Congas and djembe

[Djembe]

A) Messing around with a bunch of different drums, but actually has some idea what he's doing (which I hope is the case) B) Someone who doesn't have any idea what they are doing (which I don't think is the case judging by the fairly nice instruments) or C) Someone with a tenuous understanding of some basic percussive principles who ended up buying a bunch of "bongos" and "Jambays" and decided to film himself whacking off on youtube.

Haha....very funny...

Yea that guy was difficult to listen to.... I say whacking off....

I find that the djembe can be very hard to play with other instruments, but this conversation immediately made me think of Ghana, where the djembe is not indigenous, but comes from very close by. Ghana, is home of the kpanlogo drums (of the Ga people, which is arguably a grand father of the conga - closed slap me if I'm mistaken).

In Ghana the djembe is very often played with several kpanlogo. Both the technique and sound of the kpanlogo is very similar to the conga, so this is where I would begin to explore such things....

Shame about the poop quality but here's some proper whacking and again and again. None of these are great example, but all I could find on youtube....

[pavloconga]

Hey djembe,
Thanks for the vids,
The guy playing the djembe and kpanlogos together (the one on left of screen with sunglasses) is a master drummer by the name of Yaw "Captain" Asumadu from Ghana. He was born into a family of drummers and his father passed on the role to him. Captain's a great player, truly masterful with a great depth of knowledge. I met and did some study with him in Ghana in 1998... wow, the time flies.
Good to see him play again, last I heard from him he was living in London.
Pavlo
Here's a pic of him from 10 years ago:

[stevesdrums]

I agree with you about the Djembe sound. I finally decided to build my own drums. I built 10 in, 11 in, and 12 in "Ashiko-type" drums.
All are 28 inches high
I put Cowhide skins on the 10 and 11 inch drums and they sound like Congas. The 12 in drum sounds like a djembe. You can see
and hear them in very short videos and photos at

http://www.myspace.com/stevesdrums

[akdom]

Hi all

I will just give my humble point of view here.

I play djembe and congas. I know the different techniques and background of these two drums. But I never mixed them within the same set.

Some do it, but I really think it is a mistake unless you play non traditional stuff (like Guem, mentionned above) and unless you are a really good professional playing fusion or any other kind of non traditional music.

Why play the djemne for accent? why use a full instrument for a fraction of its possibilities when you already have bongoes and requintos who can do the same and who will naturally blend with the set of congas you already have.

I do not think that using a djembe only because it is trendy, nice looking or any other reason apart from its original usage is a good idea.

Djembe is a real and rich instrument that needs a great deal of respect and understanding.

Now, again, some use it, but the best combination is when it is played by another musician than the conguero. Look up on youtube a few live footage of the song "valio la pena" of Marc Antony and you will see a conga player, a bata player and a djembe player playing together and generating a very nice and distinctive sound.

I might be wrong for some, but once again, it is just my humble opinion.


B