Ohonam Mu Nyi Nhanoa
The spirit of
a person is without boundaries.
BLOOD DRUM SPIRIT
African American jazz is an international music in its ability to
encompass elements of other traditions. Blood Drum Spirit is an
effort to adapt the deep structures of Asian, African, and Native American
traditions into the African American sound, a life force creating a space
for the gods to descend, a positive alternative for what we see as a
corrupt and parasitic status quo on plantation earth.
Over the
past centuries there have been political and cultural struggles which have
impacted the world's peoples, and our music is a non-verbal manifesto for
cultural and political self-determination, in opposition to the enslaving
uses of armies, technologies, exploitive economics and 'religion', by the
so called 'developed countries'.
This album crystallizes my work
over two decades in world music. I have researched, performed, and
recorded with master artists from China, Philippines, India, Indonesia,
the Caribbean, West Africa, African America, Ireland, and Native America;
most importantly, I have lived these musical traditions and through their
wisdom, come a little closer to what lies behind the music.
The
gongs of Javanese gamelan, the rhythmic vocables of South India, and the
drum-dance drama of Ghana bring us to another time and place. We use our
blood through the drum in us to touch spirits, and offer this to you.
WADSWORTH FALLS
A composition dedicated to the Native
American and African American cultures in their survival and transcendance
of external control. Our arrangement of bass lines, guitar sonorities, and
cymbal interplay comes from a sense of the green fields, ancient
mountains, and great trees of the North American woodlands.
The
main body of Wadsworth Falls celebrates the heritage and dynamism
of these peoples and is set in a driving four-four groove initiated by
drumset, sounding the dawuro bell and apentemma hand drum
rhythms from the Akom religious music of the Ashanti people of
Ghana.
An extended epilogue is inspired by African American life
in the United States, with the church as the center of the community. The
slow three-pulse heartbeat comes from my experiences in the Price Memorial
African Methodist Episcopal Church of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. SOLOS:
Kevin McNeal, guitar; Wes Brown, bass; David Bindman, tenor saxophone. c
1984 the Ashanti people of Ghana, royal hartigan.
DAGOMBA
A trio for saxophone, bass, and drums, inspired by the musical and
spiritual power of West African master drummers such as Freeman Kwadzo
Donkor and Abraham Kobena Adzenyah, and African American masters such as
Louis Armstrong, Chick Webb, Charlie Parker, Max Roach, John Coltrane,
Elvin Jones, and Edward Blackwell. I see this power as uniting on all
levels in the 21st century; in music, a meeting of the acoustic and
traditional areas of each culture.
My effort is to incorporate
the double-headed string-tension, hourglass-shaped drum, known as donno,
with the drumset in a meaningful way, by playing traditional rhythms on
the donno and bass drum, reflecting the conversation between donno
and the larger, deeper gongon drum found in the Bambaya
and Damba musics of the Dagomba people and the Bima
Frafra music of the Frafra people of northern Ghana. High hat
and the axatse gourd rattle elaborate each new underlying pulse feeling.
The donno-gongon conversation played between donno and
bass drum signals changes during the piece, a West African practice. Bass
and saxophone follow the drums' lead, developing over each new style. Wes
Brown's and David Bindman's work in West African drumming enables them to
respond to the rhythmic changes. SOLOS: royal hartigan, drum; David
Bindman, tenor saxophone; Wes Brown, bass. c 1993 the Dagomba and Frafra
peoples of Ghana, royal hartigan.
PILIPINAS SUITE
I lived and worked with the people in the Philippines for two years,
learning their values, speaking local languages, and taking part in their
activities. I came to appreciate and feel part of their way of life. I
dedicate this suite to the Philippine people and master artist Danongan
Kalanduyan.
SOLOG
A traditional kulintang
piece accompanied by bass, flute, and guitar. Kulintang is the
name given to both the indigenous gong and drum ensembles of the Southern
Philippines and the ensemble's leading melodic instrument, a suspended set
of eight or more kettle gongs played with mallets. Babandir is a
small gong which states a timeline. Dabakan is a carved wooden
drum found in Kulintang ensembles, while agung is a pair
of large deep gongs providing a timbral and rhythmic heartbeat. The kudyapi
is a boat-shaped lute of the southern Philippines.
I play the
solog melody on kulintang with bass drum outlining a dabakan
drum rhythm, while Kevin McNeal provides a repeating babandir
pattern adapted as sampled kudyapi sounds on guitar. Wes Brown
suggests an agung gong rhythm on bass, and David Bindman's retuned
flute accompanies the main melody.
PILIPINAS
This movement is inspired by the city sounds, smells, sights, and tastes
of Manila. Walking by markets, the plaza, restaurants, and movie houses in
the great city I experienced a strange excitement and calm at the same
time. Jazz was playing on radios and as a background for some Philippine
movies, one movie score with a vamp similar to the opening section of this
piece. A contrasting section moves from five-four time to a five-eight
feel.
SOLOG
The melody of the introduction
performed in the traditional instrumentation of a kulintang ensemble of
the Maranao people of the south Philippines. The melody is played
on the kulintang melodic gong chimes accompanied by a single small
babandir kettle gong stating the timeline. The deep agung gongs create an
interlocking foundation while the dabakan drum gives a rapid rhythmic
pulse.
The kulintang ensemble is a manifestation of precolonial
indigenous Philippine culture, and is included here to give direct meaning
to my work, as a symbol of Philippine resistance to external neo-colonial
influences. SOLOS: royal hartigan, kulintang; Wes Brown, bass; Kevin
McNeal, guitar; David Bindman, flute and tenor saxophone; royal hartigan,
overdubbed kulintang ensemble. c 1992 the Maranao people of the
Philippines, Danongan Kalanduyan, royal hartigan.
CARAVAN
I have arranged Juan Tizol's and Duke Ellington's composition in a fast
fifteen-eight meter to signify the survival and perseverance of oppressed
peoples in such diverse places Chile, Soweto, Nicaragua, Native America,
Northern Ireland, disenfranchised Amerika, and Haiti. This work is
dedicated to Salvador Allende, Nelson Mandela, Daniel Ortega, the Wounded
Knee resistance, Bobby Sands and the Irish resistance, Medgar Evers,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and countless unnamed others who have given their
lives for social justice. We make a musical analogy of their paths to a
North African caravan, and my use of hand and rim sounds on drumset is
based on North African hand drumming.
SOLOS: Kevin McNeal, guitar;
and David Bindman, clarinet.
c 1937 Duke Ellington and Juan Tizol.
Rhythmic arrangement, c 1972 royal hartigan.
TALA VADYAM
Tala Vadyam is a composition by the late Tanjore Ranganathan, a
master of the South Indian mrdangam drum. An introduction with
string drone out of time corresponding to the Indian alapana leads
to the theme and solos in an eleven beat tala (time cycle), sankirna
rupaka, played at the fastest pulse division. This cycle, maintained
for the rest of the piece, can also be heard in five-and one-half beats.
SOLOS: Brad Jones, bass; Michele Navazio, guitar; David Bindman, tenor
saxophone; royal hartigan, drum. c 1983 Tanjore Ranganathan.
Melodic
arrangement, c 1992 royal hartigan
APARTHEID USA SUITE
ADZOHU
This work, in three movements, expresses the
struggles of African people in the Americas. It begins with Adzohu,
a piece based on the Adzohu dance drumming of the Fon and
the Eve peoples of West Africa. Traditional Adzohu
songs speak about conflicts between land and water beings, symbolized by
the elephant and the crocodile. I chose Adzohu drum, bell, and
rattle rhythms from the Kadodo and Ago styles as the basis
for the first movement in order to portray the act of abduction, past and
present, of people and resources.
JUBA HANDCLAPS
Through camouflaged lyrics and satire in songs and plays the African
American captive community was able to survive despite the inhumane
practices of slaveholders. Captives from several plantations were gathered
together to eat the week's leftovers from the big house which had been
cooked into a porridge. While eating this 'food' from an animal trough,
the captives were expected to sing and dance for the entertainment of the
plantation owners. Juba songs and clapping plays were often a part
of these performances, a form of coded resistance. This dynamic continues
today in new forms.
RODNEY KING DRUMS
A drum
solo for Rodney King, who was beaten senseless by police in Los Angeles,
United States of Amerika, at the beginning of the last decade of the 20th
century. And for all the uncounted others.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
This blues is played in a fast seven-eight pulse and refers to the lyrics
of Juba, 'get over double trouble...' Today, now, here, more than
ever, in a time when private greed is jeopardizing the survival of our
planet, its peoples, and their cultures.
ADZOHU
SOLOS: Wes Brown, bass; Kevin McNeal, guitar; David Bindman, tenor
saxophone.
c 1993 the Fon and Eve peoples of
West Africa, royal hartigan.
RODNEY KING DRUMS
Drum solo, c 1993 royal hartigan.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
SOLOS: royal hartigan, drum; David Bindman, alto saxophone; Kevin McNeal,
guitar. c 1990 royal hartigan.
NAVAJO BLOOD/PONTOOSUC
WATERS/SPRINGSIDE LANDS
Wounded Knee, South Dakota, is a
place of great importance to Native Americans, as Chief Bigfoot of the
Lakota people confronted the U.S. Army in 1890 and armed
resistance against U.S. aggression reoccurred in 1973.
This
piece mourns the historical and continuing genocide against Native
Americans from the Eastern Woodlands through the Plains and Southwest into
Central and South America: the Aztec, Inca, and Maya.
Its theme is a Navajo song by Edward Lee Nate set over an
eleven-pulse whaleskin drum rhythm from the Inuit Eskimo of
Northern Canada. The rhythm is played on three rattles, singly and in
combination, to express the diverse Native American nation: a gourd
rattle, a wooden sistrum with metal jingles from the Yaqui People
of the Southwest, and a cowhorn rattle from the Iroquois People of
the Eastern Woodlands. Rattle and drum accents are derived from a practice
of the North American Plains peoples, whose drum accents signal the
dancers to dip low, in a style known as 'honoring the drum'. Here the drum
and rattle accents call the return of the theme. Pontoosuc Lake and
Springside Park are places of reflection near my home in the Berkshire
hills of western Massachusetts, where I first became aware of Native
American culture. This work is in honor of visionaries Black Elk, Crazy
Horse, Greylock, Tcumseh, Osceola, Geronimo, Red Jacket, Bigfoot, Sitting
Bull, and Red Cloud, and a response to the anti-immigrant hysteria in a
land whose only non-immigrants are confined to concentration camps called
reservations and ghettos.
SOLO: Kevin McNeal, guitar.
c 1992
Edward Lee Nate, the Inuit people of North America, royal hartigan.
Sources, David McAllester and Paul Hadzima.
TIE ME SUFRE
(TEAH MAY SUFRAY)
This piece expresses pain and passion from
the loss of loved ones in all our lives, with the hope of someday
reuniting with them.
Traditional supporting drum, bell, and rattle
rhythms from the Adowa funeral music of the Ashanti people
of Ghana are joined with a melody by David Bindman. First performed by the
Talking Drums ensemble with lyrics by Maxwell Akomeah Amoh, our
version is in a looser, more jazz oriented style.
During the guitar
solo the three-stroke high hat pattern - based on an Adowa ntrowa
rattle variation - creates another layer of time and allows the music to
be heard from more than one beat perspective, adding a new feel to the
drumset and ensemble.
SOLOS: David Bindman, tenor saxophone, and
Kevin McNeal, guitar.
c 1995, the Ashanti people of Ghana, David
Bindman.
Rhythmic arrangement, c 1991, royal hartigan.
PAPAGO-SAGUARO
SONG
I have adapted this solo flute melody of the Papago
and Saguaro peoples of the Southwest in an ensemble setting to
portray the harmony of Native American philosophy and lifeways with
nature. The guitar, bass, flute, and percussion (drums, cymbals, and
rattles) voices create lines together which parallel the weaving of
baskets, construction of a house, or interacting with the solitude and
peacefulness of the deep woodlands. It is set in a 23 pulse time cycle.
SOLOS: collective ensemble solo, David Bindman, flute; Kevin McNeal,
guitar; Wes Brown, bass; royal hartigan drums, cymbals, and rattles.
c 1992 the Papago and Saguaro peoples of North America,
royal hartigan.
EVE (EH VAY)
This work is
inspired by the music and dance of the Eve people of
southeastern Ghana, and is dedicated to master dancer and drummer Freeman
Kwadzo Donkor. It follows a West African musical practice, with changes
throughout cued by the drum - here drumset rather than a master drummer -
as opposed to a set chord progression, melody, or form. Its rhythms and
melodic themes are derived from Eve dance drama
repertoire.
The piece begins with drumset stating supporting
rhythms from the Agbekor warrior music - kidi on snare drum with
snares released, totodzi on floor tom, kloboto on bass
drum, and a kaganu variation on high hat. A short call brings in
the ensemble, whose A-B-A theme is a song melody from the Gadzo
warrior music. Drumset explodes the Gadzo support rhythms, with
the ganugbagba bell pattern on cymbal bell, and high-low donno
drum tones on high and low toms. A donno variation accompanies the
theme's 'B' section.
After the opening theme, drumset plays a
set of Gadzo kaganu drum variations with the bell pattern on
cymbal, as a call to the contrabass. Wes Brown's extended bass solo is
accompanied by the Gadzo bell pattern on snare rim, donno
on bass drum, and kaganu on high hat with stick. This is followed
by a series of supporting kidi, totodzi, and kloboto drum
rhythms from Agbekor, and gankogui double bell variations
from Hatsiatsia music, which signal the saxophone solo.
David Bindman begins alone and is joined by the ensemble in the intense
Gadzo twelve-eight groove. Following the saxophone solo drum
dialogues and rhythms from the Togo Atsia, Kpegisu, and Adzohu
musics cue Kevin McNeal's guitar solo, at first unaccompanied, and later
with the ensemble.
A final series of drum dialogues from Agbadza
music call the Gadzo melodic themes, accompanied by Gadzo
drum rhythms, and followed by a Coda on drumset mirroring the introductory
Agbekor rhythms.
My idea is to use the high hat in
different time feels - as one would play the axatse gourd rattle
in Eve music - in the opening theme, bass solo, saxophone
solo, and guitar solo, to provide another layer of time, and allow the
listener to hear the music from more than one beat perspective. This is an
important element of Ghanaian drumming, the ability to hear more than one
beat series in a rhythm or ensemble of rhythms, and it can be adapted to
the drumset in the African American tradition.
SOLOS: royal hartigan,
drum; Wes Brown, bass; David Bindman, tenor saxophone; Kevin McNeal,
guitar.
c 1993, the Eve people of Ghana, royal
hartigan.
 home
page |
|---|