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How
we came to this music
Mark
Taylor, who has been blind since birth, studied music at Dartington
College of Arts and gained his Masters degree at Bretton Hall College.
He appeared as a djembe soloist in a production of the 'Carnival
Messiah' at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and plays regularly as
percussionist and accordionist with 'The Durbervilles' .
Steve
Rivers studied drum and dance on five separate trips to West
Africa. He runs a project aimed at beating stress through drumming
and teaches in South Yorkshire. He has also formed the performance
group 'Jumping Jubaloo'.
Andy Spearpoint is the ex lead singer of the 'New Fast Automatic
Daffodils'.
He is now a freelance music teacher, specialising in African and
World Percussion. He has also led community and amateur groups in
Huddersfield and around Calderdale, and is a regular teacher at
the Tasmin Little Music Centre at Bradford University
Duncan
Carmichael lectures at Craven College in Yorkshire, where he
also leads the 'Craven Drummers'
Ianto
Thornber has been involved in African and Brazilian drumming
since 1988, and teaching since 1996.
He
has made several trips to West and South Africa, and is author of
'The Djembe Guide' tuition pack.
Iantho
has trained with Lamin Jassey, Magatte Djeng, Claudio Kron, Seny
Toure and Barak Schmool and In 1998 he formed Carabali.
Where
we play
Recent
performances have included the Grassington Arts Festival, Whitby
Musicport World Music Festival, BBC Music Live, Dewsbury Arts Festival,
the National Lottery Fynfest 2003 and the National Centre for Popular
Music in Sheffield,
We
once followed Darius on stage in Millenium Square in Leeds ! Perhaps
the most entertaining venue was playing for the opening of a new
stone circle in a field outside Sheffield.
The
Songs
Lamba
and Soli are rhythms from Guinea, West Africa. Lamba is known as
the moonlight dance, having connections to the full moon, and Soli
is part of the Guinean circumcision cycle of rhythms.
Mamady
Keita says in his book:
"three
months before the circumcsion, they began to play soli, although
not every day. During the week before the circucision, one heard
it every day, and the night before, one heard it from the time of
evening prayer until six o clock the next morning"
(Uschi Billmeier & Mamady Keita : 'A life for the Djembe')
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