arab style

[shor]

Arabs play bongo in vertical position:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dpjGWqAppY

Check min. 2:07

Have you tried to perform in this style?

[Psych1]

Darbuka player playing a double drum in darbuka style. He might not even know the name "bongo". In Turkey they would call it a "Trampa"

[shor]

Darbuka player playing a double drum in darbuka style. He might not even know the name "bongo". In Turkey they would call it a "Trampa"

Do you have traditional double drums?
Great info.

[Isaac]

I've performed Yemeni music mostly at weddings in Brooklyn for many years.
There are a lot of Yemenis in New York.
Just go into any average grocery store and you'll meet them.

There are bongos in the large Egyptian orchestras, but they definitely
seem to have a central role in Yemen. Morocco has it's clay "double drums".
But I would say that it's more a part of Yemeni style, not a general Arabic style.
(in the same way that Samba is different than Salsa) Yemeni music has more
dragged assymetrical beats.

They usually play them vertically and the bass drum is a large deep metal doumbek.
The preferred bongos are either old (British) Premiere ones, in metal, or Japanese
bongos, the kind that you could also mount on your drumset. The truth is they're so poor
they'll play anything they can get their hands on.

The typical percussion section is 3 guys: One Low Metal Doumbek, the Bongos, and the Riq - looks like a tambourine with oversized jingles.
The bigger groups might have 5 or 6 guys, two doumbeks and two bongos, interlocking, plus the Riq and a person playing a metal serving tray.
The folkloric stuff is done on big frame drums, (daff) and in the mountains its a tambora style drum called a Marfa, a copper snare, and the metal tray called a Sahn.

Yemen and Morocco, although very far from each other
have the most in common because they mix sub-saharan african rhythms
with their many local traditions. They are both considered regional folk music,
different than the arabic classical music, called el-Andalus because of it's
Spanish influence.

The Red Sea Ports and the southern port of Aden in Yemen, had massive international
shipping trade, which also come from the Caribbean.
The Doumbek ( ironically) has no big place in Yemeni percussion history.
There are many types of other drums, including copper kettle drum orchestras
( called TIBBAL ) played with sticks, accompanied by a family of drums
that really look like just like Dominican Tamboras.
Instruments were also forbidden in Yemen for a few hundred years due to the orthodox
Islamic Imams, ( except for his personal orchestra and religious singers) so when bongo hit the shore, they adopted them early,
as did Sudan and the horn of Africa ports. Sudan uses a triple headed bongo - very
low to super high pitch.

The Doumbek and Violin
were gradually introduced into Yemen by Egypt only after 1961, after the last
religious leader was assasinated. The Egyptian military entered Yemen
and were involved in the civil war that split the country. They only reunified
in 1985. Africa and India are just as equally
influential on Yemeni music as their locaL arab Beduin and tribal music.

Other Arabian Gulf countries play a solitary bongo style drum (like a hembra only)
called the Mirwas. It solos over the double headed drums.
There is also a conga style drum of Bantu origin called the Musundu,
especially used in Oman. Oman was once part of Yemen, and the
area of Najran in Saudia Arabia was also Yemeni, so they have the same
grooves.

Look up Najran or Omani music in YouTube.

Fascinating culture and area, showing how the African diaspora and culture went
in another direction, not just westward.

I posted some pics I took at an Omani music festival...they may be archived here
from a few years ago.

It's very hip music with a highly elastic and swinging sense of time. Give it a chance and it'll
enhance and expand any other type of drumming you already do. I highly recommend their
"laheji" style in 6/8 for jamming and dancing at parties. Anyone into Afrocuban
will pick this one up very quickly. I took some intro Bata lessons with the late
Amelia Pedroso, and she told me she listened to Yemeni music also.

If anyone is interested in some good Yemeni links,
please drop me a line to funkytradition@gmail.com
- not too much on CD unfortunately - it's still a poor cassette backward economy.

Isaac

[shor]

Isaac, very interesting information, definitely going to investigate in the video sites.

[Isaac]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpwhWCquz9s