just curious,any real djembe players here?

[maskedman72]

im not talking about people who play a guitar center or ghana djembe here and there, i am talking about people who live the djembe and play in the vein of mail and guinea. who are players you like? moussa treore and madou are the shit! what type of wood are your drums?

[Rimshot]

Yeah. Somebody like me.
I've played wih Madou Dembele (I assume that's who you mean) When he was livng here in NY. He lives in Idaho last I heard. He's a great guy and we became fast friends.
Moussa Traore is living on the west coast and I've never met him. I've had the opportunity to study a bit with Mamady Keita and Ladji Camara and I've taken workshops with Famoudou Konate, Laurent Camara, Yaya Diallo, Benge Bangora and many others. I teach tradtional West Africa drumming at a dance academy and I play lead djembe for the West African company's performances and classes along wth the most incredible dunnun player you've ever heard (a young woman that also happens to play the bass in my jazz combo, and she's killer on that too!) We play most of the standard Malinke rhythms and we have performances where the dances are researched and performed using parts of the traditional "choreography".
I own several djembes. My favorite one was carved in Cote' Ivoire and is made of Iroko wood. I have a Guinean djembe carved from Khari wood (Bala) and a Mali djembe made of linge wood. I make some extra money restoring and re-heading drums. I normally buy about 10 full goatskins a month, 1000 feet of rope and quite a number of rings (or I'll weld those myself)
Yeah, I'm pretty much into it. But I also pay Middle-Eastern Rhythms on doumbek and zarb, and of course I play drum kit for jazz and some rock.

[maskedman72]

rimshot-now thats what im talking about! shit ,i wish we didnt live so far apart! i went to the starwood fest and saw 2 of the sickest players, one was sikeou keita from backa beyond and the other was this jamicain guy named eeasy from ny. moussa is the best ive heard. i buy all of my drums from a guy in nyc (mike markus)that has a performance group called magbana.(www.magbana.com). i have a drum made of khadi and one made of lenge and they sound amazing. youve played with madou? he is great! do you have mousa'a cd called mali foli? you can get it at www.talkingdrumrecords.com it is awesome! he was also in a group called the bomani drummers and i cant find the cd anywhere. i have heard it and it shreads.

[Rimshot]

Originally posted by maskedman72
rimshot-now thats what im talking about! shit ,i wish we didnt live so far apart! i went to the starwood fest and saw 2 of the sickest players, one was sikeou keita from backa beyond and the other was this jamicain guy named eeasy from ny. moussa is the best ive heard. i buy all of my drums from a guy in nyc (mike markus)that has a performance group called magbana.(www.magbana.com). i have a drum made of khadi and one made of lenge and they sound amazing. youve played with madou? he is great! do you have mousa'a cd called mali foli? you can get it at www.talkingdrumrecords.com it is awesome! he was also in a group called the bomani drummers and i cant find the cd anywhere. i have heard it and it shreads.

Hi Maskedman,
Yeah, I've heard the Moussa cd. It's available on his site as well as a few other places, he's great.Fortunately for us all here in the States, many of the great djembefolas live here now and share their knowledge. If you are not familiar with Mamady Keita's work, you must give him a listen. He is the grandmaster of grandmasters. This isn't just my opinion, but it's a distinction given to him by other grand masters. There are only currently five(5) living in the world today.
Are you familiar with African Rhythm Traders? www.africanrhythmtraders.com
They are an American business based in the Northwest and they are a reputable source for purchasing recordings, skins, rope, rings, etc.
I know Michael Marcus and he has a good following and a good group of people around him. I deal directly with the West Africans living here in NY and usually buy djembe and dunnun shells directly from them and head them myself. I head and tune my djembes(Jimbes, Yembes, Sangbanyes) very high and sharp (think like Madou's djembes) and I cannot usually play with most of the "American style" djembe players who tune their drums very low and dead. (I think it's the fault of all the "Deadhead" types at the drum circles). I prefer playing with the West Africans.
There is one great djembe player that I know of that lives in your part of the country and that is Mor Thiam. He used to be the the drum master for "Les Ballet Nacionale de Senegal" and I know that he lived in Detroit and also in Chicago (I'm not sure which city is his primary residence). He definitely has some serious chops.
There's a recording of me playing djembe on Richard Monroe's recent cd, "Reunions". It is on his cover of Gershwin's "Summertime" (very creatively arranged) and I'm providing the pulse with a traditional djembe pattern (It's actually a common pattern used as the top line for "Morabyassa", "Djole" and the Wassalon version of "Soboninkun"). It's rather simple playing as that's all the music called for, but you can get an idea of my djembe tone even though it was heavily EQ'ed to tone it down.
Both Famoudou Konate and Mamady Keita have "realbooks" out on the arrangements and traditional patterns of Malinke music. These are available through African Rhythm Traders.
Good luck to you. It's a plesure to find some one else as interested in this great music.
-Jeff

[maskedman72]

man,you hit the nail on the head talking about the "deadhead" djembe players. i tune my djembe like moussa also,very high,really cranked down. i love that super high pitch metallic ring a djembe gets when tuned right. sadly there arent but 2 players here that know how to play good and tune there drum right so i am stuck playing in those"deadhead" drum circles. everyone trips out when i start playing cause my drum sounds so much better and it cuts right through them so much. people give you attitude about that shit around here. its funny. i wish i could play with some west africians. i dream of going there with mike marcus someday. ive never taken any djembe lessons. i have had some amazing players tell me that with some lessons i would be a monster. no lessons are available here though. i knew that not many people would reply to this thread,we are a rare breed.