An intensive course for beginning to advanced students of West African jembe (djembe) drumming and its related dancing, featuring master drummers and choreographers from Mali, Guinea, and Senegal. Summer Jembe Institute

Master instructors from the jembe heartland
Major jembe playing styles and repertories
Lead drumming Dundun playing styles
Bamana/Maninka/Susu culture and language study

Now in our third year, we are still expanding with a larger faculty in anticipation of increased enrollment. The Second Annual Summer Jembe Institute in 1997 was an unprecedented event with sixty-five students from seventeen states and Canada. Participants came from all walks of life, from young teens to senior citizens, from novices to professional percussionists.

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) is located on a beautiful campus in a friendly city of 250,000 people midway between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. The School of Music at UNCG has over four hundred undergraduate and graduate music majors pursuing degrees up to the D.M.A. The Piedmont Triad airport serving Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point receives flights from most major air carriers.

Talking Drums Inc., a co-sponsor of the institute, is a world percussion shop specializing in the sale and maintenance of jembes imported from Africa. They will offer jembes for rent to institute participants.
TEL: 336.273.7470 (local) *** 1.800.253.DRUM *** FAX: 336.273.9003

For more information:

Mail or fax registration form to:

Room and Board:

Campus dormitory accommodations are available for 7 nights (Sun.-Sat.) from $221, or 6 nights (Mon.-Sat.) from $204. Rates include mandatory 3 meals daily for 5 days (Mon.-Fri.), and a health service fee. Arrangements (preferably by e-mail) must be made by May 25 directly with:

SCEDULE OF EVENTS

The philosophy of the Institute is to provide maximum contact with each of the teachers so students will gain a broad knowledge of the tradition as it exists in its African context. Each day (except the last) will consist of three drumming sessions, a history/culture session, and a viewing of a feature film from West Africa.

Daily Schedule

 
     9:30am     to    11:00am     Drumming classes
     11:30am    to    1:00pm      Drumming classes
              --- Lunch -- 
     4:00pm     to    5:30pm      Drumming classes
              --- Dinner ---
     7:30pm     to    9:00pm      History/Culture class
     9:30pm     to    11:00pm     Films 

Special sessions on musical transcription will also take place. Additionally, out-of-town students and teachers will room together in the dormitory, and all will have the opportunity to eat and socialize with each other informally throughout the week.

Drumming Sessions

The three daily drumming sessions will be devoted to the rhythms and techniques of the various regions in the jembe heartland. The teachers will specialize in the music and dance of their respective homelands. The classes will be small ensembles (organized according to playing experience) meeting concurrently in different rooms. A few larger ensemble sessions may also be held. Drumming classes will be led by African instructors who will rotate classes so that over the course of the week students will have significant contact with each of them. Jembe students will have opportunities to play the dundun and vice versa.

Dance Sessions

The dancers will meet together in one group dancing with different drum classes so as to become familiar with a range of styles from Guinea, Mali, and Senegal. The second session each day will be open to drummers who want to learn dancing.

History, Culture & Films

Every evening the participants and teachers will meet together to study the historical and cultural background of jembe playing and dancing in West Africa. Topics will include the origins of the Mali empire, the family lineages of the instructors, the significance of the rhythms and dances learned, jembe maintenance, and fundamentals of the Bamana and Maninka languages including greetings and music and dance terminology. Commercial and private video recordings and rare historical slides from Mali and Guinea will be viewed. Some of the evening sessions will feature performances by the faculty. Final late night sessions will be devoted to viewing feature-length films from Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso--a favorite aspect of the previous Institutes.

Final Concert

On Saturday evening, a marathon concert/jam session will be held in which everyone will perform in a friendly and informal atmosphere.

CORE FACULTY

GUINEA

Papa Ladji Camara (jembe), from Norassoba and based in NY, was an original member of the famed Les Ballets Africains in the 1950s. The legendary founding father of jembe playing in the U.S., where he has taught generations of drummers since the 1960s, he remains universally revered for his teaching and playing in his 70s. This is his 2nd year with us.

Mohamed Da Costa (jembe, dance), from Boke and based in Greensboro, has spent years performing as a lead drummer, dancer, and choreographer with troupes in Conakry and The Gambia.

Fode Bangoura (jembe, balafon, dance), from Conakry and based in St. Paul, MN, is a former dancer and drummer with Guinea's most prestigious troupes: Les Ballets Africains, Ballet Djoliba, and Fatala.

MALI

Abdoul Doumbia (jembe), from Segou and based in Providence (at Brown University), was a lead drummer with the renowned Malian troupe Babemba, repeatedly representing his region in national drum festivals.

Mohammed "Joh" Camara (jembe, dundun, dance), from Bamako and based in Boston, has lead study tours to Mali.

Sinaly "Papus" Diabate (jembe), from Bamako and based in Boston, has been performing and teaching in the U.S. for over two years.

SENEGAL

Djimo Kouyate (jembe, dance, oral history), from Tambacounda and based in Washington D.C., is expert in Maninka oral history, the kora (21-stringed harp), and the dance and drumming traditions of the Senegambia region. A founding member of the National Ballet of Senegal, he has directed his own troupe in the U.S. for the past 15 years.

Eric Charry (assistant professor of ethnomusicology at UNCG and organizer of the Institute) will direct the history and culture sessions. His publications include A Guide to the Jembe (Percussive Notes, April 1996), and Mande Music (forthcoming in 1999 with the University of Chicago Press).

Maninka balafon (xylophone) classes will be offered pending registration of ten full-time students. Check the appropriate box on the registration form. If the course is canceled, a full refund will be given to the full-time balafon students. Jembe students will have an opportunity to take limited balafon instruction and vice versa.

Maninka koni (ngoni, 5-stringed lute) classes may be offered by a Malian master pending student interest. Contact us for further information.

We anticipate eighty students and eight African faculty, yielding a student to faculty ratio of 10 to 1. African instructors will be added as enrollment increases in order to maintain our target student to teacher ratio. We have enjoyed the presence of all advertised faculty in past years, but cannot be held responsible for circumstances beyond our control.