by Ikhlasul Amal

Write-up by Jason Borisoff

Bringing Ivory Coast Drumming to America

by Jason Borisoff

I’ve been fascinated with rhythm as far back as I can bear in mind. I lately saw an old household video taken when I was two years old, tapping my spoon against the table among bites of Cheerios. It wasn’t until attending my initial drum circle many years later (and right after scores of annoyed grade school teachers), that I finally found a house for my incessant banging.

A strange and unexplainable sense of calm and entrancement can come more than you at the peak of a communal rhythm. You don’t have to speak with the stranger sitting next to you to get to know them everybody in the circle is communicating with rhythm. In that moment, every person is at total peace with every other.

“The drum circle, back house, represents unity,” says Biboti Ouikahilo in a deep voice inflected with his native French. “When you get in the circle, you make peace. Back property, it is very effective.”

“Back home” for Ouikahilo is Ivory Coast, a West African nation with rich rhythmic and dance traditions, which was colonized by France until 1960. Whilst the colonizers might have largely stripped Ivory Coast’s 60 ethnic groups of their native languages, their music traditions have been preserved. From his 17-year stint as a specialist musician and choreographer in Ivory Coast’s National Ballet touring dance and drumming group, which showcased every of the country’s ethnic groups, Ouikahilo became an professional in the musical traditions from his home nation.

Soon after the National Ballet dissolved in 1995, Ouikahilo made plans to share his extensive knowledge with the world. “I wanted to share what I learned from the National Ballet with people who could not know about it [these traditions], rather than stay at home,” he says. He relocated to New York City in 1997, working as a teacher and performer, and he even went on tour with Jimmy Buffet in 2000. But, in 2003, although performing for Syracuse University, he discovered his future home.

“I grew up in a big city, and when I came to the US, I lived in yet another big city,” Ouikahilo explains. “I did not feel that, being in New York City, the men and women were going to take to my message due to the fact there are a lot of drummers and dancers there. I was seeking for a quiet location, where individuals would listen.”

Last year, Ouikahilo and his wife, Jill, a Syracuse-native and African drum and dance professional, opened up their dream company, Wacheva Cultural Arts organization. And they couldn’t have chosen a better spot: Syracuse’s Westcott neighborhood, exactly where artists, students, and for want of a far better word, “options” congregate to form a wonderfully colorful and diverse section of town. If Ouikahilo was searching for a spot with open ears, he undoubtedly found it in the Westcott Nation.

1 night soon after function, I grabbed a digital recorder and my trusty djembe and created the walk to participate in one of Ouikahilo’s classes.

As it turned out, I did not want to bring a drum at all–Ouikahilo had an impressive collection of djembes, dun duns, and shakeres, set up and ready to go in one of Wacheva’s two dance studios.

Joining 3 of his standard students and Jill, we played a classic rhythm called kadama, which comes from Ouikahilo’s own ethnic group, the Guro people. “Kadama means ‘let’s try it’,” explains Ouikahilo.

According to legend, kadama was developed by the Guro men and women, who had been attempting to compose a ceremonial rhythm, except that no 1 would take the initiative. Finally, 1 individual had enough and took charge of the situation, conducting improvised rhythms to the group. Through trial and error, they arrived at kadama. The message is one of creation and initiation: the creation of the rhythm, becoming played together, symbolizes what 1 can do, both individually, and in contribution to a higher complete.

This was not the type of drum circle I was utilized to. In truth, Ouikahilo conducted from behind the dun dun, and the students were lined up facing him. It wasn’t technically a circle at all. Still, there was some thing really potent about this setting. As opposed to a free-form drum circle, every person in this group had a nicely-defined role to play, a distinct place to “sit” in the rhythm. If any one individual dropped out, the whole thing risked collapse.

At initial, this was a small unnerving to me, as I was playing a foreign instrument, the shakere, and playing a rhythm I had never heard before. Also, the rhythm became more complicated as every single new drum was introduced, generating me worry that I would shed myself in the mix. I speedily relaxed into my role, even so, and within a few minutes, it felt completely natural. I even started to expertise the exact same sense of calm and camaraderie with the other students that I had felt at drum circles.

“There is the physical benefit of playing the drum, and a real connection since you’re making use of your hands to play,” says Jesse Covell, a wireless engineer and 1 of Ouikahilo’s dedicated students. “There is also a spiritual connection when you get into the rhythm together. We’ve actually grown, all of us together.” Covell played drums and percussion throughout grade school, but never had the likelihood to discover standard African drumming until joining the class.

Lynne Fall, an workplace coordinator at Syracuse University, has also had a fascination with African drumming for a lengthy time, and enjoys taking component in the class each and every week. “I constantly employed to watch drum circles in Central Park, when I lived in New York City, and I was completely captivated” she says.

When Fall moved to Syracuse a few years ago, she experienced the exact same captivation when she watched Ouikahilo drumming with members of the community, which inspired her to discover to play. “He had non-Africans with him playing drums, and I mentioned to myself, ‘They had to learn how to play the drum. They didn’t learn it growing up!’”

She has been taking lessons for about a year, and Fall finds the classic aspect of this drumming style–connection via time–very appealing. “I actually like that it’s becoming done the same way these days that it’s been accomplished for generations,” she says. “The drums are created the very same, the rhythms are the exact same, and the sound is the identical. There’s nothing high-tech about it it’s very primal.”

“Rhythm is part of our culture,” Ouikahilo says of his house region. “When we are in the harvest, the drum is there when there is any ceremony, ritual, or wedding, the drum is there.”

This style of ritual drumming, accompanying traditional weddings, harvests, and funerals, has small to no relevance in our culture. Social drumming, in the form of the drum circle, however, does exist here, and it has significantly the identical objective as in Africa: to promote peace, unity, communal bonding, and often, altered states of consciousness.

In addition to teaching classic African drumming, Wacheva hosts totally free community drum circles led by Jill Ouikahilo. Getting studied conventional West African drumming and dance, she is excited to supply a much more free of charge-form style of drumming to the community. “The reason we’re performing this is to create far more vitality in the community, and it’s a excellent marriage to have standard African drum classes with the drum circle,” she says.

Appear about your town probabilities are there is a cultural ambassador close by. Exposing your self to music from other cultures gives you a glimpse into other approaches of life that are very diverse from your own. In understanding about other kinds of music, you gain a fresh perspective on the styles that you have heard and played your entire life.

I really enjoyed this taste of classic African drumming. Obviously, there is a lot to understand, but some of the positive aspects jumped out at me right away. As we had been leaving, Jesse and Lynn asked me enthusiastically, like we had recognized every single other much longer than the one-hour class, “You are coming back, correct?” The bonding energy of music never fails to amaze me.

Jason Borisoff dusted off his old djembe and remembered how relaxing it is to beat out rhythms.

In support of International Drum Month, Producing Music and Roland are promoting the a lot of advantages of drumming by giving away a no cost V-Drum Lite HD-1. No buy or obligation required, just pay a visit to http://www.makingmusicmag.com/contests/digital_drums/ to enter!

About the Author

Generating Music is a bimonthly magazine for adult amateur and recreational musicians.We publish articles on music theory, practicing and performing tactics, and the wellness and wellness rewards of playing a musical instrument. Our stories feature actual men and women who discover ways to fit music generating into their lives, and is intended for musicians of all playing abilities.

Related Drums Articles