Congo Square, New Orleans

This past weekend I made a trip to New Orleans for my work in peace and justice. One place that I have written about in my blog (http://drummingforpeace.blogspot.com/2009/02/african-drumming-in-early-colonial.html) and wanted to make sure I visited was Congo Square in Louis Armstrong Park.

Since hurricane Katrina the gates to the park have been locked except for special occasions. I was lucky to find the gates open in preparation for an event the next day. There is not much to see but a historical marker, trees, and bricked open space. But, the place is sacred ground for African Americans, as it was for Houma Indians who used the space for their annual corn harvest. By 1803 the space was used by enslaved Africans and free people of color to drum, dance, sing, and trade on Sunday afternoons, a day slaves had off from labor. By 1819 500-600 people gathered in Congo Square. Drumming, dancing, and other African traditions found a place to be expressed. This sacred space was, in some ways, the seed bed of mardi gras traditions, rhythm and blues, jazz, and the 2nd line (upbeat dixieland jazz played on return from the cemetery). It can only be ignorance of the historical and sacred significance of this place or pure greed that caused some city officials to once propose that Congo Square be turned into an amusement park!

*Wynton Marsalis, jazz trumpet player from New Orleans, wrote a tribute to New Orleans entitled Congo Square, in collaboration with the Lincoln Jazz orchestra and African master drummer Yacub Addy (http://www.amazon.com/Congo-Square-Wynton-Marsalis-Orchestra/dp/B0010S6EUG)and was performed in Congo Square April 23, 2006. I have seen this concert on PBS and highly recommend it.

Drums Beat Deep: a poem by Leo Hartshorn

Lovers O lovers, lovers it is time to set out from the world. I hear a drum in my soul's ear coming from the depths of the stars.

The drum of the realization of the promise is beating, we are sweeping the road to the sky. Your joy is here today, what remains for tomorrow?---Sufi mystic Jalaluddin Rumi


Drums beat deep
in the dance of the cosmos
the rhythm of the universe
in the gyration of the galaxies
in the pulse of the planets
in the staccato of the stars

Drums beat deep
in the dance of the soul
the salsa of the spirit
in the the hammering of hope
in the playfulness of promise
in the flourishing of faith

Drums beat deep
in the spinning of the planet
the samba of the seasons
in the splash of sunrise
in the shout of spring
in the whisper of winter

Drums beat deep
in the ears of the soul
dancing spirits skyward

Irish bodhran playing for St Patrick's Day

For St. Patrick's Day I offer two video clips of traditional Irish bodhran playing. The bodhran is an Irish frame drum. The goatskin head is tacked to a cylindrical wood frame and may or may not have one or two cross bars in the back.

The "top end style" (shown in the videos) is played with a smaller, deeper bodhran with a straight tipper played on the top end and the pitch changed with hand maipulation on the inside of the head.

The bodhran (pronounced bow-rawn)is the pulse of Irish music. Although a centuries old instrument---Some say it originated as a Celtic war drum---the bodhran was only introduced into traditional music in the '60's through the music of Sean O Riada and others and further popularized by groups like the Chieftains.

For wealth of information on the bodhran go to: http://www.ceolas.org/instruments/bodhran/

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Babatunde Olatunji: Master Nigerian Drummer (1927-2003)

I am the drum, you are the drum, and we are the drum. Because the whole world revolves in rhythm, and rhythm is the soul of life, for everything that we do in life is in rhythm. -- Babatunde Olatunji


Michael Babatunde Olatunji was born in 1927 in Ajido, Nigeria among the Yorubu people. He came to the U.S. in 1950 to study at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. After Morehouse he went on the New York University. There he started a drum and dance troupe with some other African Americans to earn money for school.

In 1958 he landed a job with Radio Music City Hall doing a piece called "African Fantasy." The next year he got a recording contract with Columbia Records and released his groundbreaking album Drums of Passion. This album was a rare presentation of African culture and World Music to the American people in the 50's. It sold over 5 million copies. Carlos Santana would later popularize one of Baba's songs from that album---Jin-go-lo-ba. From that point on he was playing on the same bill with well known jazz musicians, like John Coltrane and Art Blakely, and performed at the New York World's Fair in 1964.

Baba opened the Olatuniji Center of African Culture in Harlem. As a teacher of drumming Baba invented a method of teaching drum patterns known as Gun-Dun-Go-Do-Pa-Ta. and popularized the Liberian welcoming rhythm Fanga. He would become a teacher of many students, like Arthur Hull, and spawned a worldwide interest in drumming and the drum circle movement.

In 1985 his career and influence expanded even further when he met Mickey Hart, drummer for the Grateful Dead, and opened for them at a New Year's Eve concert in Oakland, California. In 1991 Baba collaborated with Hart on the Grammy awarded Planet Drum. Baba played and recorded with countless musicians and had among his fans John Coltrane, Yusef Lateef, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones, Taj Mahal, John Hammond (who produced his first album) and Pete Seeger, to name but a few.

Baba was politically progressive and known to give impassioned speeches on social justice and lent his drumming to gatherings for peace. Baba performed close to 100 times for the NAACP and 50 times for the Congress of Racial Equality, as well as for the United Jewish Appeal and Malcolm X. He toured the South with Martin Luther King, Jr. and joined his march on Washington in 1963. Peace activist Joan Baez wrote the foreward to his autobiography, The Beat of My Drum.

In his later years Baba taught at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, while he battled diabetes. On April 6, 2003, a day before his 76th birthday, Baba died at the Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital. His amazing influence lives on in his myriad of students and admirers.

* The above scratchboard drawing is my tribute to the artistry and influence of Babatunde Olatunji. May he rest in peace.

A video of Babatunde Olatunji:

The War Drum: a short history of drumming for death

Although the universe pulses with the rhyhm of life, there also exists a dirge of death and destruction. The drumbeat of war and violence is as ancient as the rhythm of life. You have heard the expression “The drums of war are beating” haven’t you? I heard it and saw it in print often before the invasion of Iraq. It always seems to be drums beating which metaphorically precede human engagement in warfare. We don’t hear reporters saying “The war flutes are tooting,” or “The war bassoons are bellowing.” It’s always the war drums are beating! The metaphor of war drums beating has a long and shameful history. The reason is because drums have long been associated with war. In many cultures the power of beating drums has been harnessed to excite and incite humans for battle.

Kettledrums, the precursor of the orchestral tympani, were originally played by the Mongols on mounted horses. Their thunder was used on the battlefield to exhort troops and relay commands. In 1085 C.E. the Moors used African drummers in exotic costumes to play kettledrums to prepare for battle. The tradition of using Africans for war drumming continued until the 18th century.

Among the Zulu of Africa the shield was once the principal drum struck in battle songs. In some cultures the drum was decorated with the skulls or remains of their enemy in warfare as a sign of the utter degradation of the victim. One of the most gruesome practices was to make a drum from the skins of the enemy.

The Chinese drum has been an essential instrument in “drumming up” war. In The Book of War instructions are given on the use of the drum in military warmaking:

At one beat of the drum the ranks are put to in order; at two beats of the drum, formation will be made; at three beats of the drum, food will be issued; at four beats of the drum, the men will prepare to march; at five beats of the drum, ranks will be formed; when the drums beat together, then the standards will be raised.

The drum was then carried with the flag on the commanding chariot with its position in battle deciding the movement and fate of the army.

Marching drums have their roots in the military and war. What is known as the “side drum,” the early marching drum, was extolled as an instrument of war. Francis Markham in Five Decades and Epistles of War (1622) says,

It is the voice of the Drumme the soldier should wholly attend…the Drumme being the very tongue and voice of the Commander…If he beat a retreat when commanded to Charge, or to beat a Charge when men are to retire, the army might perish by the action. The soldier must be diligent and learn all the beating of the Drumme and the Drumme make plain the alteration of notes, and how they differ in their significations.

British, and later colonial American, troops used the fife and side drum to signal for battle and encourage the troops in warfare. The standard rudiments of the marching drum, which most drummers learn in school band, have their roots in the drums signals used as commands for military troops engaged in warfare. Drummers had a privileged place on the battlefield. When the technology of warfare allowed for soldiers to fire at will, the drum was silenced on the battlefield. It became part of the pomp and parade of modern armies as they continued to march to the beat of the military drum. The history of the drum has been pounded through and through with the sound of the war drum.

What I Will: a poem by Suheir Hammad

I will not
dance to your war
drum. I will
not lend my soul nor
my bones to your war
drum. I will
not dance to your
beating. I know that beat.
It is lifeless. I know
intimately that skin
you are hitting. It
was alive once
hunted stolen
stretched. I will
not dance to your drummed
up war. I will not pop
spin beak for you. I
will not hate for you or
even hate you. I will
not kill for you. Especially
I will not die
for you. I will not mourn
the dead with murder nor
suicide. I will not side
with you nor dance to bombs
because everyone else is
dancing. Everyone can be
wrong. Life is a right not
collateral or casual. I
will not forget where
I come from. I
will craft my own drum. Gather my beloved
near and our chanting
will be dancing. Our
humming will be drumming. I
will not be played. I
will not lend my name
nor my rhythm to your
beat. I will dance
and resist and dance and
persist and dance. This heartbeat is louder than
death. Your war drum ain't
louder than this breath.

--- Suheir Hammad, a Palestinian-American poet and political activist

Street Bucket Drumming: Urban Rhythms

In our Drumming for Peace programs we use 5 gallon buckets to teach peace principles through drumming, rhythm and storytelling. The buckets are not only cheap and convenient (I have people collect them for my programs across the U.S. and I bring the sticks), they are a reminder of the creativity and rhythm of urban youth, who often play on these buckets.

This video is a good example of street bucket drumming, which inspired DFP's use of buckets.

Father and Son playing tablas together: Ustad Alla Rakha and Zakir Hussain

Ustad Alla Rakha is considered the master tabla player of the 20th century (1919-2000), who popularized the instrument. He played both Carnatic (south Indian traditional) and Hindustani (north Indian traditional) music and was chief player for Ravi Shankar in the 1960's.

Zakir Hussain is the son of Ustad and now considered the world's best tabla player. Zakir was touring at the age of twelve. He is a key figure in the formation of contemporary World Music. Most recently he won a Grammy recently (Feb. 2009) for his collaborative endeavor with Mickey Hart Global Drum Project

In this video father and son, both tabla masters, play together.

In the beginning: retelling the Hebrew creation story with drumming soundscape

In the Sacred Drumming courses and workshops I teach I use stories from various cultures to connect drumming to the Sacred. With some stories I encourage students to listen to the words and moods and at appropriate times to create sounds upon a variety of percussion instruments, which I bring along, that reflect the "soundscape" of the story. As the leader I give some guidance to the soundscape that is being created (note parenthetical remarks). The following is my retelling of the Hebrew creation story from Genesis that has elements of a Sufi version of the creation story.


In the beginning there was a void, a silence…
And darkness covered the face of the deep.
A wind from God swept over the churning waters (wind sounds)
God’s Spirit, the divine Breath, breathed out into the void
as an Originating Word,
A Primal Sound, a Primordial Vibration (drum roll with dynamics)

Then God brought order to the primeval Chaos
Bringing into being a rhythm to matter
God said, “Let there be light!”
and light flooded the void
like a cymbal crash
dividing darkness from light.
And it was good.
That was the first day. (One loud beat)

God said,”Let there be waters.”
And the waters were divided
Creating the dome of sky.
And it was good.
That was the second day. (two loud beats)

God said, “Let there land.”
And the waters crashed and foamed.
Volcanoes erupted and spilled out hot magma,
The waters hissed and cooled the molten lava
And land jutted out of the watters.
Then, a sacred silence filled the earth.
God said, “Let there be seeds, vegetation, and fruit
In abundance.
The seeds cracked through the soil
Trees stretched their arms to the skies
and roots into the ground.
Fruit popped from the branches.
Wind blew the tall stocks of grain.
Rain fell on the dry plains.
And it was good.
That was the third day (three loud beats)

God said, “Let there be sun and moon,
To light the day and night,
Let there be stars and swirling planets
Spinning to a divine rhythm
And it was good.
That was the fourth day. (Four loud beats)

God said, “Let the earth be filled with creatures.”
And there were stomping elephants,
Splashing whales,
chirping sparrows,
Screeching monkeys,
Lumbering hippos,
And all kinds of creatures
Creating a cacophony of sound.
God said, “Be fruitful and multiply.”
And it was good.
That was the fifth day (five loud beats)

Then, after all creating the universe
And the sounds and rhythms of life
Within it
God listened to the motion of the planets,
The sounds of the waters and wind
The cacophony of creatures,
All the divine rhythms of creation
In syncopation.
Then God blew into the lungs of the first human
The Breathe, the Spirit of Life.
God made the human creature’s heart
To beat in rhythm with creation
With a thump-thump, thump-thump(heart beat rhythm)
The Human One’s soul was in synchronization
With the pulse of creation.
The Human One jubilantly sang aloud the praises of God (upbeat rhythm)
And it was good.
That was the sixth day (six loud beats).

And on the seventh day God rested.
and there was silence....
God created a rhythm for work and rest.
Six days for the noise of labor (six beats)
And one day of rest (silence)
Repeat phrase and play beats- six days of labor/one day of rest (7 beat rhythm, accelerate, then end rhythm)
And the rhythm of creation was good.

Ganesh Kumar: Master kanjira player

The kanjira is a small South Indian frame drum with a lizard skin head and a big sound. It is played with Carnatic or classic Indian music and supported with other percussion instruments, like the mridangam. The kanjira is played with only one hand and requires great technical skill in playing. The deep bass tones are achieved through wetting the head and stretching it with the left hand when played with the right hand.

Ganesh Kumar was taught by Master Sri T.H. Subash Chandran. He has performed with all the leading musicians in India and in the U.S. with artists like Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Kumar received the “Fulbright Fellowship” in performing arts in the year 2000-2001 sponsored by the State Department, USA.