Critical Review-White

            White addresses Congolese Rumba, how it came to be in Africa, and what it means for Africans, both past and present.  White states that Congolese Rumba is associated with cosmopolitanism, and it emerged as a result of the creation of cities, radio stations, and record labels, much like Makuna stated.  White pays close attention to the spread of this music, especially the G.V. series, by way of record labels across the Atlantic Ocean from Latin America, and how without the colonization and cosmopolitan society in major Congolese cities, this spread would have not been possible.

            I found White’s interviews interesting; as Congolese people said that they could “feel” the African roots in this heavily Latin influenced music and took great pleasure in listening to it.  We’ve read countless times about an innate sense of rhythm in Africans and one man states, “’The melody, the rhythms, those are Congolese rhythms… that’s what breaks Congolese hearts.’”(673)  The Congolese people have this innate connection to African Rumba and are proud that it comes from their homeland.  Do these natives and musicians feel that they are not given the proper credit they deserve for creating this music?

Ethnographic Description

            I attended an African drumming class in Cambridge, near MIT.  This event was much more personalized due to my own participation and the intimate environment in which it took place.  Upon arrival, Moussa, the teacher was surprised to see people besides his “regulars.”  As we entered the small art gallery off the Central MBTA stop, Moussa was already jamming with his eclectic group of regulars.  His nephew Solo, who was visiting from Mali, outfitted us with drums and away we went. 

We were all given Djembe drums of different sizes.  It almost felt natural to hold the drum after we had learned the basics just hours before by Mr. Agbeli.  Moussa started with the basics, teaching us three different types of “hits” on the drum— bass, edge, and slap— used to create different sounds.  Everything was done in rhythm, even the technical teaching of different sounds.  Moussa taught us “beginners” a very basic rhythm that combined all three hits and served as the background rhythm to what would become an overlapping array of synchronized sounds.  Once we learned this rhythm, Moussa said, “Do what you can do.  You will not be me, and you will not be anyone else this class.  We have played for years, and you start now.”  I found this notion of accepting our “novice-ness” interesting and refreshing.  This set up a very relaxed learning environment.

Moussa got all of us playing our basic rhythm together and then gave his other students various rhythms to play.  He would point at someone and say, “HERE!” and then play a rhythm over and over again.  The student would watch, attempt, and then perfect the rhythm, all while we played our basic rhythm with a bass drummer.  He would then go on to the next person and teach them yet another layer.  He repeated this process with his regular students until all were busy with their respective rhythms.  Moussa would then solo, mixing rhythms I knew from my jazz, funk, and gospel drumming background, such as triplets, with those that I had never heard before.  The unbelievable crispness, loudness, and speed he played with sometimes distracted me from my own rhythm.  I was lucky enough to sit next to him, and when he could tell that I was catching on quickly, he gave him his backup Djembe so that I could play a “good” drum.  He said to me, “Here, now you are professional,” and I took the drum with pride.  Moussa showed off his skills, but never intimidated his students, always laughing and encouraging them by pushing their limits.  We learned a very specific rhythm to “count in” the group.  Rather than the American “1, 2, 1234” method, African drumming consists of a distinct rhythm that the group plays together to count in and another distinct rhythm to end the piece.

Moussa implemented a “call and response” or “do as I do” method of teaching, though he stopped occasionally to give advice, especially to us beginners.  He told us to relax our arms, breath, not to think, and told Teddy to relax in his chest in order for his hands to do what his brain demands.  The most interesting piece of advice he gave us was not to count.  This was especially hard for me, having learned drumming in a very rudiment based system designed around playing written music to a metronome.  His advice proved useful, and once I stopped trying to figure out a time signature, I began to hear the various interlocking patterns and didn’t judge my timing off of counting but rather off of the other drum patterns.  I immediately connected this experience to the Titon reading on Agbekor, both in that we learned through full speed rehearsals and developed ears for intricate weavings of other patterns.

The “regulars” were all white and were aged from about 30-60.  There were both men and women, and they seemed to come from very different backgrounds.  Many of them had worked with Moussa for around 5 years, and one woman had been there for over 11.  She said she once walked by and heard the drumming, saw white people involved and decided to give it a try.  She now works with Nani Agbeli and has taken four trips to Mali to both learn and perform.  Most of the other regulars had similar stories, stating that they never planned to start drumming but once they tried it, they couldn’t stop.  Moussa explained to me after the class that he started as a young boy, and his father did not approve of him choosing music as a profession.  He explained that he would play in the street, play at weddings, baby showers, among other events.  He told me that he would play easily for 14 or 15 hours a day and then finished the class with a comedic and blunt, “Has everyone paid me? Good, see you all next week!”

*I know this is about a hundred words over, but I figured better to give a complete description rather than cut out important info that I’d learned.

Kazadi wa Mukuna Critical Review-- Urban Music of Zaire

In Kazadi wa Mukuna’s, “The Genesis of Urban Music in Zaïre,” he breaks down the emergence of urban music into three main causes. First, the creation of Kinshasa, second the advent of radio stations, and third, the creation and use of recording studios throughout Zaïre.  Mukuna states that through the immigration of iron mineworkers in the capital of Kinshasa and the use of radio stations, new music came to the otherwise quite tribal area known as the Congo.  The city created an urban center with different ethnic groups and people were open to new music.  Music and instruments came from Europe and a whole new generation of musicians learned how to play these instruments.  Most essential, according to Mukuna, was the Latin American Rumba.  Recording studios also provided young musicians instruments and emerging musicians a place to record and succeed.  Mukuna states that after the instruments were mastered, the general population stopped imitating Latin American Rumba and moved back towards playing traditional music on western instruments, though the name rumba stayed for commercial purposes as ordered by the record labels.  The cultural movements described showed how an urban setting, accompanied by new instruments, led to a total revamp of a long outdated musical and dancing community.  Mukuna made it clear that it was necessary to first imitate the western music and master the instruments before they could revamp their own traditional maringa music and dancing genres.

I found it interesting how the younger generation of new musicians, after adopting and imitating Latin American rumba, went back to their traditional maringa styles.  This younger generation recreated social norms of dance with their sensual pelvic thrusting and close contact dance routines.  They redefined the way in which a musician was considered successful and what instruments were to be popular.  Yet, after mastering these instruments they returned to their traditional routes, because Latin American music and dance was so rudimental and strict.  Why would they not create an entire new genre of music?  I also found it interesting that the dancing was accepted with the traditional music that retold history.  The modern music of Zaïre, “is an artistic expression which summarizes the worldview of people in an urban setting.  It entertains and educates; sings praises to the land, its heroes, cities and rivers; and chronicles the nation’s history and the accomplishments of its development.”(82)  This appears similar to the music of the Griots we studied before, and almost begs for respect due to the nature of the content.  Did the youth of Zaïre dnace provocatively to this music, and if so, was that accepted by the older generations or seen as disrespectful?

Critical Review- Titon

Critical Review

            In this article, Titon describes the Ewe people and more specifically, the way in which the use music known as Agbekor.  The Ewe people are a very religious people, and they rely heavily on music to evoke the protection of and communicate with their ancestors.  Agbekor is used for many purposes, including war drumming, post war drumming, funeral music, and various performances, among others.  Agbekor is not simply music, but a combination or drumming, singing, and dancing.  The dancing is often done by warriors after they have finished fighting, using dance to demonstrate how they performed in battle.  Titon then remarks that in order to learn, one must listen.  There is little in the form of formal lessons, and emerging drummers are often seen as reincarnations of deceased virtuosos.  They must attend concerts when the best drummers are playing, and learn the very complicated polyrhythm by ear.  The end of the article breaks up these many complicated rhythms into their simpler parts.

            I found the way in which Agbekor is learned to be particularly interesting.  Students don’t learn from teachers in the way that traditional musicians do.  Learning takes place mainly by means of watching and repeating what the best musicians or dancers are doing.  One does not take private lessons, but goes to concerts and tries to dissect the many difficult polyrhythms.  Practices are not conducted in parts, but rather as a whole musical performance.  You learn through doing, at full pace, over and over again.  Titon gives a quote by J. H. K. Nketia who states, “The very organization of traditional music in social life enables the individual to acquire his musical knowledge in slow stages to widen his experience of the music of his culture through the social groups into which he is progressively incorporated and the activities in which he takes part.”(93)  I wonder why the members of the Agbekor community conduct their learning this way.  Do you think that, although difficult at first, this technique creates better overall musicians because they develop the skills of listening necessary to perform with very complicated polyrhythms?

References

Works Cited

Charry, Eric S. Hip Hop Africa: New African Music in a Globalizing World. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2012. Print. Hip hop Africa goes in depth into the recent explosion of rap music in various African countries. Charry speaks about how this explosion occurred, its effects on the youth, and how it fits in with other popular genres such as reggae and gospel music.

Forman, Murray. "'Represent': Race, Space and Place in Rap Music." Popular Music 19.1 (200): 65-90. JSTOR. Web. 9 Oct. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/853712>. This article examines rap in America. The paper examines how rap formed, in relation to the socio-economic space that it emerges, and how it spreads as a result of that. It traces rap’s journey across the United States and the different ways in which new genres, labels, sounds, styles, and meanings are formed as a result of the place and people who are ‘nurturing’ the music.

Henderson, E. A. "Black Nationalism and Rap Music." Journal of Black Studies 26.3 (1996): 308-39. JSTOR. Web. 9 Oct. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2784825>. Errol A. Henderson traces the nationalist origins of rap music and how it has developed over the past several decades. Henderson predicts where rap music is going, and gives insight into how we can change the negatives aspects of rap. Henderson promotes a migration back to raps ‘Afrocentric roots’ in order to get away from the gangster rap that has come about recently in America. Henderson states that rappers should do this in order to “become a base for African centered politico-economic and cultural development.”

Ibrahim, Awad El Karim M. "Becoming Black: Rap and Hip-Hop, Race, Gender, Identity, and the Politics of ESL Learning." TESOL QUARTERLY Critical Approaches To TESOL 33.3 (1999): 349--69. JSTOR. Web. 9 Oct. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3587669>. This paper, by Awad El Karim M. Ibrahim, looks ethnologically at black immigrants in America and how they are shaped into ‘becoming black.’ He defines ‘black’ by the stereotypes widely broadcasted in popular culture, mainly in rap music. The article goes in depth into how black people in America, especially black youth, are shaped and transformed by rap music and in turn how they identify with the music.

Sullivan, Rachel E. "Rap and Race: It's Got a Nice Beat, but What about the Message?"    Journal of Black Studies 33.5 (2003): 605-22. JSTOR. Web. 9 Oct. 2012.   <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3180978>. Rachel Sullivan studies the way in which rap music spread through various adolescent ethnic groups in America. She looks     at when each different racial group was affected by rap music, and how they were affected by the music. She makes distinctions between white and black         adolescents views on rap music and what their preferences are.