GROUP LEADER: ALHAJI IBRAHIM ABDULAI
RECORDED BY JOHN MILLER CHERNOFF
Westerners
have become increasingly aware of the African rhythmic traditions that
are the foundation of much of today's popular music. John Miller
Chernoff's compelling recordings of the drumming of the Dagbamba people
of West Africa, presented on this album (and its companion, Volume 2),
succeed not only as a document of a traditional musical culture, but as
a breathtaking musical experience.
There
are heavy spiritual repercussions when masters of drumming express
themselves in a tradition of artistic genius. The singing of the drums
resembles the breathing of the wind, and when the sound of the drumming
dies, it moves away like exhaled breath. The bass drums vibrate inside
the earth. I have heard drumming in the night in Dagbon and gone to
search for it, but as I moved toward it, it seemed to come from a
different direction. It would not be until the next day that I would
learn that the drumming had come from a village two or three miles away.
--excerpt from John Miller Chernoff's annotation