I'm hoping that Tom will drop in on this thread, or Galen (from Wula)...
michi - I had never heard of that champagne bottle and spoon thing - it sounds utterly ridiculous to me.
As for Sule's book, you said it, not me. (And thanks for your candor!) There are all kinds of things in that book that i've never been able to source. But... 'nuff said.
He is a gifted musician, though, and seems like a very nice person.
As for how things are pronounced (in Africa, not here), I have a sneaking suspicion that there's a fair amount of regional variation; also that some terminology might not be as hard and fast as we think - but then, a lot of
our terminology isn't exactly written in stone. (And the differences between US English, Canadian English, UK English, Irish English, Aussie English, NZ English and all the variants of African and South Asian English are pretty amazing as well...)
Also, re. drumming in general, there is some pretty wild stuff out there - like
When the Drummers Were Women. I have no interest in defending that one, if only because I was trained in historical research and the book is mostly a distortion of a few facts with a heavy layer of mythologizing to finish it off.
Everyone likes a good story - that's why Snopes.com and other sites like it exist.
