Fusing My Life with Brazilian and Mediterranean Rhythms
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LAYNE Fusing My Life With REDMOND WORLD WORKSHOP FRIDAY Brazilian and 9:00 A.M. Mediterranean Rhythms By Layne Redmond hen I took my first tambourine com/watch?v=DrtK7gkE2Zg&feature=chan lesson from Glen Velez in 1981, nel_page.] Playing with Zohar was an amaz- there were only a few people in ing experience; he is a one-person fusion of Wthe U.S. who had discovered the almost every existing frame drum technique extraordinary depth and beauty of the various in the world and one of the most generous frame drumming styles existing around the and supportive percussionists I have ever world. Since then, all has changed as we have played with. Out of the excitement and witnessed the renaissance of traditional frame inspiration generated from this event, we drum styles and the widespread fusion of these began a new recording project, Invok- techniques from different cultures. Today, it’s ing Aphrodite, using ancient Greek texts not uncommon to see these new styles utilized chanted by the women drummers of Cy- in early music, contemporary classical music, prus. We recorded two of the oldest sur- pop, jazz, and world music. viving notated musical compositions, “The Since the turn of the millennium, my per- Hymn to the Muse,” written by Mesomedes sonal focus has been on creating a fusion of of Crete in 147 CE, and “The Epitaph of what inspires me from Mediterranean and Seikilos,” engraved on a tombstone around 300 Brazilian rhythmic traditions. For the past five BCE, and we set other ancient hymns to new years I have had an apartment in Salvador, in compositions created for the project. Most of the state of Bahia in Brazil. Here in this magi- the musical tracks were recorded in Salvador cal city I have been a volunteer teacher at the while the women of Cyprus chanted the an- named Hany Bedair, who was extremely gener- percussion department at UFBA, the federal cient Greek in a studio in Cyprus, and through ous and allowed me to videotape him playing university, and also at the music school Escola the magic of the Internet we downloaded it many of the local rhythms on riq, the Arabic Pracatum in Candeal, founded by the amazing into our studio in Brazil. tambourine. Hany introduced me to Rania percussionist/pop star Carlinhos Brown, who In the spring of 2007, I was invited to teach Taher Ibrahim, a young Egyptian rig player was born in this poor but very special neighbor- at Tamburi Mundi, a frame drum festival in who also kindly allowed me to film her [www. hood. Sicily. For a week we were all immersed in youtube.com/watch?v=Hwox0T3613Y&feature I’ve also been traveling to the Greek side of traditional and evolving south Italian and Sicil- =channel_page]. the Mediterranean island of Cyprus to teach a ian frame drumming, and it was particularly Mizo Mohamed Gamal, a young godson of group of dedicated students to play the frame thrilling to see the young group TrizziRiDonna the late, great Nubian musician Hamza El Din, drum. The indigenous tradition of frame drum- fusing dance, chanting, and frame drumming. was another percussionist I was fortunate to ming in the Greek Cypriot area appears to have [View a TrizziRiDonna video at www.myspace. meet through Fredrik. I was particularly struck died out in the latter half of the 20th century, com/trizziridonna.] by the similarity in feel between what Mizo yet the archaeological record shows that from There I also filmed Birjan Chimirani’s work- played and what I was experiencing in Brazil c.1200 BCE until approximately 500 CE, the shop on Persian frame drums, where I learned [www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A2sUqgb0d4&fe women of ancient Cyprus were renown frame some inspiring new rhythms. Afterwards I ature=channel_page]. drummers. After finding my book, When the went on to Egypt to visit Swedish percussionist And now on to Brazil, where I am happy to Drummers Were Women, which includes a chap- Fredrik Gille in Cairo, where he was studying testify that Brazilians have good reason to call ter on these ancient drummers, a group formed Arabic and playing with the local musicians. Salvador, a tropical city blessed by the spirit of to bring me there to teach workshops. A band Fredrik has also created an extremely interest- Africa, “The Land of Happiness”! Time maga- of serious students have continued their studies ing and unique fusion of frame drumming zine describes Salvador as “the New Orleans of with master percussionist Zohar Fresco, who techniques. [Check out his technique on a Brazil,” for the capital city of Bahia has given travels from Israel several times a year to ex- hybrid kanjira: www.youtube.com/watch?v=G birth to many of the greatest stars in Brazil- pand their studies. sm9gudI2Vo&feature=channel_page] He ar- ian music—Joao Gilberto, Dorival Caymmi, In 2007, I joined Zohar with the core group ranged for me to see a powerful presentation of Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Ma- of these drummers for a concert attended by a traditional pre-Islamic healing ritual, called ria Bethania, Tom Zé, Carlinhos Brown, and the ambassador from Israel and officials from a Zar, in which women played tars, a medium- Olodum among many others. Salvador was the the Cypriot Culture of Ministry. [You can view sized frame drum without jingles. Fredrik also first capital of colonial Brazil, and from 1500 to a rehearsal with Zohar and me at www.youtube. introduced me to a young Arabic percussionist 1815, Salvador was the largest and most impor- PERCUSSIVE NOTES 52 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2009 tant port in the Americas. The sugar produced sion ensemble of agogo bell and three sizes of many of the younger musicians in Salvador. I from the plantation system sustained by Afri- atabaque drums. The atabaque is the Brazilian couldn’t have found a better way to make a can and indigenous slave labor in the northeast version of the conga, and three sizes are used in place for myself in the city. Many of the finest and the gold and diamonds from the mines in the rituals: the smallest and highest pitched is percussion players from the most famous blocos the southeast all passed through Salvador. the Le; the largest and deepest sounding solo like Olodum and Ile Aye have connected to the drum is the Rum; and the Rumpi is the medi- percussion department through the program More powerfully than any other place in the um sized and pitched drum. From the roots of The Multipliers, created by Jorge Sacramento, world, Bahia provided a fertile space for the candomblé these powerful trance rhythms gave the head professor of the percussion depart- ethnic diversity of African origin to merge with birth to samba and are certainly a deep source ment. The purpose of this program is to teach other influences and to forge a rich and authen- continually feeding the new music, dance, and these players to read notated music by having tic cultural ethos. Here the fusion of the Africas art flowing out of Salvador. [Video of a tradi- them study the notated rhythms from their took place, giving birth to a unique identity, tional candomblé dance class: www.youtube. own bands. Jorge has focused the percussion one that is present in a smaller or larger scale com/watch?v=i6acWOMTrts&feature=channel department on an extremely powerful blend of throughout the whole of Brazil. In the realm _page.] classical western music and the folkloric tradi- of music this is what gave rise to the birth of Bahia is also the birthplace of samba, the tions of Bahia, plus music that fuses these two samba and all the variety of Brazilian percussion music most non-Brazilians think of when they traditions. He also puts on a fantastic three-day instruments. think of Brazilian music. The samba bateria, the percussion festival every November. [My per- —Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos percussion ensemble, typically includes surdos cussion ensemble at the UFBA Percussion Fes- (bass drum), caixas (snare drum), repiniques tival, Nov. 28, 2006: www.youtube.com/ Bahia is a musical matrix defined by rhythm (high-pitched double-headed drum, played watch?v=Abg8A-VI6Wg&feature=channel_ and luscious melody, busily absorbing and with a stick by one hand while the other hand page.] transmuting musical traditions from all over the plays directly on the skin), pratos (cymbals), Out of my classes at UFBA I developed a planet and stamping this new fusion with a tambourims (four-inch frame drum played with core group of dedicated students of the frame sound all its own. At the core of this world jam a stick), cuicas (friction drum), reco-recos (met- drum who were also interested in combining are the primordial rhythms of Africa. It is a tri- alic scraper), and my favorites, the agogo bells their traditional percussion with what I was do- umph of the human spirit that the experience and the pandeiro, the Brazilian tambourine. ing on the tambourine [class at UFBA http:// of slavery gave birth to rhythms and chants [Video of the guys in my band playing samba: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AC6Ycg6F14&fe whose essence enabled people to survive www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS63pVseRhA&N ature=channel_page]. Through the drummers I through generations of slavery followed by R=1] met Tadeu Mascarenhas, a young recording en- abandonment to poverty. These rhythms, pre- Through volunteer teaching at the percussion gineer, producer, and wonderful keyboard play- served in the candomblé terreiros and the joy- department at UFBA, I made connections to er, who has become my invaluable co-producer ous samba de roda (circle dances), uplift, transcend, and transport participants into an el- evated sense of well being that comes from be- ing conscious only of keeping in ecstatic time with everyone else.