Maui Supermoon

The djembe will make you suffer, but it can show you the way to obtain knowledge of nature. ... You have to always play the djembe to get a new spirit. --Alpha Oulare

The djembe offers great rewards playing with a group, and for dancers, but also solo - which is not really solo, if you are joined by the waves and the trees, the accompanying sounds and breezes, and occasional passerby offering a smile. 

One of my favorite places to play in Maui is the uncrowded beach stretching away from North Kihei, though often the location can be windy. March 2011 was the time of a "Supermoon," with the moon unusually close and large. Following a lovely day drumming on the beach I caught some shots of the rising moon from Maui Meadows.

View video slideshow: Maui Supermoon

Enjoy the sights and sounds from a magical time and place, and may it inspire you to find such moments live.

Bali and South India drum groups

Here's a followup to my recent blog entries on travels in Bali and India: links to two YouTube videos with footage I shot of local traditional drumming groups.

The Bali group, part of a ceremony on a tiny island offshore from Candidasa, reminded me of Masala, with gamelan-style sounds on the move, from brass gongs and dunun-type bass drums.

The India group put out big sounds like a full band, from just two or three drummers, playing with sticks on a bass drum and a high-end frame drum. From a distance it sounded like a dozen dununs and snares or sabars; up close we were treated also to dancers keeping rhythm with sticks. For West African drum buffs, note the driving 6/8 rhythms punctuated by sangban-style breaks across the time. Later some bystanders came up and explained that this was traditional music and dance of the Dalit people, considered "Untouchables" in the past in South India, but now celebrating a revival of proud identity.

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!