West African Eve Rhythms for Drumset DVD
It was my huge pleasure developing and producing the instructional DVD for this ambitious and culturally deep music book.
One take away from taking African Drumming classes was that it takes a while to gain an understanding of the music. That understanding is the realization that you have a lifetime ahead of you in understanding the music. During that time I collaborated with professor C.K. Ladzekpo of UC Berkeley's music studies fame, and that lead to meeting Royal Hartigan, an instructor at UMass Dartmouth. His extensive study of Eve culture and music led him to create this amazing book and DVD project that I look back on with great memories.
Royal came to me with the footage taken in Africa of his performing and teaching drum set in the village where Eve music originated. We set out to make it an instructional piece that followed the lessons in the book. We set up the DVD with two modes, one "loop mode" for practicing over and over one segment, and "play through mode" which would play each segment automatically sequentially. I produced the DVD with DVD Studio Pro, back when you could author DVDs independently. We set it up for replication and the result was it was distributed with each book.
Given my involvement at the time in music, and around the time of my making the DeviantRhythms documentary, this was an exciting and fun project to be a part which future generations will use to keep the culture alive.
You can purchase this book and DVD right now! Here's an excerpt that captures the essence well.
"West African Eve Rhythms for Drumset shares the music and culture of the Eve (pronounced "eh-fvay") people of West Africa through the eyes and ears of the master artists of Africa. Conceived by world music scholar royal hartigan in conjunction with his teacher, Professor C.K. Ladzekpo, this 363-page book+DVD is geared for percussionists of all ability levels interested in the powerful sounds from West African music and culture. The book and accompanying DVD focus on four traditional dance drumming pieces in depth--Akpese, Gadzo, Kinka, and Adzohu--presented in their traditional form with musical notations, songs, proverbs, and the tonal drum language known as vugbe. hartigan then connects the sounds and feelings to the modern drumset and shows how they can be applied in various ways to other styles like Jazz, Funk, Reggae, Gospel, and West African Highlife.
Not convinced? Check out a sample. I'm even mentioned in the credits on page 16-17. Ha ha!
Finally, please visit Royal's website and enjoy all his beautiful music. He is a musical treasure.
A lot of people don't know I acted in a teen pregnancy and substance abuse video for the East Bay Center for Performing Arts in Richmond, CA. It was there that I took more African Drumming, Steel Pan drums and drum set lessons. In the PSA video, the director was Redge Green, who had not yet landed a role in Boy's in the Hood starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Ice Cube. Redge played the role of Lil' Chris, a victim of gun violence that reflects Redge's own story. Redge was a pleasure to work with and I loved playing the drug-dealing villain in the PSA.
Royal, the East Bay Center, and African Drumming are all connected, which is why I mention them all here! C.K. Ladzekpo is also featured in my 2000 documentary Deviant Rhythms.
