Customer Reviews

Air Mail Music: African Drums

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am reviewing this little known CD in the U.S. as a percussionist. The usual format for playing Djembe is to play within a group. The Djembe is an hourglass shape larger drum made out of Tweneboah, Mango, Mahogany, Rosewood or other indigenous and/or resonant woods. They are usually made out of one peice of a tree trunk with goatskin drumheads stretched by intricate, interwoven, nylon marine roping. The Djembe is usually played in groups of two or three players, and with a Djundjun player keeping the pace with a bass rhythm while playing a cowbell in counterpoint. This album provides long periods of time of solo Djembe, and the playing is excellent. It is somewhat rare to hear solo Djembe. If you follow rhythms in your head and interwoven tracks of rhythm, this is a showpeice. The hands are moving very fast with slap, tone and bass strikes. I have played along with my own Djembe, and this has been great fun (although hard to keep pace). If you enjoy African music and percussion, this is a good album to add to a collection for astounding solo drum playing.

I play djembe in drum circles a few times a year. I also play along with an Olatunji disc once in a while but mostly I play solo.This is the first disc with solo djembe that I've found and it is excellent. Tracks 1 and 2 are djembe ensemble pieces. Tracks 3,4,5 and 6 are straight solo djembe . I've learned new rhythms, improved and expanded my own playing and I've had a whole lot of fun playing along. Madou Djembe is a very talented percussionist. I would recommend this disc to anyone interested in hand drumming. You will not be disappointed.

I just purchased three different djembe CD's, and this one was by far the best to play along with. I am neither a beginner nor a pro on the djembe and in my opinion, the rhythms were easier to extract than those on the other two that I had selected.

this is the way it should be done. this is the way it should sound. these are master musicians.

I had high hopes for this CD based on previous reviews. I wanted pure djembe drumming from a master. The problem was I had no idea this master attached these metal things to his drum, which produces this irritating vibration that sounds sort of like, I don't know, like one of those shaker instruments, only not as nice. It's hard to describe, but for me it really cut into the pure, masterful tones of the drum itself. I found it so distracting that I couldn't bear to listen to the CD more than once. Only 1 or 2 tracks on the entire CD were without this awful noise. Granted those 1 or 2 tracks were fantastic drumming that I enjoyed them immensely (the man IS a master) but I'm not keeping a CD just to listen to 1 or 2 tracks. Very disappointing. That's the last time I buy music solely on user reviews.

I would've given it 1 star, but to be fair, my dislike is purely on a personal level. The drummer really is talented, but I just hated the sounds coming out of this CD, plus the volume is fairly low.