Aural Pleasure

Kuku

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:38:19 -0500

Kuku is from the Guinea and Ivory Coast area. Typically it is a women’s dance performed in a circle. It is a popular rhythm played at all kinds of festivals, including full moon celebrations. I recorded this today because someone I know said they were taking some Kuku dance lessons.

6 drum parts plus some solos

Sorsonet

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 13:11:41 -0500

Sorsonet is a mask dance from the Baga ethnic group from West Guinea, Boké region. There’s one mistake on the call in that I missed an open tone (well at least that mistake ;-). It has two balafon parts as well. Enjoy!

Kassagbé

Mon, 18 May 2009 09:44:45 -0400

Haven’t published any of my African recordings in a while. Our instructor Leo Brooks knows very little about this rhythm Kassagbé. He learnt it from a video by Paulo Mattioli. It is probably related to Kassa - the common agricultural rhythm played during the harvest. It is from the Malinke people of West Africa.

India Minor - Butterflies & Zebras

Wed, 14 May 2008 22:29:35 -0400

I haven’t posted some B&Z in a while. Butterflies & Zebras is made up of Norm Howard (insane sound craftsmanship), Steve Northover (The Father of SWT) and myself, Ken Walker. We gather Sunday nights, when we can all make it, at the old OTI building and hope we don’t blow someone’s mind out.

Anyway, Steve records on his ThinkGad and I record on my Mac and we see who’s recording sounds better. These are often one-offs. Occasionally we find something we like and try to replicate it, often it works, sometimes it doesn’t. So our recordings are all live, made in the lunchroom at OTI.

Here’s one recent recording named on the spot to be India Minor. How do you explain how Norm does the surf crash to guitar sound around 0:51, crazy solos at 2:19, or an excited Tinkerbell jumping at 2:46? I kinda sound like I’m playing Congas however I usually play my African Duns strapped together on a rack and with my hands or sticks go at it.

Enjoy. I love making this music.... it’s so free form. We’ll never secure a record deal.

Sinté

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:36:01 -0400

Here’s a recording I made of the African Rhythm Sinté. Michael Marcus had taught this to some Ottawa drummers in October 2003 and I’ve helped Leo Brooks play it for Shara Weaver’s dance class as well. It doesn’t have a lot of parts given that there’s only 2 djembes, an upright set of Duns and a bell but it sure is groovy.

Mahi - A Rhythm from Haiti

Sat, 2 Feb 2008 16:46:14 -0500

This music is interesting because some of it is played with a stick on a drum much like a conga. Luckily I have congas and use those. This very short recording is comprised of 5 instruments and includes the intro and conclusion pieces. There is supposed to be more variation during the rhythm other than the few small solo’ish phrases you might hear but I needed to get this done for my group Kunundrum to hear.

I think it’s pretty groovy!

Thunder and Rain

Thu, 6 Dec 2007 22:24:09 -0500

Here’s a drumming creation of my very own. I was sticking to what I think of as square patterns on the Djembes and leaving a bit of a gap near the end of every measure to let you feel the groove. I also had a try at adding an echauffement or “heating up” during the rhythm. This happens 3 times and there is a break by the lead Djembe to signal the transitions in and out.

So this creation uses 2 Djembes, the duns in a ballet or upright style, a gankogui bell and the balafon.

Everybody - A Stabilo recording by us

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:56:09 -0500

My wife Kelly recorded this today and I took a bit of time to put some percussion and a bit of Balafon on top of it. Both of us started the musical parts of our lives as we passed the 40 highway marker. Kelly’s made incredible progress in terms of both her guitar playing and vocal capability. Nice to have a bit of a Partridge Family thing going on. My son is learning electric guitar too.

This song is from a band called Stabilo off of an album called Cupid, and likely nobody you’ve heard of.

Kpanlogo - added the Balafon instrument

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 11:44:11 -0500

I borrowed a Balafon from Lori and listened to a recording I had of Leo Brooks playing it with me doing the Kpanlogo main rhythm. Here’s my rendition of the simple accompaniment. You can hear it just after the vocal part now and until the end.

Kpanlogo - an African High-life rhythm

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 14:29:28 -0500

Kpanlogo, as far as African rhythms go, is really recent. It was popularized in the 1960’s and is used in all sorts of celebrations. This particular recording I made today is comprised of 8 instrument tracks and a bit of vocals. The Vocals are really supposed to be a call and response, but there wasn’t anyone responding to me, go figure.