from. It's clear that the traditional context for the djembe music is being confronted with a number of outside pressures that are shaping where it goes. Ever since the Ballets were created in the 60s, the traditional context has confronted this challenge and been adapted or evolved such that a great deal of what people outside of African are or have been exposed to is non-traditional in the strict sense.

My perspective is that there's a place for traditional and non-traditional adaptations of music. I'm a little puzzled that everyone was so quick to dislike this because it's not traditional. As far as I can tell, they aren't claiming to be traditional. Instead they are offering a musical experience. This experience allows people to be exposed to an eclectic ensemble of instruments that seem to offer both performance and participation, which seem rather positive. Generally, I'm a big fan of efforts that promote positive musical experiences such as what this group is offering.

Best,
-Brian

[Michel]

My above reaction doesn't conflict with yours! I love music, I would like the whole world to experience the great feeling of making music, especially together with others. But it's a matter of taste how one likes his instrument being used for something one doesn't really dig....

[Afoba]

My perspective is that there's a place for traditional and non-traditional adaptations of music.

Very true! But I won't leave any space for non-traditional adaptations that make adverts with attributes of inner inner traditional styles ("do you speak djembé?").

"The real djembé speaks!- hear it played with sax and keyboard on Friday night!"
no, thanx d;-)

We played in concert in Berlin 2 weeks ago with a band mixing djembé, saxophone and breakdance - they would never say this is tradition. It's art with some traditional elements. And that's fine!
You can get an impression here:
http://www.mandenkono.ch/Daten/Musik-Vi ... olonba.php
"modern art" in the first line videos; "traditional"* in the second line.
(so I found my way to make some hardly covered self-advertising again ).

Have a nice evening, Daniel

* well, the fact that the dance is sometimes a mixture of mainly ballet, some traditional stuff, european ballet and freestyle changes the music a bit in some situations. In an extended way this is still tradition, because tradition has to be flexible (and not copy) to react on what's happening - kind of hard to draw a line...

[bkidd]

Thanks very much for adding this extra bit Daniel.

For me the topic of traditional music having to adapt (or not) to what environment and cultural context it finds itself in is quite complex. I really love field recordings from villages that are "traditional". I also love recordings produced in a studio and mass-marketed through CDs.

To help me understand where you're drawing the line, if we said "The real djembe speaks! hear it played with kora and balaphone on Friday night!", would you run the other way, or be intrigued? In other words is it putting a djembe with non-African instruments? Or is it being on a stage, being choreographed, etc?

Maybe I was a little sensitive to the responses and have confused dislike for a particular presentation with disapproval in the sense that this shouldn't be done.

The main reason that I love this forum is because I get to hear so many thoughtful perspectives on a huge array of djembe-related topics.

Best,
-Brian

[e2c]

While I can understand the reactions re. traditional djembe, I actually think this is a good thing.

And I have some pop recordings from Mali and Guinea where djembe is used along with saxes, kinda (to my ears) cheesy-sounding keyboards and the like. I'm absolutely certain that none of the musicians involved in these recording sessions would say that the music is in any way "traditional."

[Afoba]

To help me understand where you're drawing the line, if we said "The real djembe speaks! hear it played with kora and balaphone on Friday night!", would you run the other way, or be intrigued? In other words is it putting a djembe with non-African instruments? Or is it being on a stage, being choreographed, etc?

hey, good point!!! puh...
ok, let's try: playing djembé together with balaphone or even (!) kora is clearly beyond my "traditional line" (but my traditional line is not my acception line!). This is modern african music. There are some things that are very nice and many things that are very boring to me. I don't really like djembe being played with melody instruments (no, the djembe is no melody instrument, that's an exotist legend!). It sometimes can be nice, but in general I prefer dunduns and congas for these styles (I would like to do some bala-dundun stuff once, we will see). So it's not really the "european instrument" argument, or not only. bala-djembe is something in between. But already the whole ballet stuff (including the old ballets) means nothing to me.
I'm quite more open to the concerts (as you know) - I give concerts myself, but I prefer the "bottom version" (on the same floor as the audience). Dance shall be possible and easy to start. That counts for me. I will surely do other things from time to time, but the possibility of traditional dance is a strong argument for me.

So to answer your question a bit more directly: I would not run away. I would be more interested than in the djembe/orchestra/xy case. But I would tell anyone open to listen (and some more people) that the "djembe speaking" thing is a lie in this case.
It's the exotist advert business that gets on my nerves. If you leave this out, well than it's just music and there are no borders, nor fixed rules for music. What makes traditional west african (in my case: maninka music) so special for me is that there's a level of function that you don't have in rock styles and that you don't have in all the mixed styles at all (there it's just listening and maybe watching).

You see, it's not "lines" it's more areas that seperate traditional music from other djembe or dundun music (as mostly). You could also ask: Is it traditional to play djembe in Germany? (no or not yet) or: Is it possible to play traditional djembe music in Germany (more or less, I would say), or finally: Is traditional music played in Germany traditional music? ( ) Does it have to be changed to be traditional here (because it needs some "function" to be traditional: e.g. dance)? And so on...

Greets, d;-)

[michi]

My reaction to the video was sort of lukewarm. Not because of any purist considerations, but simply because the music just didn't do all that much for me.

I also have to say that I consider many of the attempts to combine djembe with other styles as, let's say, limited successes. Even with the inclusion of saxophone in the concert that's documented on Mögöbalu, I wasn't convinced that this really is such a good idea.

One of the few good examples I can think of is Monette's Coup d'Eclat album. I think it works there because the music was created with the percussion focus in mind, and the djembe wasn't added as an afterthought.

Cheers,

Michi.