Little Beach Rain

Hopes were high as the full moon swelled, but rain clouds had moved in and hung close over the site of the weekly drum/dance jam at Little Beach, Maui. I arrived just a little late, and it had already started to rain.  A few of the diehards were there, appearing uncertain whether to pack it in or gamely keep drumming in the drizzle.  I opened my umbrella instead of my drum bag, but after a few minutes the rain slacked off some, so I pulled out my djembe and played awhile.  Soon the sangban sat free so I sat cross-legged in the sand and briefly played one of the rhythms I'd practiced beforehand, Kuku.  The drums with synthetic heads held sway now in the mist; and next with a strong new lead from one of the doumbeks, I matched an impromptu pattern on the sangban:

O - x - O O - x O - x - x - x -

This groove went on for the standard twenty minutes or so, with some enthusiastic dancers keeping the energy high; and a few other beats followed, but when finally the rain fell harder and the dark descended, I called it a day and headed home.  Along the way that sangban pattern kept returning, and I heard it now extended, from a sixteen-beat bar in 4/4, to a two-bar pattern in 12/8:

O - x - O O - x O - O - >
O - x - O O - x M - x -

There was a funky djembe pattern still with me too from the beginning of the jam, a variant of Fula Fare:

P - g T P - P d g T G -

Putting this together with the new sangban rhythm, I realized, might make a good combination.  So I plugged these into my digital drum rhythm software, Percussion Studio, and the rest of the parts fell into place.  I call the resulting mix "Little Beach Rain."  Enjoy!