Sunday, August 21, 2011

A Foray Into World Music



One of the hobbies I have adopted musically this summer, both for playing and listening, is world percussion. As a percussionist, world music has so much to offer including a plethora of diverse rhythms that can be adopted for fusion styles as well as a whole new catalog of instruments for experimentation and study.

My world music exploration began as a result of my love for the Grateful Dead. The Dead’s second drummer/extra percussionist, Mickey Hart, is a published musicologist and has become quite connected to the “World Beat” scene. After hearing his use of interesting percussion instruments in ‘dead’ jams as well as his work with Bill Kreutzmann on the Apocalypse Now soundtrack, I decided I wanted to look more into world percussion---or at the very least its use in fusion styles.

Having forged solid relationships with many of the world's best percussionists through study, Hart decided to produce several albums employing the skills of his teachers. The first major release of this concept was “Planet Drum” in 1991, and in 2007 Hart released “The Global Drum Project”, widely considered his second major album. To clarify, Heart released world music oriented albums with many of the same musicians before and between “Planet Drum” and “The Global Drum Project”, but those two were the most ambitious projects (Planet Drum won a Grammy for best world music album in 1991).

These albums are a good introduction to world percussion, but not outstanding compared to the works of individual percussionists. “Planet Drum” focuses on combining the percussion styles of various countries to create a global sound, while “The Global Drum Project” focuses more on roughly replicating the percussion traditions of various cultures---but for some reason it contains more electronic samples than the first.

Neither of the albums offer a technically complicated group of works. Instead they focus on building thick grooves and layering on dreamy ambience as well as insistent chance to provide the listener with an auditory journey rather than a musical masterpiece. The albums are enjoyable, but they sound a bit too commercial for me. The heavy presence of a drum set on some tracks is a downside; in percussion music it is generally good to have the drum set to maintain a central groove, but the kit (presumably played by Hart) is way too prominent in the mix.

Nevertheless, I would still recommend these albums if you don’t want to jump into world percussion too quickly. They---as well as many of Hart’s other albums---contain solid playing from magnificent musicians such as the Indian Tabla player, Zakir Hussain; the Puerto Rican congero Giovanni Hidalgo; the Nigerian talking drum player, Sikiru Adepoju; as well as another Nigerian master drummer, Babatunde Olatunji. The two percussionists I want to briefly expand upon are Hussain and Olatunji.

Zakir Hussain has quickly become one of my favorite percussionists of all time. He is a rhythmic and tamboral genius; hearing him play tabla is an essential experience for all musicians, especially percussionists. He is adept in all the major skills: speed, time, feel, tonality, harmony, and musicality. Moreover, he loves to play and his inner energy is apparent in his playing.

A good way to introduce yourself to Zakir is to hear him play with American musicians. Check out “The Melody of Rhythm”, a triple concerto Hussain performs with outrageously versatile bassist Edgar Meyer and the prolific banjo player Bela Fleck accompanied by the Detroit Symphony. The CD also includes several songs performed by the trio exclusively, which I find even more exciting than the moving concerto.

Check out this sample!

Also highly recommended, and on an equal level in terms of high quality musicianship with the added bonus of improvisation, is Hussain’s work on multireedist Charles Lloyd’s live album “Sangam” with the impressive and grooving modern jazz drummer Eric Harland. The music is both powerful and ethereal and Hussain’s full ability shines in a less restricted setting.

Check out a track now.

For those interested in African polyrhythms, check out some of Babatunde Olatunji’s albums. His first album, “Drums of Passion” is a raw energetic experience. A massive percussion ensemble lays down infectious grooves while an equally large vocal ensemble chants and sings, certainly bringing me to my feet at points. For a smaller group recording (relatively speaking) more concentrated on rhythmic complexity, go grab “Circle of Drums” and for more of an Americanized pop feel, try “Love Drum Talk.” The former is a percussionists dream with various instruments exploring permeations of different grooves as well as rapid tempo and time modulations while the latter is far more relaxed with beautiful acoustic guitars, a good album to bring yourself some peace.


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