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GROUP LEADER:  ALHAJI IBRAHIM ABDULAI
RECORDED BY JOHN MILLER CHERNOFF

The second volume of magnificent field recordings by John Miller Chernoff offers further documentation of a little-known African culture. The Dagbamba of northern Ghana share a number of musical traits with other savannah cultures, but they have also developed ensemble drumming to a high standard. Here, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdulai leads a large group in 16 traditional beats.

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