West African Eve Rythms

PROLOGVE

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un Ra, the legendary African American philosopher, pianist, and leader of his Solar Arkestra, spoke of the human condition and life's struggles in terms of an omniverse and our genesis from another dimension. He once told me 'Reality is not just what we see, there is another existence, we are beings from beyond.' The music of his large Arkestra ensemble always stretched the limits, surpassing the expected toward the ultimate, with such pieces as Myth vs Science: Reality. When I heard the Arkestra live, I could feel this transcendence, what Amiri Baraka speaks of as an African life sense. As my life has progressed and my playing has taken me to many parts of the world - Africa, Asia, the Middle East/West Asia, Europe, and the Americas - Sun Ra's wisdom has become clearer. Apart from the unconditional love of my parents, I have been alone and lost, failing at most things, seeing the horrors of human suffering, and , ondering if there is any meaning at all. In my Peace Corps experience in the Philippines and subsequent trip throughout the planet, I have seen firsthand the aenocide against the people of the so-called 'third -orld.' ':-1 friends there do not have an airplane et home to shelter, clothing, food, medical care, "'" . al. For no reason, I do. Somehow, out of this ::l es.:, and tru aa e comes T

a deep all-encompassing reality expressed throu music, dance, and art. Something that can touch :;: all. When I hear a West African drum ensemble, a Javanese gamelan, an Indian music ensemble, an McCoy Tyner's great quartet with Sonny Fortune, Calvin Hill, and Alphonse Mouzon, I realize that there can be meaning, and that these masters are playing more than music, they are playing life at i deepest. In this path of life we find connections with people, places, events, times, impressions. On our journey we also lose many of those connections through separation, failure, death, and change. Especially' western industrialized society we can feel emp _', separated from others, nature, the creator, our ancestors, even from ourselves. Many world cui. keep these connections alive through tradition and ritual. In West Africa one powerful way' e drum and dance drama, a shared remembran e and honoring of a people's history and des' :,. Through intense dancing, drumming, and . a community rekindles bonds with other h and spirits, spaces, activities, moments, c feelings, the earth, and with themse1Ye5.~ are embraced as a means of ii, ina deep~; i::' ::--= present and going forth on indiYidual a..c • paths to the future.

Living in villages among the Eve people in southeastern Ghana I have learned things we cannot find in any book. They have given me drumming, dance, and spirit that have helped me go through life. We each live in time and space - surviving, working, searching for a partner, maybe having children, laughing, suffering, dreaming, growing old, dying - and affect people and events as we go on our journeys. But we also live in another dimension, a time beyond clocks, a space without place, a being of the heart and spirit, our ultimate reality. For me the musics of West Africa and other world cultures are a gateway to this life sense, a place that cannot be bought or sold, cheated, insulted, a place beyond our frailties.

OWO E FORMING

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The sounds of drums, bells, and rattles; songs, proverbs, and cries; and dance movements, gestures, and energy forces are all expressions of life, of the heart, of unconditional love for all existence, every moment, every molecule, every heart. They have helped me on my life journey. The music in these pages is inspired by that unconditional boundless spirit. I have given my life to playing these sounds with the people of each culture and bringing them to the drumset in the African American tradition. Play these rhythms and voices from the Eve people of West Africa in your own personal way, finding your own sound as a means to a deeper spirit. They will also bring you 0 another place and time, beyond the veil.

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kpese is a recreational dance drama of Eve peoples in the northern Volta region of Ghana and adjacent Togo. It is played when people come together to meet and have fun, touching and celebrating, somewhat like a religious or athletic rally. This drama is expressed in a free, explosive musical style, highly improvised drumming, and risk-taking to create excitement, like the open, unfettered transcendence of African American jazz. Much of its music derives from song texts, which are separated in performance by interludes of intense drumming and movement, the dancers twirling white cloths while the lead drum rolls and speaks in a strong voice. Sometimes a bugle or trumpet and whistle join the drama, as I experienced while playing traditional drums and drumset with Akpese ensembles in Ho, the capital city of the Volta region and Anyako village at the Keta lagoon. The red hot explosions of the bugler, trumpeter, and women & man playing and a police whistles brought me back to New Orleans, experiencing the intimate force of a street band and dancing onlookers, the second line. We traded phrases between bugle and drumset as the songs, dancing, and traditional drumming were exploding around us, and I felt a connection among West African drumming, New Orleans bands, and jazz like never before.

The Akpese (pronounced ak-peh-SAY) ensemble is led by Duga, a large single-headed open drum played with the hands. Its rhythms can reflect Eve speech by means of vugbe drum language, speaking low, middle, and high tones through various hand and finger strokes. It calls or reacts to songs, cues dance movements, and interacts with the other instruments in the dance drama. In some villages, such as Anyako, a second uuga is played, doubling or engaging in a dialogue with the lead uuga's rhythms.

There are eight supporting drums, bells, and rattle in the Akpese dance drama. The time line is expressed through three atoke iron boat-shaped bells held in an open palm and played with a thin metal rod. Atoke are pitched in high, medium, and low ranges. The high-pitched atoke states a seven-stroke pattern that can be heard as a duple form of the Gadzo 12/8 ganugbagba time line (see Gadzo section). Mediumand low-pitched atoke play interlocking three-stroke phrases, each alternating sound creating tonal movement. At different times onthe video the medium or low atoke rhythm was played on afrikyiwa metal castanet-type bell. The axatse gourd rattle states a repeating leg and hand three-stroke pattern reinforcing the atoke timeline.

can reflect speech tones. Its basic pattern of low and high sounds interacts with alternating pairs of mute and open strokes played on the asiuui 1 single-headed wooden hand drum. While dondo can improvise, its conversation centers on the interplay with asiuui and forms the essence of Akpese drumming. A second asiuui voice, which we will call asiuui 2, is employed in some villages, playing a six-stroke open tone pattern that complements and reinforces the high atoke timeline. Pattigame is a small double-headed metal shell drum played with a combined stick and hand technique. It rests on the player's thigh, with the fingers of the holding hand pressing against or releasing one head, while the free hand strikes the other drumhead with a wooden stick. Finger pressure mutes the sound and creates the low and high pitches of stick strokes on the opposite head. The mutes are barely audible but felt as part of the rhythm. This drum has an active voice, stating a series of variations that enrich the texture of the dance drama. A few variations are shown here. The pattigame rhythm was played on a .di drum in the video at Anyako. erience Akpese dance drumming with the di BJbJbJ £roup from Tarso Anyako village :' Le i eo and hear the interactions amona dondo, :::i~~ne, a=' 1.:.:; around the a o~e an

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_- - - is a gourd rattle with a netting of beads ~ 5J. e about its exterior. It is held in one hand =::- -truck against the opposite palm or thigh, ........", . a a swishing sound that also reinforces the ~ :imeline. It traditionally states a number of -2.:'-.a:ionsthat add a different rhythmic feel to - ;:> ic drumming patterns. . a slender high-pitched wooden drum "\ith thin sticks whose sharp strokes _ ize offbeat pairs. Like axatse, its ~2.:'.-atio add rhythmic 'spice' to the ensemble. _:, e are £Teatdrummers in the villages who ~:::"";a...ize in playing kagaI] all their lives, creating ~n ~e. uances in timing and unique variations c. e, timbre, and rhythm that you can hear _ - e TIdeo. Variations A and C-G are most - =c: only played at a moderate to slow pace, - -~":""e ~ e other patterns are usually played at os.

open tones. Mutes are accomplished by pressing the stick against the drumhead on stroke contact while open resonant tones result from bouncing the stick off the drumhead. Its basic phrase consists of three open and three mute strokes. Kidi's pattern can change in conversation with Gadzouuga, one dialogue response including open tones that parallel dondo and the dondo variation, as on the video. The wooden hourglass-shaped, double-headed, string tension drum known as dondo completes the Gadzo ensemble. It is played with a curved wooden stick. Dondo traditionally improvises phrases whose tonal language can be understood, enriching the ensemble texture. One basic pattern is a high-low pair of strokes that match alternate kagaI] statements. A variation adds a third high-low motive within one bell cycle. Two other metal instruments are played for chanted rituals and sometimes join the ensemble: auaga, a small, open mouthed bell with a clapper, and aq.oqo, a double-ended cluster of slender chambers with clappers that functions as a rattle. Both are held in the hand and shaken, functioning in the ensemble to support the timeline. Observe the full Gadzo drum and dance drama with the Anyako Lashibi community on the video and hear the interplay of supporting instruments with the Gadzovuga master drum.

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The ganugbagba speaks both a heartbeat and a time cycle. Play the heartbeat between bass drum and high hat and the time cycle on cymbal bell. Throughout this chapter you can also play cymbal rhythms on the side of your low tom or as high-pitched snare rim strokes (snares released) with the tip of your stick, suggesting African sounds like ka, a stick stroke on the side of a wooden drum.

Extend the heartbeat to snare cross sticks or crash cymbal bell. These combinations bring out the metal sounds and driving two-hand feel of ganugbagba.

STYLES

You can also play kagaI] as snare cross sticks or extend it to toms as well.

Omitting one cross stick leaves more space in the groove and suggests the high-low sounds of dondo as on the video for this example and Gadzo DVD ensemble. Improvise your own kagaI] rhythms on snare and toms, beginning with the traditional variations given earlier and those on the Gadzo drumset kagaI] variations 1 and 2 videos that include patterns B, D, H, I, J, and K (DVDIO) and N, L, and M (DVDll).

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ve music is characterized by drum syllables, vugbe, which reflect the high, middle, and low tones of the indigenous Eve language, marked in the pronunciation syllables after each saying as 1 for low, 2 for midrange, and 3 for high. In Gadzo we will focus on the tones of the gadzovuga lead drum and the hourglassshaped, string tension dondo drum, both of which play low, middle, and high pitches. Their voices often reflect the introduction of texts by singers in the dance drama. Vugbe is fully communicated by the interaction of the entire ensemble of drums, bell, and rattles. In each example in this section, the drum voices are shown together with the ganugbagba bell timeline above the staff.

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The final Eve text is Gade ga Jo (pronounced gahl dehz gahl pfohl)' whose literal statement is" A bell has rungl it is six 0' clock again." This refers to a curfew imposed in 1953by British colonials as a result of civil unrest by traditional AI]b-Eve people protesting continued control of the area prior to Ghana's independence in 1957. It expresses the feeling "We are disgusted at this intrusion into our lives." The villagers told me this and other similar sayings are still played, since they see the current military, economic, and cultural control of their lives by industrialized nations and corporations as a contemporary form of colonial control. The price for this inhuman treatment, which began in the 1400s in West Africa, is starvation, disease, as well as lack of shelter, clothing, and meaningful work, all forces of dehumanization and genocide that they experience daily. In this holocaust the people come together in a communal society to survive and instead of hate, live a spiritual life of love for each other, nature, ancestors, and spirits that even extends to those of us who come from the neocolonial areas of the globe. This transcendent spirituality, which is shared by many peoples in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Oceania, and indigenous Europe and the Americas, is expressed in drumming, dance, and song. Gade ga Jo is an example of how historic events are enshrined in the dance drumming tradition. Its tones are played on gadzovuga as 'ga de ga . ga .. ' and echoed by dondo. The space between tatements, taken by three high pitched 'tsa' ounds, is open for improvisation by either instrument, and can function as a call with the vugbe phrase as a response. The entire hrase can also be pulled into a duple feel.

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Begin with low- and medium-pitched uugbe tones' ga de ga . ga .. ' played between bass drum and high tom, and high-pitched 'tsa' strokes as snare cross sticks. You can also divide the low-high tones between low and high toms, as on Gadzo DVD ensemble 7 and DVD 17 for uugbe exzmple 4.

N ow stretch the left hand and bass drum rhythms into a duple feel over the triple feel of the cymbal timeline with high hat on two and four, similar to the way West African drummers pull the rhythms over the bell cycle. When these phrases feel strong create your own patterns and improvised spaces that can spark a dialogue with a soloist.

A n go the drama of summoning the divinity Adzogbo is part of an intense interaction of dancers, drummers, and singers. Changes in devotional activities and the music are cued by the master drummer through the drum language of atsimeuu. There are many episodes with multiple dialogues in sequence, each with its own dance movements and drum rhythms. The episodes may be played one or more times.

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In one, the heightened action begins with atsimevu playing 'gi de ... dza. dza. dza ... ki . (ka) . ki . (ka) . ki . (ka);' in Eve, Mi va, du gba dzi (pronounced meez vahz dool gbahljeez)' meaning 'Everyone come to the druming area.' Kidi and sogo continue their basic pattern. This rhythm is repeated until the right emotional moment when atsimevu signals a change in its last statement with a series of 'gi de' strokes - Mi va (spoken as meezvahz) 'Everyone come' - and moves to 'ga de . ki . de . de . ga . gi de ki . .. de. de . ga,' representing Eduwo kel] mi va ne mia kp'Jwo, mi va ne (vocalized as ehz dooz woh3 kegn3 mee3 vahz nehz meeah3 kpwohz' mee3 vah2 nehz) or 'Everyone (the entire village) come to see them (the warriors, dancers, and musicans).' Kidi and sogo respond to the atsimevu phrase with four open tones reinforcing the word 'kp'Jwo' played as 'ki' on the lead drum. The four open strokes are followed by eight mutes. A final kp'Jwo, dugbadzi (sounded as kpwoh2, dool gbahl jeez)leads to another dialogue expressing a vigorous dance movement. Atsimevu speaks a series of 'dzi . dza . ' sounds representing the Eve Gbedzi (pronounced gbehzjee3), 'Our lives are their mission.' This is answered by a series of kidi and sogo open (coinciding with the atsimevu sound 'dzi') and mute (coinciding with atsimevu's 'dza') tone pairs that intensify the ensemble by creating a duple twelve- or six-beat feel within the timeline. This episode can be repeated as needed to invoke spirits.

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You can also adapt this Ago episode in a more literal manner, reflecting the tones of atsimeuu among snare and toms, kidi and sogo voices on bass drum, the gaI]kogui timeline on cymbal, and the axatse pulse as high hat foot strokes. For the final Gbedzi sequence, keep the alternating high tom and bass drum couplets to mirror the Adzohu Ago ensemble's intensity. Changing high hat foot strokes from dotted quarters to quarter notes, as in the video, brings a twelve-beat layer over the basic eight-beat Ago feel, similar to the texture ofaxatse variations. This is another intense sequence that works best in a solo or highenergy ensemble music.

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