Reviewing Reggae from a percussion perspective

I am a fan of Reggae since my early teens (since I was about 11), starting with Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, and soon less-known but real Roots Reggae artists like the Wailing Souls, Burning Spear, the Itals, Ijahman Levi, and Gregory Isaacs.

This means it clearly preceded my later passion for “percussion”, as I would become a percussionist later in life.

TOWARD PERCUSSION

My trajectory toward percussion is in itself interesting, especially in relation to other musical instruments around me. My (Italian) father played accordion in his youth, but had a few harmonicas in the house, my Spanish mother small percussion instruments, including the Spanish castanets. Listening to music, my brothers got interested in guitars, the oldest acoustic Spanish ones, the other bass guitar. They took lessons in time. A friend of the family (son of Italian parents, friends of my parents) played fanatically the drum kit since young, somehow intriguing me.

Seeing a keyboard somewhere, that interested me a bit more, seeming also more practical to me than the stringed guitars. When my brother obtained music software, a MIDI keyboard came in the picture, which I also used. So the first real instrument was a “toy” keyboard and soon after a more serious MIDI keyboard - connected to computer software for music making, which had many interesting, “faux” sampled instruments on it, at least allowing to make music (basic bass and drum, other instruments, piano, trumpet, etcetera). Not “the real thing”, MIDI imitations, but still.. arousing interest to all kinds of instruments. I made compositions with bass, drums, piano, added percussive sounds I liked, or horns, etcetera.

Yet, in a concrete sense, “percussion instruments” were not yet as much on my radar, rather subconsciously and indirectly, even if shaping aspects of songs I liked (scrapers, rattles, hand drums on Reggae songs).

Interesting, therefore, to examine how I became so concretely interested in percussion instruments, after this “keyboard” and MIDI period up to my 30s.

To not make this introduction too long, - and knowing my life of course well - , I resume my trajectory “toward concrete percussion interest” analytically, into some main sources/causes:

1) Liking rhythmical music and dancing to it from young: dancing felt natural to me, as was listening to the drum-based groove, including in Reggae. I’m a dancer, at heart, and my sense of rhythm strong.

2) Making songs with MIDI, having “faux”, sampled percussion instrument sounds also available, using them in songs I made, through computer software. I mentioned this already. Think scrapers, rattles, hand drum sounds on MIDI (conga, bongo, timbales): awakening my interest for real, actual percussion.

3) My interest in learning and reading about Africa and it’s relatively “percussive” culture, including traditional music, and the African Diaspora: African retentions in the Caribbean and Americas. I liked reading also as a child, also about Africa. I studied the African diaspora also professionally a period, and personally. Soon after Reggae I also started to listen to African music, intrigued by sounds of (often percussion) instruments (as part of the whole), then unknown to me.

4) Trips to Cuba I made in the period 2001-2006, having also close personal friends there, especially in Santiago de Cuba, having been to Havana and elsewhere in Cuba too. Like Jamaica, Cuba has a rich musical culture, but one with many acoustic bands, not so much electric, playing live in many places, often in intimate contexts. I sat often close to musicians in Santiago de Cuba, who played percussion instruments, with hand drums like the conga and bongo having the “drum” function, which the drum kit has elsewhere (most Western modern “pop” music, in fact). Cuba however still used mainly “acoustic” hand drums, and other percussion instruments, like cowbells, scrapers, shakers. I enjoyed such live acoustic shows in Cuba, danced to this, and got since then more interested in “concrete”, actual percussion instruments.

Put these causes together, and especially after trips to Cuba, I started to notice the “scraper” or other percussive sounds more in Reggae songs I listened to then before, considering it also part of an Afro-Caribbean connection I now learned about. I began to listen more and more “specifically” to percussion instruments.

Speaking with more musicians, and with interest in black music and Reggae, I got advice to get drumming lessons (the drum kit), seeming to fit my rhythmic interests. The producer of my first officially released single (Rastafari Live On, in 2012), Robert Curiel, was a drummer, as well as studio owner, and hinted at that idea too.

I played with that thought, but found it both expensive and too “robotic” and technical. Too formal perhaps too, taking lessons on a drum kit, step by step, counting

Instead my free mind preferred the “hand drum” vibes I remembered from Cuba, just feeling the groove, intuitively. Rhythmical, yet also giving an extra “sauce” and embellishments to sound, and around the rhythm, often adding swing and polyrhythm to the drum kit. I liked that.

PERCUSSION LESSONS

I therefore bought my first Bongo (Afro-Cuban attached smaller drums), played with it freely on music (mostly Reggae), fitting the groove..

This felt good, and after some years, I decided to take formal lessons for Bongo and Conga with well-known percussionist in the Netherlands (from Curaçao), Vernon Chatlein, in 2014. To give some structure to what I really like.

The - mainly Bongo and Conga drum - lessons were certainly instructive and fruitful, - it gave “structure” - and I learned timing, keeping a steady pattern, and specific Afro-Cuban hand drum patterns (and some Puerto Rican Bomba ones), salsa, son, Rumba, also cowbell patterns, learning about both 4/4 and 6/8 rhythms, the “clave”, different uses of “straight” and “swing” time.

Later. I also took some Djembe and Talking Drum lessons (from an African).

These formal lessons definitely cemented my specific listening to “percussion instruments” within songs from then, in Reggae and other genres: hand drum patterns (more the kete drums in Reggae), scrapers, woodblocks, bells, etcetera.

JAMMING

After these formal percussion lessons in 2014, and some “technical base”, I would play along with jam sessions in various music clubs in Amsterdam (Netherlands, where I live) and around, and it went well, and my rhythmic sense seemed well enough to improvise as well, knowing when to add and when to stop, adapting to other musicians, and different genres. Getting in the groove.

Since I liked jamming with percussion, and it went well, I kept on doing this, up to today. It is definitely a learning experience, a kind of practical schooling about the nuances of rhythm and percussion in a wider musical piece. For years I am jamming now.

More importantly, people liked what I added to those jam sessions with percussion (they told me so, and it showed: it was for changing, international audiences), and this goes against prejudices about “jam sessions” that I note exist: “just ego trips”, I heard some say about those jam sessions in some clubs, as well as “anyone can participate”, as just a social activity. Of course this can be disguised jealousy.

None of these prejudices are true. As in the original Jazz traditions: when playing improvisational, musicians have to respect and listen to each other, give each other space: no hierarchy or superiority. Interestingly, this is according to many a historical response to the “dehumanization” and “infantilization” Black people in the US had to face for centuries. It also explains the much-used word “man” among Jazz “cats”: as opposed to the “boy” White racists in the US South often said to adult Black men.

In practice, jams function the same as bands aiming at a musical piece to please an audience, only more improvised, less strict and formal. People (the audience) enjoy it, beyond the musicians enjoying togetherness (which also is valuable in itself). In fact, it is “purer” as music, more than the composed songs written down to practice and get as tight as possible for some concert or recording. That is less natural.

Neither can “anyone” participate in those jam sessions: you have to have a certain level and feel, and the times when a musician with too little knowledge or skills on stage disturbs the whole quality, this is tactically and diplomatically told, and a song ended sooner, so the musician can be (politely) replaced. Maybe my “haters” hope this, but this never happened to me: I mainly played whole sets, and my additions were appreciated.

My bass-playing brother jammed a few times too, but said that mistakes are more a source for stress for guitarists than for percussion players: a wrong note or chord on bass cannot be occulted, it sounds off-key or “false”, while with percussion you can act like you just started a new pattern, he supposed. This is not entirely untrue, I must admit, but sometimes I just stop a bar or two, and then come in again.

COMPOSING

I further still make my own musical compositions via computer software, - now with more attention to percussion (and having more percussion instruments) than before -, and then I like to “structure” more technically and strict than at free jam sessions, like a band does: tighter, dosed, coordinated, toward a recognizable song, with repeated aspects and tight grooves, of about 3 or 4 minutes long, as the standard goes. This composing and recording for me is, however, is the “end”-point of free creativity, not the starting point: a crucial difference.

Inevitably, I obtained more and more percussion instruments (and some guitars, and wind instruments), and like other percussionists, my house became like a “percussion museum”. For jamming, composing, and recording.

This is where I am at now.

In the remainder of this post I would like to show how my later “specific” attention to percussion instruments in music and songs,- grown organically over time as I just explained – manifests itself when reviewing music, specifically in my favourite genre Reggae.

PERCUSSION-MINDED REVIEWS

I already studied the percussion (somewhat subdued, I found) in Bob Marley songs for another post on this blog, but now I am going to review it on other Reggae albums, ones that I already enjoyed before I “took up” percussion, and started to have more that focus.

I liked those albums and songs on them as whole musical pieces, as of course you have to start when listening music: you have to feel the whole, before checking details.

Yet, now in my life I focus more on percussion, as said, also because of my activities as percussionist. Reviewing songs/albums thus from a percussion perspective. I choose some (a mere, but representative selection) of my favourite albums.

GREGORY ISAACS – SOON FORWARD

This 1979 Reggae album is great, almost from begin to end. The “smooth” lovers title track is best known among Reggae fans, but it contains several good songs (also with “conscious” lyrics), having the involvement of top musicians in Jamaica of the time (Sly & Robbie, among others).

Someone I know said that the tambourine is very important in Reggae. This is not true. It is used at times, but a bit less than in other genres. Not more than in Soul or Pop, for instance. Motown was very “tambourine-heavy”, perhaps an echo of Gospel and Black churches.

The percussion instruments used on Soon Forward show this: a few songs indeed include a tambourine throughout songs, but most not. Recurring are the shakers or maracas (several songs), the Cabasa shaker (the Brazilian shaker with metal beads) – on Down The Line -, woodblocks (several songs, such as the opener), bells (sometimes soft in the mix), and hand drums (kete,a.o.) – e.g. on Slave Market. Mr Brown has the “flex-a-tone” ( a metal, “singing saw” like idiophone), a rattle here and there. The title track has an important role for the guiro scraper.

All these instruments I now play myself, so I notice them. Plus I notice how crucial they are in the whole.

The tambourine is present on about 3 songs on this album, played mostly quite loose, and not as tight “timekeeper” as sometimes in other genres. So hardly “the most important percussion instrument” on this album.

The extensive “hi-hat” use in the Jamaican drumming style (still common in current New Roots from Jamaica), probably in part replaces an eventual “tambourine” need or function. It simply would not add that much, while a shaker sounds more different from the hi-hat, thus enriching the whole sound more than a tambourine would.

I noticed all this already jamming, and making my own songs: you live and learn.

Songs:

(Percussion between bars):

1. Universal Tribulation (shakers, bells)

2. Mr. Brown (flex-a-tone, hand drums)

3 Down The Line (cabasa shaker, woodblock)

4. Lonely Girl (hand drums)

5. Bumping And Boring (woodblock, hand drums)

6. My Relationship (tambourine, woodblock, hand drums)

7. Slave Market (hand drums),

8. Black Liberation Struggle (tambourine)

9. Jah Music (tambourine)

10. Soon Forward (scraper (guiro), shakers, bells/blocks)

WAILING SOULS – FIRE HOUSE ROCK

Another favourite of mine, this great album from 1981. Real Reggae music, from a Roots harmony group, with more good albums. Backed by the great Roots Radics band. It does not even have the tambourine in it, but other percussion instruments, like the cabasa shaker, and the scraper (guiro) recurring on several songs (4 of them even), quite prominent – read: relatively audible or loud – in the mix. The album’s relatively “sparse” sound brings that percussion more to the fore. In fact, the songs would not be the same without them.

Tracklist

A1 Fire House Rock (shaker)

A2 Run Dem Down (scraper)

A3 Oh What A Feeling (triangle(s), shaker(s))

A4 Kingdom Rise Kingdom Fall (scraper, woodblock)

A5 Act Of Affection (shaker)

B1 Busnah (shaker (cabasa))

B2 A Fool Will Fall (triangle/bells, scraper)

B3 Bandits Taking Over (rattle, scraper)

B4 Who Lives It (cabasa shaker)

B5 See Baba Joe (flex-a-tone, cabasa shaker)

BURNING SPEAR – HAIL H.I.M.

Another “classic” album within the Reggae world is Burning Spear’s 1980 album Hail H.I.M, with several great songs, of which Columbus is best known, perhaps.

Some interesting differences regarding percussion, compared to the two discussed above. There is much more use of hand drums added in the mix, partly not very loud, yet “gluing” the rhythm together on several of the album’s songs. Burning Spear (Winston Rodney) being a percussionist and conga player might have something to do with this (playing percussion on this album, along with bass-man Aston "Familyman" Barret), and indeed the drums sounds often more like the (orig. Afro-Cuban) “Conga” (lower, cowskin), than the higher-pitched, cylindrical, smaller “kete” drum, as also used in Rastafari nyabinghi sessions. In the last 4 songs, incl. the “African” songs, the hand drums are a bit more prominent in the mix, both the kete and what sounds like the conga.

The bassline of Jah A Guh Raid – by the way – I translated to percussion, i.e. to a conga drum pattern. I play that one, among others of course, on jam sessions.

Tracklist:

A1 Hail H.I.M. (hand drums)

A2 Columbus (tambourine, hand drums, (cow)bell)

A3 Road Foggy (chimes, triangle, hand drums, rattle/vibraslap)

A4 Follow Marcus Garvey (cabasa shaker, hand drums)

A5 Jah See And Know (tambourine)

B1 African Teacher (woodblock, hand drums)

B2 African Postman (bells, hand drums, wood-/jamblock, cuica (friction drum))

B3 Cry Blood Africa (tambourine, cabasa shaker, hand drums)

B4 Jah A Go Raid (tambourine, hand drums)

RICHIE SPICE – SPICE IN YOUR LIFE

These are somewhat older albums, and perhaps it is good to compare with an example of New Roots (Reggae), an album that I enjoyed very much, namely Richie Spice’s Spice In Your Life from 2004, with “big tunes” (Reggae club hits), Earth A Run Red being the biggest hit, but groovy and catchy songs like Righteous Youths, Black Like A Tar, and Marijuana are also favourites in some Reggae places. Essentially, it is (as more New Roots albums) a collection of recent singles, recorded in different studio’s and (partly) different musicians. Now I am going to look at it from a percussion perspective:

TRACK LIST:

1. Intro

2.Sometimes (Spice In Your Life) (hand drums, shaker (cabasa), rattle/vibraslap)

3. Identity

4. Black Like Tar (woodblock/jamblock, tambourine)

5. Little Elements

6. Crying Out For Love (shaker (cabasa), rattle/vibraslap)

7. Righteous Youths (shaker, hand drums)

8. Run Red Intro 0:21

9.Earth A Run Red (rattle, hand drums, shaker (cabasa), scraper)

10.More Terrible (AKA 911) (none)

11.Folly Living (AKA Blood Again) (hand drums, shakers)

12.Check Yourself (none)

13.Move Dem Out (rattle/vibraslap)

14.Chalwa

15.Marijuana (none)

16.Outta The Blue (hand drums, rattle/vibraslap)

17.Prime Time Girl ((cow)bell, cabasa shaker)

18. Holiday (none)

19.Fake Smile (scraper)

20.Reggae's A Fire (hand drums)

21.Spinning Around (cajón (or guitar case), shaker)

22.Ghetto Girl (none)

What can be concluded regarding this Richie Spice album is that percussion is a bit “modest” – also often soft in the mix – yet present throughout, often “gluing” rhythms together, other times “decorating/embellishing” and “saucing up”, songs, in line with the “seasoning” function of percussion, as some see it. Buried in the mix, yet recognizable. The shaker – especially the “cabasa” is relatively common, adding to its gluing function, while more militant, protest songs – interestingly – have the “sharper” scraper (or guiro) sound, such as the big hit Earth A Run Red, and the song with Chuck Fender.

This is all no coincidence: hand drums recur in more “meditational”, or reflective tunes, and shakers more in “love” songs. This distinction is not clear-cut, but it is an overall tendency, related to the characteristic sounds of the instrument. The art of percussion, is the art of sound.

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

Good to point out that I see these albums I chose to review seem fairly representative of Reggae from the periods (including from other labels as Perry's Black Ark, or Augustus Pablo's Rockers), and the artists (other albums of theirs often having similar percussion instrument choices).

It’s of course not just what percussion instruments are played, but how. Still, overall on these albums (and in my estimation based on what else I know) the shaker – especially the Afro Brazilian Cabasa one – is more commonly used than the most “mainstream” percussion instrument of all: the tambourine. The tambourine recurs here and there, sometimes even pumping – but overall more often the “sharper” shake sound of the Cabasa is heard. I think it is because that Cabasa sound fits the hi-hat pattern more, and the Jamaican drumming style is “hi-hat heavy”. Its sharpness befits in addition rhythmic “closedness” as eventual counter-rhythm.

Hand drums are further common, and the scraper and rattle recur also, as does the friction drum (cuica), with the animal-type sound (known also from Bob Marley’s Could You Be Loved). Also the metal, glissando "flex-a-tone" can be heard

Then, the woodblock/jamblock sharp sound also recur as “driving” many grooves, used well and audibly, often “spicing up” the grooves. The same applies to the cowbell.

On some albums, the percussion instruments fit the lyrics, though never that fixed, as the cabasa can be played “poignant” and short, thus appearing in protest or "conscious” songs as well, and as fitting, only perhaps in a bit more "reflective” songs, as the excellent Busnah on the Wailing Souls album. Other, more militant or “battle” songs on that album have the sharper scraper (called “guiro” in Cuba). Probably no coincidence, but sound-related. On the other hand, the “smooth love” and sexy song “par excellence” – Gregory Isaacs’ Soon Forward, also has a prominent role for the scraper.

The triangle occurs here and there even, such as on Burning Spear’s Road Foggy, and in intro’s of Wailing Souls’ songs.

NEW ROOTS AND PERCUSSION

Percussion remained also enduring enough to remain important in newer post-1990s New Roots Reggae (by Sizzla, Richie Spice, Tarrus Riley, Luciano, Lutan Fyah, Fantan Mojah, a.o.). It is not just an “old-time” outdated thing, but percussion remains being considered crucial to the Jamaican Reggae feel, by Jamaicans themselves. The sound is with modern means now fuller, more instruments, and digital additions/aids, and less sparse than some (somewhat) “emptier” sounding Reggae from earlier decades, making percussions now drown more often in the whole, though in some songs made more prominent to good effect, like on Black Like Tar (the groovy woodblock pattern). Burning Spear has a bit a “full” sound too, yet still has the woodblock audibly crucial in songs like African Teacher, and also in Gregory Isaacs’ great Down The Line: the woodblock helps to make that song unique and appealing rhythmically.

AFRO-AMERICAN CONNECTION?

Well, the guiro scraper remembered me of my Cuban experiences, and live music I heard there, often even “driving” rhythms, which is less the case in Reggae, as already drum-and bass-based, yet still the scraper can be "driving”, as in the Wailing Soul’s Run Dem Down. Elsewhere it adds nice counter-rhythms.

Most hand drums seem the Kete drum from Nyabinghi, higher sounding than the Afro-Cuban conga, which is present here and there, predictably more in Burning Spear songs, who plays conga. The Kete drum may seem more “rootical” and Rasta, yet the Conga, while internationalized, has Afro-Cuban origins, with Congo region presedents. A relatively high percentage of African/Black Cubans have roots in Central Africa, Congo, especially in the music-rich East of Cuba.

The well known double Bongos come from Eastern Cuba, and resembles more the Kete drum in sound, but less deep. Different musical cultures of course, although the “heart beat” pattern of Congo drum traditions can be found in both Cuban and Jamaican music (Nyahbinghi, Reggae), though fitted differently. A part of Africans in Jamaica had roots in the Congo region, though the Ghana and Igbo connections are a bit stronger, also leaving indirect legacies/retentions.

The Cabasa shaker is much used in Reggae (in general) and has Afro-Brazilian origins, providing an interesting link within the African diaspora. Equally interesting are its origins as invention: namely as a modern, more durable “upgrade” of the age-old Shekere shaker of Yoruba culture – and in Afro-Brazilian Yoruba-based music - , but then with metal beads and plastic, replacing the old shekere’s beads and calabash, proven vulnerable. In Cuba that old Shekere is also still used, by the way. The Cabasa modern variant was a Brazilian invention, with eventual international influence (via Samba), also in the West (sold by LP and other big percussion companies). Relatively often used in Reggae, but also in Jazz, Funk, Pop, and non-Brazilian Latin music.

It might well be – though – that Jamaica is the place where the Cabasa shaker is used most in local music, outside of Brazil itself.

The Jamaican (trap) drumming style is “hi-hat heavy”, and requires perhaps a study all by itself. The creative yet steady hi-hat patterns often are engaging (and extra-percussive) enough. The added percussions have naturally to adapt and relate to this. Interestingly, it adds polyrhythm echoes as African retentions, spread over different instruments, drum, percussions, but also bass and rhythm guitar, moving thus between “straight” and “swing” rhythms, combining quite uniquely in Jamaican Reggae: Salsa (about 70% of Cuban origin) is “straight” rhythm (as in Central Africa, Yorubaland), as is traditional music in parts of Africa where most Jamaicans have their roots (like Ghana). On the other hand, Jazz, R&B, and Blues, historically influencing Reggae, are “swing” and “shuffle” based (with roots in Islamic-influenced Senegambian and Guinea/Mande-speaking areas of Africa). It’s that “swing”/shuffle part of reggae that connects more with the “tambourine” (with resonating cymbals, crossing the beat), if one chooses to use it. On some songs, though, the tambourine played counter-patterns, rather than “gluing” all in a shuffle, showing flexible creativity..

Many of the songs on these albums, I enjoyed as a whole from the start, only later in life as percussionist focusing on details. This is natural and human. The percussion, though, offered a kind of extra layer to unpeel in songs, adding even more beauty and “depth” to the music, in later stages.

That is after all another way how some musicians – even veteran Reggae percussionists themselves, like Sticky, Skully, Sky Juice, and Bongo Herman (who plays percussion on Richie Spice’s Earth A Run Red, for instance) – describe the function of percussion (added to trap drums/the drum kit) within Reggae: as a seasoning, extra “spice”, embellishing, but also as adding “depth” to songs, and their rhythms, like some hi-hat patterns, hinting at ancestral Africa’s polyrhythm musical traditions.

The way Jamaican percussionists choose to play – some call it “between the bass and drums” – on and around the main beat, or “filling spaces”, show this polyrhythmic creativity.

Ghana percussion compared

I guess my focus on West African percussion was till now a bit (not exclusively) toward what is now Southern Nigeria, the Yoruba and Igbo cultures, partly due to the African Diaspora connection of Yoruba culture with Cuba and Brazil. I started with Afro-Cuban percussion (the well-known Conga and attached smaller Bongó/Bongos drums), among other small percussion instruments, like bells, scrapers, etc., and later wanted to learn more also about Afro-Brazilian percussion. The knowledge about the latter (Brazilian percussion) is not yet as profound, but the comparison between Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian percussion I find intriguing; both the similarities and differences, even within partly shared Yoruba and Congo African retentions.

CUBA/BRAZIL COMPARED

You have percussion instruments common to Cuba and Brazil, partly of Yoruba origin, such as the Shékere shakers, but - on the other hand - the shékere-derived, more metal (beads)-based, Cabasa developed in Brazil, not in Cuba. You have hand drums that are quite similar, such as the Conga-resembling drums used at Capoeira dances, and the shape similarities between the Brazilian Timbau drum and Bocu drum in Eastern Cuba (conical, like the Yoruba "Ashiko" drum). Other drums are more unique for either Brazil (small frame drums, big bass drum) or Cuba (Conga, Bongó a.o. ).

More interesting differences within percussion use between Brazil and Cuba, in general, can be mentioned, such as the much more use of “tambourines” and small frame drums in Brazil - less used in Cuba -, or the double bell (agogo) common in Brazil and Samba, and known in Cuba, but used less than the single bell. More specifically, you have instruments in Brazil that were not in Cuban traditions, and vice versa.

Interesting indeed, yet not the theme of this post. It might become a topic for one of my blog posts – comparing Brazilian and Cuban percussion in more detail - , but I need to study it a bit more.

ANOTHER COMPARISON: GHANA AND NIGERIA

Instead, I opt now for an –admittedly preliminary – comparison of traditional musical and percussive cultures within Africa, between two regions: Southern Nigeria, which I have studied before more profoundly, and Ghana, which I have studied less.

I emphasize that it is the traditional music, original folk, I focus on, and I know that cultures are dynamic. Both Ghana and Nigeria have rich, vibrant (modern) musical cultures in the present, since decades using traditional folk styles for modernized “fusion” pop genres, with foreign (Jazz, Funk, Hip Hop, Reggae) ones, since the rice of Highlife in Ghana already from the 1870s, as an early “Pop” genre, including Western Jazz influences, spreading also to other countries like Nigeria.

The fusions continued and modernized since then more up to the present, but always with references to and influences from traditional music forms (Akan, Yoruba, etc.), mixed now with later Western of Afro-American genres (Funk, House, Dancehall, Hip Hop), resulting presently in a commercially quite successful genre like Afrobeats (a.k.a. “Afro pop”), and derivatives like Hiplife, popular among youths in both Ghana and Nigeria. This genre “Afrobeats” (some prefer the term “Afro pop”, for its confusion with Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat genre),even internationalized in recent times, with commercially successful artists like (Nigerian) Burna Boy.

TRADITIONAL MUSIC

I am now, however, more interested in the traditional culture, after all the local “folk music” base within all these fusions, also instrument-wise.

I know by now quite something about (South Nigerian) Yoruba and Igbo drums, for instance, and other percussion instruments they use, and their differing contexts. I even own and play some of them regularly (Udu, Shékere, Ashiko, Ekwe log drum), studying others more theoretically, but ardently. There is overall a strong Yoruba and Igbo influence on my percussion playing.

Other percussionists I know, also in the Netherlands, seemed to have specialized more in the Mande-regions (Guinee, South Mali, Senegambia), especially those playing Djembe (and Dundun) drums. I myself only a bit, and in part. Congo region percussion (also with retentions in the Americas), I wanted to study, but found too little (online) resources, unfortunately. Still other percussionists choose to focus on Indian or Middle Eastern percussion – often people with that background themselves -, but let’s focus on Africa now.

There’s not much more to it: I just did – on the other hand - not get around to pay as much attention to Ghanaian instruments: other priorities, obligations, time limits, etcetera, etcetera. That while there are by now quite some sources to study it online.

The underneath documentary shows some examples of instruments and playing of Ghanaian traditional music (Ashanti and otherwise) in present times, while discussing whether traditional music is endangered in modern day-Ghana, as it was affected since colonialism, and now by Western cultural influences.

AMERICAS

There is a link of what is now Ghana, and its Akan people (one of the main peoples in Ghana), with the Americas, as relatively many Akan or related slaves ended up in some colonies, notably parts of Jamaica, Suriname, Bahamas, and Guyana. It is assumed – with however deficient accuracy – that over 40% of enslaved Africans in Jamaica were Akan (called often Coromantee), having left a mark in Jamaican language/patois, folk culture, and indirectly in later music genres and practices (eventually Reggae), in rhythmic patterns, call-and –response vocals, and other aspects.

The same applies in Suriname, where remnants of Akan/Ghanainan languages are even still found among Maroon (escaped slaves) populations, belief systems, as well as drum types, rhythmic structures, etc. In the short video underneath, a Ghanaian finds out a Maroon of Cromanti/Akan descent (in Suriname) still can communicate in his language.

This has been studied quite well by now, but less known is probably the fact that also in Puerto Rico, parts of the southern US, and even more unknown in the Pacific Region of Colombia, Western Venezuela, there were Akan-speaking slaves from the Ghana region, helping to shape local Afro-Colombian or Afro-Venezuelan musical cultures.

Some find it in Puerto Rico’s Bomba genre (with indeed barrel-like drums as in Ghana), and in rhythms in the Pacific state of Chocó in Colombia.

All good and beautiful examples of cultural (African, in this case Akan) resilience, despite the horrors and dehumanization and deculturalization efforts of slavery systems in the Americas.

What is, however, the original percussion culture and tradition of Ghana itself? Is it as rich and varied as, e.g., the Yoruba percussion culture I already know?, are aspects (spiritual, material) comparable between these musical cultures, in both these former British colonies? How does it musically/percussively compare/fit within the wider region? These questions I try to answer now (somewhat), after some additional study.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

First, broadly some contextualizations. Ghana and Nigeria are geographically not so far apart, comparable to the distance between, say, the south of France and the south of Spain. The whole region is however quite varied, with in between Benin and Togo (former Dahomey), the Fon Ewe people, with their own culture, and various peoples and cultures within Nigeria and Ghana itself. Later, different colonizers caused some “cultural distance” between francophone Benin and former British colonies Ghana and Nigeria, also influential in Anglophone African pop genres (Highlife, Juju, later Afrobeats, etc.). Language plays a role, even in creolized variants.

Unfortunately, several European colonial powers captured and bought slaves from all these areas, forcibly bringing them to the Americas. The Dutch and English for a period had preferential access in Ghana, the French in Dahomey (Benin) – hence the strong Benin influence among Afro-Haitians - , Portuguese, and later also Spanish, among the Yoruba, British (also) among the Igbo, etcetera. On the other hand, as I already mentioned, Akan/Ghana slaves also ended up in Spanish colonies, and Yoruba also in British colonies, like Jamaica. Studies – nowadays also with DNA analysis - also show Congo and Igbo descendants among Afro-Jamaicans, besides recorded strong Akan influences.

Africans of Congo descent are even more widespread throughout the Americas, used and enslaved by all colonial powers.

The spread of Islam reached both the North of Ghana and Nigeria, prior to formal European colonization, the latter bringing also European Christianity, notably its Protestant variant, to southern Ghana and Nigeria, now even more present and adhered to there than in nowadays largely secularized Europe.

DIFFERENCES

Just like Europe is not all the same, and you start noticing differences – even in folk culture – when you travel from, say the North of France and cross the Pyrenees toward southern Spain, including different indigenous instruments most commonly used: accordion and bagpipes in France, castanets and acoustic guitars in central and southern Spain (and tambourines in between).

The same applies even more when comparing the rich musical and percussion cultures between Ghana and Nigeria. I noticed this soon enough, even if looking superficially at most common drum shapes and types, for instance.

CULTURAL CONTEXT OF GHANA

The North of Ghana can be considered part of the adjacent Sahel, Mande-influenced region spreading through Guinea to Mali and Senegambia, and eastward to Burkina Faso. Here the Dagomba people, and other, Gur-speaking ethnic groups (Guro, known for masks, aslo inhabit Ivory Coast), live. Dagomba and related peoples speak the Dagbani language, and account for about 16% of the total Ghanaian population. Ethnically, they are related to the Mossi people of Burkina Faso.

These are Islamic influenced regions, characterized by more string instruments, specific talking drums, melismatic (“trembling”/sung vowel spread over several notes) singing, and as drum type also the (orig. probably Mande/Mandinga) Djembe is known, as well as drums made of calabash. Here the Griot culture (travelling musicians and storytellers, often with talking drums and harps/kora’s) is interesting. Especially the Dagomba in Northern Ghana are known for the use of talking drums within Ghana – called Donno, when adopted by the Akan later. In North Ghana – toward Burkina Faso - (among the Lobi people, also in Burkina Faso), the local xylophone (or balafon), known as Gyile, usually with 14 wooden keys, is common.

AKAN

The central part, and parts of the Western South of Ghana are largely Akan-speaking, where the Ashanti kingdom was once dominant. The present-day regions of Brong-Ahafo, Ashanti, and Western, Central (though rather Southern), and Eastern (see Map) are or became over time mostly Akan-speaking (including the once horrendous "slave port" Cape Coast). The Akan/Ashanti, and related people like the Fante (in coastal areas), were once relatively powerful in the region because of its gold resources, ruling over others, and reaching a somewhat advanced feudal class structure, with the royal house being important. As a whole, the Akan consider themselves royal (all members), only some actually function as royal leaders, which is a structure still proudly existing.

With about 48% of Ghana’s population (and around 40% of neighbouring Ivory Coast), the Akan people (speaking various dialects) form the largest ethnic group in present-day Ghana, which is also important to point out culturally: Dagomba/Dagbani, Lob, Gur,i in the North, and Ga, and Ewe in the Southeast are among the larger minorities (some still with over 10% of Ghana’s population). Different from Nigeria, having more a percentual/numerical “balance” between main ethnic groups (Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, as main ones). Akan are more numerically dominant in Ghana.

Drums, also big ones, are important in Ashanti culture, many played by sticks, and some with curved sticks having a “talking drum” functions, accompanied by - as elsewhere in Africa - bells, sticks, bamboo flutes, shakers, and even a castanet-like “clapper” instrument.

ENSEMBLES

There are different types of drum ensembles, related to different social and also royal/ceremonial functions. These usually involve various drum and percussion types. The Adowa is the best-known social dance with music/drum/percussion accompaniment, with mainly female dancers, but male players/drummers.

The Kete ensemble is the best known of the originally ceremonial ensembles, and played at royal courts, among the Ashanti, also using the various drums in the Akan-speaking areas.

Both the Adowa and Kete ensembles tend to include “roundly” shape drums known as the Apenteme, taller “conga-like” drums, some big drums for special occasions, further: the Atumpan (round, talking drum, played with curved stick), roundish Petia support drums (played also with sticks) and the largest among the Ashanti drums: the Fontomfrom, with a tall, more “conga-like” shape. The Fontomfrom is often even about 150 cm (5 feet) high, (and 60 cm/2 feet wide)!

ETYMOLOGY AND RETENTIONS IN THE AMERICAS

The “Kete” (or “Akete”) drums known in Jamaica and Rastafari culture under that name, used in Nyahbinghi sessions, are however smaller and cylindrical in shape, thus have a different shape to most of the drums in the Ghanaian “Kete” ensemble, despite the shared name, showing Akan influences, at least etymologically (the linguistic study of word origin).

In drum combinations, functions, and patterns there are still Akan influences in Rastafari culture, due to their strong influences among the enslaved foreparents in Jamaica. Yet also influences from the Congo region, and other parts of Africa. That drummed “heart beat” of Rasta Nyabinghi sessions is by most scholars seen as rather a Congo, Central African heritage, via Kumina in Eastern Jamaica. Akan rhythmic influences are found elsewhere in Jamaican folk culture (Pocomania, native Baptist faith) too, as well as among the Jamaican Maroons.

The Aprinting drums among the Jamaican Maroons (I’ve studied them before), has etymological Akan origins again at least, but is further cylindrical/conical shape (not round), like drums elsewhere in Africa. The Maroons are partly of Akan descent, and well-known leaders of them too, but included demonstrated contributions from other parts of Africa, including Igbo, Yoruba, and Congo.

The Apinti drums among the Surinamese Maroons – however – not only in name/etymology resemble the Akan/Ashanti drums (Apenteme), but also more or less in shape: carved, and widening toward the bottom, as in playing style.

Further, there is a ”shekere”-like shaker instrument among the Ashanti (with beads around calabash), called Torowa. This is thus comparable to the Yoruba shékere.

GA

The Ga people in coastal southeast Ghana (around the capital Accra) and part of the Eastern region, have an interesting culture too, though now only about 8% of Ghana's total population. Linguistically they’re somewhat related to the Akan speakers: the Ga language, like Akan and Twi, belong to the Kwa language family.

Culturally there are similarities and differences, and in time the Ga adopted some Akan instruments, like drums, and vice versa. The Ga’s in part coastal location – and around the capital Accra - ensured some more international influences over time, while there were also influences from the neighbouring Ewe (Ghana, Benin, Togo) people, with a rich drumming tradition as well.

While their cosmology and social structure once, originally, differed from the Akan (theocratic/priest – not king/chief - rule, songs for main deity, instead of for kings or chiefs, etc.), over time the Akan influence changed this, though own Ga aspects are maintained. Likewise, most drums and other percussion used among the Ga are adoptions from the Akan and Ewe, but also with own instruments. The double bell (less used among the Akan), and Gome drum (a drum sat on, like a cajón with skin) are typical for the Ga, as well as the by now better known “Kpanlogo” drum.

KPANLOGO

The Kpanlogo drum has a “conga”-like barrel shape - generally a bit shorther than conga’s -, like some Ashanti and Ewe drums, but an own sound and technique, partly related to its antilope skin. Lately, cow skin is used more often, increasing similarity with the well-known (orig. Afro-Cuban) Conga, but with different tuning and patterns. (African retentions in Cuba show overall more Congo, Yoruba, and Efik/Calabar influences).

Kpanlogo is also the name of a genre and ensemble, that arose only since the 1960s and became quite popular in wider Ghana (after independence in 1959), but the drum named “kpanlogo” used in it, is in fact a new name for the older, traditional Tswreshi drum. The Kpanlogo/Tswreshi drum tends to combine with djembe, dunun, and bells (gankogui), within current Kpanlago ensembles. That “gankogui” bell is a double bell, and is an adoption from the neighbouring Ewe culture in Benin and Togo, and also in a part of Ghana. That Ewe culture is very rich in drums too, including conga-like shaped drums too, of various sizes. The Akan partly adopted that double bell later in their ensembles, but traditionally use single bells, such as slit bells.

EWE

In Ghana's Volta region, in the SE, there are the Ewe people, more dominant in neighbouring Togo. They account for about 13 % of the whole of Ghana's population, and have a rich percussion culture too (like the Fon in Benin).

MUSICAL STRUCTURES/PATTERNS

What Yoruba and Akan music in general share is that they solidly fit within the sub-Saharan (West) African characteristic key- based, “polyrhythmic” category, with different, interlocking rhythms played at the same time in one piece, with the bell(s), or wooden sticks and shakers, and support drums functioning as “time keepers”, with some lead drums having freer roles, often answered by other “improvising” drums, as a "call-and-response".

Vocals likewise tend to have that call-and-response structure, reflecting the age-old principle (both natural and spiritual) of “variations on the same theme” and “continuing life despite challenges and interruptions/obstacles”.

There are some differences though, related to “spiritual” functions. These seem more present in Yoruba pieces (chants, rhythms), dedicated often to Yoruba deities (“orishas”), involving therefore “spiritual possession”, and, in musical terms, an “apotheosis” or simpler: peak, highpoint. This translates in rhythms that a deity with specific characteristics (like the thunder and strength god Shango) enters a body of dancers, in some kind of trance, at a “peak” moment. Despite one’s personal spiritual beliefs about this, it certainly adds an attractive fervor and “dramatic development” to the music.

Ghanaian music, especially by the Akan and Ga, - as well as Ewe music - have some of these characteristics too, as spirits and ancestors were traditionally also worshipped, but less prominent, as now more common are “social” dance ensembles, or those ceremonial music genres for chiefs or kings, requiring some steadiness within its intensity, mostly achieved instead by dynamic improvisations and call-and-response.

RETENTIONS IN JAMAICA (MUSICALLY)

Both these aspects are found in Jamaican Reggae and other music in the Americas from the African Diaspora. I wish to focus on Reggae especially, since I am a Reggae fan since my teens. I am fully aware though, that also Surinamese music (traditional and later popular genres, like Kawina and Kaseko), or folk music in e.g. Guyana and the Bahamas, bears Ghana/Akan retentions in some of its aspects, as does – as some assert – Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba (with improvised) drum-dance interactions.

Reggae is – moreover - I think very interesting for the keen listener seeking African retentions in it. It has a “swing” aspect from Griot/Mande Africa (via Blues, Jazz, and R&B), alongside straighter rhythms and polyrhythm aspects, that are steady yet interacting continued, but in many Reggae songs elevate toward a “peak” or “highpoint” as in Yoruba or Congo, or old Akan, traditions. Translated for the modern drum kit in, e.g. the “crash cymbal” crowning/emphasizing a rhythm, as a temporary rhythmic climax. People who never dance to Reggae (those people exist) – confirming the stereotype, mostly (but not always) White people outside of Jamaica - , often don’t even notice this specific African retention.

Reggae musicians outside of Jamaica sometimes (not always) fail – or are culturally unable – to have that “peaking” aspect. Little use of “crash cymbal climaxes” - of otherwise skilled, steady, and tight drummers - betray that lack, that is perhaps forgivable (another culture, not theirs), but still a pity. The connection with this hidden African retention is mostly more present in Reggae by Jamaicans themselves.

Reggae’s steady rhythmic flow also shows Akan/Ghana retentions, as some kete or other drum patterns (call-and -response), and vocal-wise both some “harmony groups” Reggae was once known for (Abyssinians, Culture, Wailing Souls, Israel Vibration, a.o.), but also in the precursor to Rapping, the rhythmic talking or Toasting on music. Though similar vocal styles are found in other parts of Africa (and South Nigeria too), Jamaican Toasting/Chatting vocals still often shows some interesting “Akan rhythmic” aspects.

The later Dancehall “riddims” (music/instrumental), even the recent Digital “ragga” variant, also clearly encompass African rhythmic retentions, specifically even Ghanaian ones in the “interrupting” counter patterns. That “polyrhythm echo” makes the rhythmic complexity of Jamaican Dancehall in fact stronger than that of “simpler” (most) Hip Hop beats from the US, which might surprise some.

MY PERCUSSION

Not to make this too much about me, but I am in fact someone who is playing percussion for over 10 years now, and reside in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I participated over the years in many jam sessions there, playing different genres, played with some (Reggae) bands, and played with African and “Latin” musicians as well. I also compose songs including my percussion.

Like most percussionists I know, I over the years I gathered many big and small percussion instruments (new, second hand, etc.), mostly from the wider African diaspora, turning my home in a semi-“percussion museum”, focussed on the African diaspora.

You have more people like that, I know, but what is relevant for this post, is how much of the “Ghana percussion” came into all my percussion activities. I personally started with Afro-Cuban and Yoruba patterns and instruments, soon also obtaining affinity for Congo, Mande (djembe, dundun), and Igbo musical cultures, and in the Americas: Haiti, Brazil, Colombia, a.o. Ghana stayed a bit behind, it seems (in instruments and patterns).

Yet not so much as I myself thought. Years ago I learned several bell patterns (also for double bell) including some associated with the Akan people, trying to fit them with different genres, and in the grooves. The bell pattern known as Asadua, in 12, played as: oXoXoXoXXoXXo (o=count, X=beat) is just an example of a bell pattern from Ghana that became part of my repertoire, like the Ashanti one: XoXXoXoXXoXo. Both can add nicely to a groove, of different genres!

I obtained over time a carved, small djembe that some assume is from Ghana, because of its characteristics. Could well be (Ivory Coast is also possible: often also carved, but there is an Akan influence there too): see photo.

I also have a small Surinamese Maroon (Djuka) “apinti” drum, with certainly Akan physical characteristics and retentions. A bit small for an adult person with big hands (my hands happen to be even relatively big, with long fingers, people tell me).. but I can always use just some fingers, not the whole hand, to play it.

I play a larger, square frame drum I sit on as a Gome drum, of the Ga in Ghana (saw some instruction films), even though not a Gome drum as such (Celtic sign on it, probably from Irish music), still playable sat on and with hands and feet too (like the Ga “gome”).

I have “ball shakers”, called Askatua, which are also Ghanaian: difficult to play (gyrating it, wrapped around finger), plus some other small instruments associated with Ghana.

In addition, years ago I studied and composed some songs around Ghanaian rhythmic patterns (partly from books), under a composer name of mine (Bongo Michel), to interchange Yoruba, Congo, Igbo, other African, and Afro-American influences on my playing and composing. This included a Fume Fume-based composition (a Ga rhythm), as well as a Ashanti music-based composition I made, called Sesa. I used other instruments – mostly – that traditional Ghanaian ones (did not have so much), but studied rhythmic patterns.

So, “Ghana” was not absent in my percussion focus and creative activity, but was neither the main focus.

This percussion is a passionate hobby of mine, you can safely say, haha. It also is Africa- and African Diaspora-wide.

CONCLUSION (plus RECOMMENDABLE LINK)

With the Yoruba and Igbo in (S) Nigeria, Akan and other Ghanaian music shares some basic “forest Africa” musical principles: call-and-response (vocals and instruments), polyrhythm and “clave” based interlocking combined rhythms, the “bell” as time-keeper, drums of different sizes, various shakers, wooden instruments, flutes, etcetera.

Differences I find interesting: the “sticks” (curved or not) are used more for drumming among the Akan than among the Yoruba (more hand drumming) or Igbo.

Historically formed differences in social structures play a role. Ghana and Akan society – once wealthy/powerful due to gold - knew chieftaincy and royal courts, in which drum ensembles functioned. Yoruba music had some stratification and chief/royal functions as well, but included more maintained “spiritual” deities, with different functions, associated with natural/environmental aspects, sea, rivers, thunder, requiring own rhythms to invoke such spiritual deities. Akan music, by contrast, transformed into more “social” and “ceremonial” in functions, even if having originally an own spiritual spirit-ancestor cosmology. Steady danceable rhythms – and variation – thus developed with dynamic flows, but less climax (i.e. possession)-based.

Igbo society in SE Nigeria was less authoritarian organized and centralized, with more disparate small-scale villages, requiring less “ceremonial” heaviness, foregrounding more a “natural, mellow flow”, aimed at dancing and communal living. As said in the above documentary: dancing and listening to/making music (rhytms) are among all these peoples part of a holistic whole, as in most of sub-Saharan Africa.

Within this, differences still are evident. The relatively “rounder” drums are more recurring among the Akan and the Ewe (alongside straighter drums), but less found among the Yoruba (more barrel-shaped, "hourglass"-like, or conical/cylindrical).

These different regions between Ghana and Nigeria all have specific instruments that are unique for each region, as well as drums or other percussion instruments with similarities with those in the other regions: the double bell can be found commonly among the Ga, Akan, Yoruba, and Igbo, with somewhat differ shapes. The same applies to talking drums, though most indigenous among the northern Ghanaian Dagomba people (relatively big talking drums in size), but adopted also by Akan and Yoruba.

Several online resources study and describe this in more detail, also with video examples, so no use for me “reinventing the wheel”.

This website I can recommend, as it did a good job giving an overview - with visual/video examples - and descriptions of several Ghanaian traditional music types, even if not exhaustive. Commercially based, but very informative by itself: see: https://ghanagoods.co.uk/

Combined with other online sources, one can now through self-study online, already certainly get a good idea from Ghana’s traditional music, and its survival in the present.