African Pop drumming

AFROPOP PLAY-ALONG FOR DRUMMERS Text, drum charts, photography, layout and design by Maciek Schejbal Lead sheets by Fernando Hernandez-Moros Reference drums recorded by Greg Novick at Chunky Karma Studio, North Plainfield, NJ

Special thanks to Maria Traversa, Francky Moulet, Graham Hawthorne, Fred Doumbè, Leo Traversa, David Weiss, Mark Manczuk, Bahar Behbahani, and Peter Allan

Photographs by Maciek Schejbal taken at FENAC, National Culture and Arts Festival Maroua, Cameroon, December 2008 Cover graphic by Andrzej Klimowski

Copyright © 2014 by Maciek Schejbal ISBN 978-0-615-99268-6 Music copyrights listed with each track

www.afropolka.com

Contents Introduction ..................... 1 How to Use this Book ..................... 2 Key to Drumset Notation ..................... 3 Eyoum (mangambeu) ..................... 4 Alea So (soukous) .................... 10 Joy (bikutsi) .................... 18 Ombwa Te (Afrobeat) .................... 28 To Ndje (makossa) .................... 36 Senga .................... 42 O Si Keka (reggae) .................... 47 Essimo (essewe) .................... 53 Mumi (African 6/8) .................... 56 About the Author .................... 62 About Kaïssa .................... 63 Track List .................... 64 Endorsements .................... 66

Introduction After teaching Afropop drumming classes at the Drummers Collective in Manhattan for a number of years, I was asked to conduct a recording class where students were required to play along music-minus-one recordings in a professional studio setting.

From the available school materials I assembled a number of tracks suitable for those exercises. The music was mostly rock, funk, fusion, and jazz. I then had the idea to include in those classes some of the World music I played around New York City. While working with the Cameroonian singer Kaïssa, I produced and mixed her first album and had access to the masters. I wanted to share them with my students and the idea of this play-along book was born.

The album was recorded with a click track, making it a perfect choice for play-along exercises. I retained all the original tracks, only removing the drum parts. Since the drumming on Kaïssa’s repertoire evolved into more African-oriented grooves from the time it was originally recorded, I decided to include the charts of the most recent versions of my drumming played during live shows. I also included recorded examples (reference tracks) of some of those recent versions of the tracks, which are significantly different from the originals. Others are the originals and are part of the album Looking There. The album was self-released (also licensed by Sony Music South Africa) in 2004. It is available online at CD Baby and at several digital merchants including iTunes. I trust you will discover new things in both versions.

The tracks include a mix of some Cameroonian grooves like bikutsi, mangambeu, makossa, and essewe as well as reggae and Afrobeat. Playing and developing various World music grooves has been the best part of working with Kaïssa and mixing grooves based on the same rhythmic roots has been keeping my interest in World music drumming alive through the years. I wanted to share this interest with the students at all levels, and I think they might find jamming with these tracks a great way to explore World music and expand their vocabulary on the drumset. Playing your own grooves along with the songs might be surprisingly rewarding, so give it a try!

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How to Use this Book Each song in this collection has a chapter in the book with performance tips, background info, lead sheet, drum chart and related style examples (or various African music influences). There are two versions of each song, one with a click track and one without. You could practice the songs with the click first, and eventually play them without the click, for example.

Reference tracks of some of the songs were added to this collection. Others, being closer to the originals, can be found on Kaïssa’s album Looking There.

Import the ‘No Click’ file to your session and add the click from your software to be able to adjust the click volume independently. Setup the session tempo exactly as indicated on the chart1. The click of the first two bars of the audio file should align with your session’s click. Now you are ready to record.

The list of the tracks is on the last page of this book.

As always, have fun!

Best, Maciek

Adjustments to the ProTools sessions resulted in decimal points of some tracks’ tempos, set them up precisely for accurate synchronization.

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2

KeytoDrumsetNotation (HANDS-STEMSUP,FEET-STEMSDOWN)

ã

ã

œ snaredrum

x hi-hat

ã

ã

f

h

e

snaredrum cross-stick

snaredrum rim-shot

snaredrum ghostnote

o x

o x

hi-hatopen

Å

hi-hatopen (forline'slenght)

x

hi-hatghostnote

hi-hatfoot

œ

œ

œ

œ

bassdrum

tom1

tom2

tom3

tom4

x

x

x

x

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ridecymbal

crash1cymbal

crash2cymbal

splashcymbal

1 cowbell

3

Eyoum Written by Patrice Bihina and Kaïssa Doumbè Love Lina Music, ASCAP / Mon Bebe Music, ASCAP Kaïssa - lead and backing voices Maciek Schejbal - drums Henri Tanash - guitars Fred Doumbè - percussion, percussion programming, backing voice

Originally, this song was recorded without the drums but the intricate guitar parts are a perfect match to play along one of the most interesting African grooves, mangambeu (this French spelling is sometimes changed in English to mangambe). The mangambeu musical style comes from the Bamileke people of Cameroon’s West Province. The rhythm was mastered, popularized, and developed on the drumset by Brice Wassy, whose book Rhythms from Cameroon takes you deeper into the subject.

One thing to mention is the way the rhythms of 6/8 or 12/8 are written and, more importantly, felt. Though many people write the rhythms as 6/8 or 12/8, I prefer to write them in 4/4 with triplet division. The 4/4 pulse, in my opinion, projects the feeling of forward motion better than 6/8 or 12/8 and that’s what I sense playing, listening, or moving to African music and watching African dance. Nevertheless, developing awareness and ability to switch between 6/8 and 4/4 feelings is an additional tool in a vocabulary of a well-rounded drumset player.

In addition to the drum part written in the chart, I have some suggestions for preparatory exercises allowing you to hear the triplet subdivisions that are the basis of mangambeu. As a bonus, your jazz playing will improve as your sense of triplet becomes more solid and the forward motion more fluent.

I found this first exercise helpful when preparing for gigs with Kaïssa. Alternating between four-on-the-floor and mangambeu kick of this two-bar loop should center your triplet sense and lock the groove. Repeat the exercise many times using a metronome with triplet subdivision (feel free to start the snare part from bar 2, the starting point is as flexible as in Afro-Cuban clave). 4

Drums

Also, at first, do not accent the second note of each triplet as in the chart. This can throw you off before mastering the mechanics of every drum part (next exercise will deal with this issue):

x x ‰ x x ‰ x x e x x ‰ x x œ x x ‰ x x e x x ‰ x x ‰ x x ‰ x x e x x ‰ œx x œ x x ‰ x x e x x ‰ . . œ c . ã œ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ Œœ œ œ ‰ Œ œ œ ‰ Œ œ œ ‰ Œ œ œ ‰ . 3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

3

Before adding the accent, you’d need to internalize it; otherwise you are prone to turning the beat

Drums

around and making it a shuffle groove. Here’s an exercise that will force you to hear the second eight-note triplet of each beat:

3 3 3 3 3 3 j j j j ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ x x x x x x x x ‰ ‰ ‰ . œ e œ œ e . c . ã œx œ ‰ x œx œ ‰ x œx œ ‰ x œx œ ‰ . x 3

3

3

3

3

3

Another issue is the mangambeu fills. What adds spice to them is a slight dragging of tempo but before you do that, play them very tight, as written. I found these fills to sound great played with one, leading, hand, though after a while of dealing with this music you might find that changing the sticking might suit your own sound better. Drums

Here’s the most typical mangambeu drum fill you might like to build on. You can play the fills without bass drum or replace the written bass drum pattern with the same one as in the previous exercise: Love Lina Music, ASCAP/Mon Bebe Music, ASCAP

‰ . c . ã œx

3

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‰ œ

3

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‰ œx

3

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j œ 3

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..

5

Mangambeu examples: • Nouteussi from the album Dance Around The Fire by Jack Djeyim, drums by Brice Wassy • Wamba from the album Soro by Salif Keita, drums by Brice Wassy • Eyando from the album Scenes From My Life by Richard Bona, drums by Mokhtar Samba • Gwarir from the album Ifrikya by Karim Ziad, drums by Karim Ziad

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Lead Sheet

Eyoum

Mangambeu q=122.62

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Guitar 1

& c E-

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3

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# . jœ & . œ # & .. œœœ j œ œ

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ÿ

3

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.. œœœ œœœ œœœ œœœ œœœ œœœ J J 3

Guitar 2

#

F #o

3

F #o

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j œ œ

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j œ œ

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3

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>œ

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j .. œœ ‰ œœ œœ ‰ œ œ j œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œ .. œ œ œ œ œ œœ J 3

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Œ œJ œJ œ ‰ œ œ œ œ œ Œ Ó J 3

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Œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 3

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œ Œ Ó

# Œ œ œ Ó Œ j œ œJ œ œ œ œ œ Ó œ œJ ˙ œ # Œ ! Œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ Ó œ œ œ œ œ # ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ 3

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© Love Lina Music, ASCAP / Mon Bebe Music, ASCAP

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..

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# . Œ œ Œ . œ œ Voice

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Patrice Bihina / Kaissa Doumbe

3

Eyoum 2

Ÿ

j j # j œ & œœ œœ œœ œ œœ œœ œœ 3

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j j # j œ œ œœ œœ œ œ œœ œœ œœ 3

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⁄

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j j j œ œ œœ œœ œ œ œœ œœ œœ

j j j œ œ œœ œœ œ œ œœ œœ œœ

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Play 4 x's

j j j œ œ œœ œœ œ œ œœ œœ œœ 3

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j j j œ œœ œœ œœ œ œœ œœ œœ

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# . œ ‰ œ œ œ ‰ j‰ Œ ‰ œ œ ‰ Œ œ œ œ œ . œ

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Play 3 x's

j j # . j œ . œœ œœ œœ œ œœ œœ œœ

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j j j œ œ œœ œœ œ œ œœ œœ œœ

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3

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j j j œ œœ œœ œœ œ œœ œœ œœ 3

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j j œ # œ œœ œœ

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Œ Œ Œ œj œj œ #œ œ œ 3

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œœ Œ Ó

Œ Œ Œ œj œj œ #œ œ œ 3

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Œ Œ Œ œj œj œ #œ œ œ 3

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Œ Œ Œ œj œj œ #œ œ œ Ó

œœœ‰œ 3

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j œœ Œ Œ Œ œ Ó

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..

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Œ Œ j .. œ 3

œœ Œ Ó œœ Œ Ó

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3

© Love Lina Music, ASCAP / Mon Bebe Music, ASCAP

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