The orchestras of Independence

In just over a month myself and Moussa will go into the studio in Bobo Dioulasso to record the album. Twelve original compositions have been chosen to record with a lineup including two pentatonic balafon, Guinéenne balafon, the gourd rattle called yabara, and the distinctive calabash drum bara dunun.  I'm hoping to add some drum kit to a song or two, but otherwise the recording will be completely folkloric, deeply rooted in the regional traditions of Burkina.

Having played drums since the age of 10 and trained as a big band jazz drummer, I remember when I first encountered African drum kit playing.  The syncopation and intonation made the familiar jazz drum set sound like a completely new instrument, and I resolved to learn this style of playing.  With guidance from Makhou N'diaye who has taught me about Senegalese mbalax, and Rise Kagona who has taught me about jit and chimurenga music from Zimbabwe, I have learnt a new musical language and vocabulary to express myself with behind the drums.

In West Africa, traditional instruments such as the balafon have been influencing the playing style of imported instruments such as the electric guitar since the early 1950's.  West African musicians began transposing and imitating sounds and the scales of instruments such as the kora and jeli n'goni onto the electric guitar, whilst rhythms traditionally played on the djembe, dunun and yabara were transposed onto the newly arrived drum kit.  A distinct West African style thus began to evolve pioneered by musicians belonging to the new state dance bands created at the dawn of independence.

The new groups were the result of  policies of `authenticité'  favoured by politicians in the newly independent Francophone countries, and encouraged the creation of state sponsored groups known as orchestre.  Groups such as Bembeya Jazz performed and adapted a repertoire which drew on the rich cultural heritage of jeliya and the music of the griot, whilst fusing it with Cuban music many had learnt to play from listening to radio.

The style of guitar playing which evolved in Guinea was influenced by the highly ornamented style of playing the diatonic balafon.  Guitarists imitate the runs and trills of the Guinéenne balafon as can be heard on this recording of Bembeya Jazz.

In contrast a guitar style evolved in Mali and Burkina Faso influenced by the pentatonic balafon,  characterised more by repeated riffs and ostinato, as can be heard in the 2nd part of this film of Mali's `Super Biton De Segou'.

                                                             Super Biton De Segou

Note: the driving rhythm played by the drummer on the hi-hat which imitates the yabara gourd shaker