African drummers blend cultures with American audiences
All Mamoudou Conde wanted to do was end a tradition dating back thousands of years and "change the world."
It looks like he is.
"Lots of great things are happening with this tour," he says about the initial shows of Amazones: The Women Master Drummers of Guinea, who will be visiting Downtown tonight.
"If you can get something going to blend cultures, then you can do great things," says the general director and founder of the group of 14 percussionists from the West African nation.
Getting the project started was not the easiest thing in the world, adds the man who has spent much of his life advancing Guinean performing groups such as Les Percussions de Guinea and Les Ballet Africains.
His work Les Percussions de Guinea in the United States and other Western nations began to teach him something, he says. He started to see in workshops female interest in playing the djembe , the drum that had for thousands of years been played only by men.
"It was played in some ceremonies that women weren't even allowed to attend," he says.
African emphasis on rhythm also gave the djembe significance that kept female hands away, he says.
"You can play a lot of other instruments, but none is so important as the drum," he says.
But he thought bringing female players to percussion would help it grow in a new direction,
"I wanted people to see that life is a chain and there is a connection on how everything is done," he says. "This is not about destroying culture but on getting everybody to learn we are all one."
He talked to some male djembe players, who were somewhat skeptical, he says. Then he went back to Guinea to talk to tribal elders and griots , the storytellers who pass on tradition. When they began to see this idea was "done with great respect," he began to find a way to add women to the percussion group.
"They saw this as a beautiful idea," he says,
He was able to put together a female group that did a few shows in France in 2002. Last year, he says, two female drummers joined Les Percussions de Guinea. But this tour of about 35 shows is the first time the Amazones have hit the road under their own name.
The show is not only a demonstration of female ability on the djembe, it also is a display of instruments such as the balaphone, a xylophone-like instrument.
Most importantly, Conde says, it tells the story of the female approach to percussion work, The cast of 12 women and two men tell the tale of a young Guinean woman seeking her aunt in a big city and encountering what Conde calls "hip-hop girls" who are not familiar with her culture -- or talents she has.
It is fairly early in the tour, Conde says, but he has been excited about the response to the show. The opening in Oregon drew more than 3,000 people, he says enthusiastically.
"If you can change peoples' lives, you can make a difference," he says. "There is nothing better than this." Additional Information:
Details
Amazones: The Women Master Drummers of Guinea
When: 7:30 p.m. today.
Admission: $22, $32, $42.
Where: Byham Theater, Downtown.
Details: (412) 456-6666.
