Echoes of West Africa rumble through Bath
Saturday, 14 April 2007 00:00
Bath, ME
The sound of a West African drum ensemble isn't native to these parts.
But to call it "foreign" brings the connotation of distance and separation between West African villagers and people like Bath residents Eric and Barbara vanBok.
Interestingly, it is with folks like the vanBoks that West African drum legend Famoudou Konate sees the future of his art, which is several hundred years old.
"He once said, 'If by the time I die, the only place my culture is alive is in America, I'm fine with that,'" said Eric Thursday afternoon. "He saw that villagers in his home country are slowly losing interest, and he wants to keep his culture alive."
That culture, added Barbara, is less rooted in soil than in state of mind.
"For him, it transcends creed and race - it doesn't matter if you're white or African or Chinese," she said.
The vanBoks teach the drumming through DrumConnection Maine, "a straight extension of" renowned instructor Alan Tauber's DrumConnection school in Boston. An eight-person ensemble from the Maine branch - which teaches through Merrymeeting Adult Education in Brunswick - is among the main draws of the "Hot Chocolate Jubilee."
The variety show began Thursday night at the Chocolate Church Arts Center and continues with 7:30 p.m. shows today and Saturday, and a 2 p.m. performance Sunday.
Since moving to Maine from the Boston area in August 2005, the vanBoks searched for an appropriate spot to pass on what they'd learned in Tauber's teacher training program. In September 2006, they found a fit with the Brunswick adult education program.
"Our very first class that we offered filled up and had a waiting list," said Eric. "The folks that are performing with us at the Chocolate Church this weekend are really getting quite good."
DrumConnection Maine hit the ground running, and the vanBoks have carried their passion over to drum repair and reheading - providing the drums for sale or rent by their students and musicians in the community.
To describe the performance forces the use of a string of onomatopoeias, and even that seems clumsy compared to the pitched pops of palms on taut goatskin.
And don't even try with a musically academic approach, analyzing the show based on meter or scale.
"It's made up of layers of rhythm," said Eric. "In West Africa, the rhythm is layered to create melody. But like their language, their music isn't written. ... They don't hear music like we do."
Barbara points out that very quickly, "we" can start to hear our music in theirs - "you find where blues and jazz sort of comes from when you hear it."
One recent ensemble performance, Barbara said, included a number that she swore sounded just like the decidedly not-West African George Thorogood.
"Oh my God, it's 'Bad to the Bone,'" she exclaimed at the time.
Just like in America, those with a talent for music attempt to use that skill to get out of poverty - life expectancies in many West African villages doesn't exceed 40. Youngsters particularly good with the dunun and djembe drums will join the traveling West African Ballet and never look back.
That steady outflow of cultural expertise has left the doors open to the Western influences of name brand sodas and "American Idol."
The tradeoff leaves Konate and his fellow elder statesmen of the art of West African drumming looking to people like the vanBoks to preserve the music's legacy.
In Maine, the legacy is starting to emerge. "Things for us have been growing alarmingly fast," said Eric.