Rita Ray
February 2007 - looking at the Musical Legacy of Slavery
Greetings! I'm your host Rita, looking at the Musical Legacy of Slavery, particularly in Sierra Leone, plus Al-Khaidas CD and Urban Africa Club compilation:
- The gumbe drum
- Sierra Leone's music industry
- Khady Black
- Urban Africa Club
- Rita Ray's Recommended CDs
Since my last column, I've been on a hectic and intense musical journey charting the flow of music across the Atlantic slave routes. From Africa to the Americas and back again, we researched the fundamental role African slaves played in shaping the sound of modern music for a 3-part BBC World Service series called The Musical Legacy of Slavery . For the series, which will be broadcast from the 16 March 2007, my producer Polly De Blank and I looked at the different elements that make up today's music and traced their roots focusing on drums and rhythms, strings and the voice. It was enlightening to see the impact that instruments created by the slaves like the banjo and gumbe drum has made on popular music and the undeniable influence of Islamic music on today's Afro-American vocal techniques from Blues to R'n'B.
We discovered a desire in people across the African Diaspora to reclaim their African heritage from young people in Colombia playing and dancing to Congolese Soukous, Nyabingi and Koromanti drumming in Jamaica to hip, young Afro-Venezuelan artists delving into their heritage and using African rhythms and styles as the inspiration for their music making.
Our journey took us to many countries including Sierra Leone whose port capital Freetown was special because it was set up as a colony for freed slaves of different African origins who arrived from all points of the Atlantic slave routes - from Europe to the Caribbean and Americas, making the city a potent centre of musical exchange, an exchange that went around the world through the seamen and soldiers visiting the port. And today in the streets of Freetown you hear the Afro-Caribbean roots, in the rhythms of reggae, dancehall and calypso that drift through the wooden houses, evidence of the shared musical heritage that goes back to the time slaves had to make their music in secret on drums like the gumbe.
The gumbe drum
We went to Freetown to find out about the gumbe drum. A drum created by the Maroons of Jamaica, the fugitive slaves who fled the plantations and successfully defended their freedom. When they were allowed to go back and resettle in Sierra Leone in 1807 they took their gumbe drum with them. This drum went on to influence music-making throughout West Africa, from Guinea Bissau (like Manecas Costa's gumbe infused music) through to Ghana and Nigeria.
The distinctive gumbe drum looks like a stool laid on its side with animal skin across the 'seat' of the stool. From this drum came the gumbe rhythm, the basis for much of the music that started out in Sierra Leone and made its way around the continent, and through our interviews we traced the development of gumbe rhythm into Free Town, Calypso through to Palm Wine Maringa, High Life and Afro Beat. If you want to hear the calypso link between Africa and the Caribbean there is a fantastic compilation called African Elegant Sierra Leone's Kru/Krio Calypso Connection - have a listen to 'Fire Fire' by the legendary Ebenezer Calendar , the Calypso King of SL. 'Fire Fire' is more than a song, it's virtually the country's theme tune, everyone we interviewed mentioned it and you still hear versions of the song ringing out all over the city. For more on Palm Wine have a look at the article on Abdul TJ , the gifted guitarist who was so helpful to us on this journey and opened our eyes to the huge diversity of SL music.
Freetown is a sprawling, bustling port city and all roads seemed to lead us to the eccentrically brilliant Dr Oloh , the most famous living musician and innovator of gumbe derived music. We caught up with him for a first hand taste of the intoxicating dancy raucous irreverent gumbe. Have a listen to a snippet of 'Bad Mother In Law' which the Dr. and his band performed for us, under the shade of a massive cotton tree high up in the hills of Freetown with a panoramic view of the city fringed by the sandy white beaches of the Atlantic ocean below us.
Sierra Leone's music industry
Khady Black
The charismatic Khady Black is SL's first and biggest female reggae artist and is renowned for her tough talking stage persona and the way she uses her roots reggae for social justice. Have a listen to one of Khady's biggest hits 'Mr Government' which addresses the lack of education and opportunity for the youth of Sierra Leone. Find out more about Khady on her homepage . I also discovered Bubu music which in its traditional format is made up of about 20 musicians blowing into bamboo pipes of different sizes, accompanied by a big wooden box tied to the player's body who beats out the pulse with his fist while shakers and triangle fill in the rhythm - it was awesome. Could I find any to buy though? As you can imagine recording an outfit this big is expensive and cumbersome in this day and age so most Bubu music you can buy is keyboard-led. One of the popular exponents is Ahmed Janku Nabay and the Bubu Gang who make a joyful noise with their commercial brand of the music, go on, try on 'Eh Congo' for size.
Listen: Fire Fire by Ebenezer Calander & His Maringar Band , African Elegant , Sierra Leone's Kru/Krio Calypso Connection (Original Music)
Listen: Bad Mother In Law by Dr Oloh
Listen : Mr. Government by Khady Black , Mr. Government (Supreme Management)
Listen: Eh Congo , Ahmed Janka Nabay , De Debul, (Forensic Records /Super Sound Ltd)
Urban Africa Club
A vital new release
Urban Africa Club - Hip Hop Dancehall Kwaito
takes us on another journey. If you want a snap shot of the current urban African music scene then Out Here Records' Urban Africa Club is the album you need. South Africa, Mali, Uganda … name a country in the African continent and you find young people toiling away, making music relevant to their generation and they are gradually making a mark on the global musical landscape. The young guns draw on their richly diverse traditional heritage as they embrace the lingua franca of the 21st century – hip hop and reggae, with many destined to be the stars of tomorrow, redefining World Music in the process.
Most of the big names in African Hip Hop are on the album, from Didier Awadi , one of the founders of Senegal's pioneering rap outfit, Positive Black Soul to Peter Miles , the hottest dancehall act on the continent. Also on the compilation is the big noise of the moment K'naan , Somalia's Dusty Foot Philosopher, a refugee now resident in Canada, his track 'Soobax' has got to be one of hottest dancefloor fillers around. The gruff-voiced King Ayisoba is currently riding high in the Ghanaian charts and his track 'Champion No Easy' features Batman Samini who won the Africa section at the MOBO Awards in 2006 is a welcome addition, and the inclusion of less well-known artists and countries like Scientific from Liberia and Lord Ekomy Ndong from Gabon is refreshing and takes us deeper into the scene.
Where are the ladies? Well, Nazizi Hinji aka The First Lady, and half of Kenya's premier rappers, Necessary Noize is featured on their track 'So Ruff', as are the tuff Senegalese outfit Alif representing the female effort and they are firin', really on it and hold their own amongst all the boys. Have a listen to Douta Mbaye . Urban Africa Club does what it says on the tin - it takes you on an essential guided tour of what's happening in the club scene of urban Africa. I really hope some of these artists are going to make their way over to the UK in the near future - gotta see them live!
Till soon.
Rita
Rita Ray's Recommended CDs
Various Artists – Urban Africa Club (Hip Hop, Dancehall, Kwaito)
Al–Khaidas - Jika Jika
Various Artists -Waaberi Stars
Check out my recommended CDs this month in the CD Reviews section or go to Music Search to look at our archive of recommended CDs