ISLA BATA DRUM

[KING CONGA]

I just spoted this awsome looking Isla Bata Drum (see link bellow), I have heard that they have a very traditional sound, has anyone out there in conga central had first hand experienced with these drums and their sound? Can some one give me some history on this drum, I heard it through the grape vine that it is a native to India.
Also if it's not to much to ask, could you please post some pictures of your own Bata drums, thanks.




http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-ISLA-BATA-350-C ... dZViewItem

[Thomas Altmann]

King,

as you can notice, there is a special bata drums department on this board. This already hints at the fact that the bata is a whole different drum from the conga. How much it resembles the sound of a conga drum depends on how much your ears are trained. For someone who plays congas as well as bata, the sound does not compare. There are traditional sounding congas, and there are traditional sounding bata, if we accepted "traditional" as an acoustic quality at all.

Books and dissertations have been written about the bata drum, probably even more than about the conga drum (tumbadora), first of all by the Cuban ethnomusicologist Fernando Ortiz. He was the one who mentioned a possible connection of the bata drum (of the Yoruba people from Nigeria) and a type of double headed traversal drum in India. The drum in the Ebay auction is a modern type of bata drum modeled after the Cuban type bata drum that descends from the Nigerian one. Bata drums in Cuba are traditionally played in a set of three, with three drummers, each one playing one drum, mostly on their lap in a sitting position. Modern percussionists play all three on a special stand alone.

These are originally the liturgical instruments of the Ocha/Ifá (Lukumí) religion (Santeria). They still are, and there are specially consecrated ceremonial drums that cannot be touched by someone who is not initiated to Anyá, which is the deity or spirit in that drum. (The drum in the auction is a profane instrument, however.) There is a special, more or less fixed repertoire of toques (drum plays) that adheres to this very particular set of drums, with about 60-70 toques batá in Havana and perhaps the same amount in Matanzas (different style).

So, if you are taking your art and craft seriously, be aware of the fact that picking up a bata drum is basically entering a whole new country. You may go there for holidays, stick out as a strange tourist and not even learn the language of its people, or you may look for a real encounter and pay respect to the tradition of those who are receiving you.

For more info please exploit the internet or buy one of the books that have been published, like "Los tambores batá" from the series "Los instrumentos de la música afrocubana" by Fernando Ortíz, published by Editorial Letras Cubanas, La Habana, Cuba (ISBN 959-10-0238-4). It is in Spanish, of course. The book "The music of Santería" by John Amira and Steven Cornelius contains the bata scores of the Oru Igbodú cycle in the Havana/New York style and is easily available.

Whether you pick up the bata or confine yourself to any other percussion instrument like the tumbadora, you should go and get recordings of bata drumming. You should have an idea of this music!

Thomas

[CongaTick]

Thomas,

Thank you for so succinctly and intelligently summarizing the special place the bata holds in Afro-Cuban culture and communicating the reverence and respect that should be associated with the world it presents. I have never had contact with a bata, knowing I should first honor the responsibilities and commitments it embodies.

[yambu321]

Thomas Altman,

Once again, very well said.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us all, here, on congaboard.

Charlie

[Thomas Altmann]

@CongaTick & Charlie:

Thank you for your acknowledgement. Of course, my little summary here was just meant to be an introduction for King Conga. Now upon your response, I feel I have to relax my statement a bit by explaining the subject further. I decided to move the thread to the Bata Drums section at:

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4079 .

I entitled it: "incorporating bata drums in secular settings" .

Thomas