"World-a-Riddim" : different rhythm types and functions globally

It seems cool to say – as a percussionist – that few instrumentalists in this modern world are as intensely “multicultural” as a percussionist/percussion player. Potentially, but even to a point inevitably.

As a sweeping, more sociopolitical,statement one can even claim that “percussionists are the only true multiculturalists” in this world.. but that is perhaps too sweeping for now..

The exceptions are those deeply specialized in e.g. purely Indian instruments (tabla) to fit in India’s musical structures, or similar all too mono-cultural percussionists in Arabic (e.g. with darbuka’s), Japanese (e.g. taiko’s), or other specific cultures, even within percussion-rich Africa.

Especially in the Western world, most percussionists in modern “pop”, “rock”, and world music, however, combine instruments from the Americas – often the African Diaspora (Afro-Brazil, Afro-Cuba) -, with African, Middle Eastern, European, or modern Western additions.

Some of these Western modern instruments are based on African or Latin American models, but either way new sounds arose, such as the metal “flexatone”, with some “singing saw” characteristics (known historically a bit in Slavic folk music), combined in sets of many percussion players with African or Afro-Cuban drums (djembe, conga’s), woodblocks, bells (found both in Africa and Asia), the relatively more European tambourines, originally Amerindian “scrapers” , or even Spanish castanets.

Like I said, a truly multicultural mix, this “tool kit” of percussionists in many “pop” or “world” music bands..

THE FUNCTION OF RHYTHM

That is: instrument-wise. It is also a fact, however, that musical “rhythm” is not uniformly defined across cultures worldwide: regarding its function in music in different cultures.

Drums and rhythm play a role in very different cultures, but are just the “tools” used according to different values and with different goals throughout world cultures.

One used to Afro-American and African percussion – like myself – can often not get into Indian “rhythms”, Japanese, or Arabic “rhythms” that easily. Even when you are musically and rhythmically flexible and adaptive – which I claim to be – dancing to it does not go as automatic as to Yoruba, Reggae, or Samba music.

In fact, some music with drums and “rhythms” in some specific cultures are not even meant to dance to (other “social”, artistic, ritual, or narrative functions). Certainly not as is common in African-based rhythms – “dance music” , or European music which we are used to. In a part of European music “rhythm” - or eventually present percussion/drums - is not even that dance-oriented, but rather serving as a harmonic base.

I myself as a percussionist am instrument-wise certainly very multicultural, rhythm-wise admittedly less. I enjoyed - selectively – some Asian, Middle Eastern, or other non-Afro – rhythms in music, some even felt a bit danceable to me, but Afro-American and African swing and polyrhythm, or clave-based music, remains more my “thing”, rhythmically. My main love.

I am a Reggae fan, and a nice thing about Reggae is that it mixes “straight rhythm”, clave, and polyrhythm aspects, with Swing, as known from Jazz and Blues. In that sense it is rhythmically between Afro-Cuban music and Afro-US music (Jazz, R&B, etc.). A good African Diaspora mix.

That is my personal rhythmical world and taste, and it is a personal trajectory, based on own choices and tastes.

OTHER MUSICAL CULTURES: SUMMARIZED

I do wonder, though, how my “world-a-riddim” (ha!) compares to the other ones I mentioned. Music follows culture, so the function of rhythm in a culture’s music reflects that culture.

In this sense “keywords” can be useful. Are there short ways to describe rhythm’s functions in different cultures?

Through Google, AI (a google plus, really), Wikipedia, and some paper sources, I could derive these keywords/short characterizations, related to some representative cultural “zones” in this world..

It is of course terribly simplified, and not all existing musical cultures are mentioned, but it is about main trends.

Africa: polyrhythm (simultaneous, interlocking rhythms) and timeline (clave). Cross rhythms too. Layered vertically.

India: cyclical time and tala (story and language based). Monophonic, linear and mathematical. Horizontal (differing from “vertical”, layered rhythm building in African music).

Western classical music: rhythm subdued to melody and harmony, later more metric flexibility and syncopation.

Celtic music: rhythm built into melodic playing (mixed), also on nonpercussive instruments (like a fiddle, pipe, or harp). Often story based. Flowing, “floating” feel, “rolling” and linear, more “ornamented” than e.g. Germanic music, and also more syncopation. Frame drum use common.

Germanic music: strict, symmetrical meters, strong first downbeat: “marching” and Waltz as archetypes. Mathematically precise, tight on-beat rhythms.

Slavic music: asymmetrical and less strict than Germanic music, some syncopation.

Arabic music: cyclical rhythmic modes, as a structural but looping skeleton, flexible to allow ornamentation. Monorhythmic. Follows melody.

Turkish music (incl. Balkan): sophisticated rhythm cycles, irregular and asymmetric meters “limping” effect), additive meters (bouncing, "swing" effect). Further similarities with Arabic rhythm cycles.

Indonesian music: colotomic structure (gamelan): architecturally precise. Gongs/metal dominant, skinned drums secondary.

Chinese music: not a metronomic rhythm but an elastic framework. Empty space valued. Following energy flow.”Breath”-based. Slight heterophony. Mostly linear, but fluid.

Japanese music: also breath-based – not metronomic -, and gives likewise importance to empty space “ the rhythmic power of silence”. Aids in story-telling and community.

Tibetan music: paces meditation, monorhythmic, non-metric rhythm , but instead - again – breath governed, and elastic. Rhythm aims at stabilizing the mind, and an inward focus though slow repetitive beats. No loops or cycles, but guiding rituals or texts.

Amerindian (or: Shamanic) music: monorhythm, “heartbeat” of nature-based, spiritual functions. Deep bass drum sounds.

Inuit music: asymmetric meter, story-based. Voice-drum interactions. Rim-hit frame drums common, differing from “deep bass” sounds of Amerindians in e.g. Bolivia.

Flamenco (Spanish) music: asymmetric elements / limitedly metered but freer, 12-beat rhythmic cycles. Nonwestern in most rhythmic aspects, including frequent syncopation, and even polyrhythm. Flamenco is rhythmically exceptional within Europe, due to different cultural influences (Roma/Indian, Moorish, African), mixed in with local Andalusian folk music.

STEREOTYPES BUT NUANCED

All this seems to more or less confirm stereotypes (Germanic music tight and “marching” like, complex story-based in India, deep heartbeat among Amerindians, “floating/flowing” Celtic sounds, meditative in Tibet and China, “groove” and polyrhythm-based in Africa), but also shows nuances. Syncopation is not only limited to Africa, for instance.

In several cultures rhythm follows a horizontal, textual “story” or “melody” of some sort (Asia and Europe), but not everywhere. Rhythm is indeed the least subdued to melody or harmony in African music: another stereotype confirmed, albeit not an offensive one (in my opinion). I am of the opinion that words/language/texts are after all also tools to lie and mislead. Their primacy over natural “rhythm” therefore suspicious.

This summary also shows how Japanese culture is partly influenced or derived from older Chinese culture, sharing cultural values of “breath” and “empty space”, in line with spiritual ideas around energy flows, as found in Buddhism (see Tibetan music), Taoism, and Shintoism.

Complicated rhythm structures in India also support ancient cultural “stories” and principles, in this case from Hinduism, showing in drums imitating spoken language.

In its syncopation, “later” Western music (pop, “rock”) certainly underwent African and Afro-American influences (via Blues, Jazz, etc.).

Logically, as part of music, rhythm follows and supports cultural specific structures and goals. In many cultures these align with local spirituality and even “sacred” or “holy” music, albeit with secular versions.

SIMPLIFIED DINSTINCTION

Looking at rhythm’s function in traditional music world wide, this main, oft-repeated – simplified – distinction bears some truth: Europe emphasizes harmony in music, Asia melody, and Africa rhythm.

Still simplified, and all music have harmonic, melodic and, rhythmic aspects, but in essence it holds: in by themselves also differing Asian music cultures (Arabic, Chinese, Indian, a.o.), rhythm almost always supports “melody” or “stories/texts” (textual stories of melodies), while in Europe indeed rhythm often tended to support “harmony”, as noticeable in “classical” music (Bach, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, etc.), though in older folk traditions (Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Basque), supporting the stories or “melodies” also was a function of rhythm.

Polyrhythms as meant to dance to, ritually or not, remain typically and originally African. Of course, however, lyrics and singing also play a role in African music, even a guiding one, but often also rhythmically-oriented (call-and-response), seldom supporting non-rhythm as in other cultures.

SACRILEGE?

I am not the type of guy who plays the “sacrilege” card too soon, though I have my own, largely Rastafari-based spiritual views. Musicians and artists furthermore need to think creative and free to add value. That humans are born to be free, and think free, is after all also my (spiritual?) opinion.

In addition to this, one must beware of no selectiveness or bias regarding this: all too easy use, distortion, or appropriation of (even spiritual) African musical principles seems more tolerated in the West for even commercial music producers, than if e.g. non-initiates play Indian or other Asian instruments that in many minds connect more to “pure” or “sacred” ancient religions (Hindusim and Buddhism), implicitly to be respected more.

Not the same degree of “respect”, let’s just say, painfully reflecting the disparaging historical treatment of equally ancient African culture in colonial history, The same reason that India – while once a British colony – kept it’s Hindu-based culture, whereas Igbo , Yoruba, - also colonized by the British – largely “Christianized”, or elsewhere “Arabicized”/ Islamicized.. More trampled upon.

Even among African descendants in the African Diaspora – and even within the Afro-centric Rastafari movement - , there exist disparaging view of Vodou and related “spirit invoking” or “ancestor spirits” veneration in Africa.

In Central Africa (around the Congo region), ancestor worship has long been traditionally important, whereas in the Nigeria-Benin-Ghana region specific deities/spirits – connected with e.g. nature, like rivers, thunder (Shango, Yemayá, etc.) - “mounting” believers, long was. All this “spirit possession” occurs through rhythm and drumming patterns, with trance-like effects, and while dancing.

The relative importance and primacy of rhythm and drums in sub-Saharan Africa relates to these faiths.

Christianity and Islam tried to limit that, but African percussion found a way to survive, now more secularly. Think of the Djembe drumming culture and circles in nominally Islamic areas like Mali, Guinea, Senegambia, Burkina Faso, and around

This secular “djembe” drumming gained even international popularity, mostly without a proscribed spiritual goal other than “community” or “musical bliss”, though rhythmic patterns played might derive originally from ritual or “religious” celebrations in Mande cultures, such as male circumcision, initiation, etc. They became secular, though.

REGGAE PERCUSSION AND RASTAFARI

Opinions among Reggae percussionsists in Jamaica differ. These tend to be Rastafari-adherents, where a Biblical/Protestant influence (via British colonialism) still made some condemn African Vodou and related “spirit possession” faiths in Jamaica (Obeah, Pocomania), as devilish and divisive. “Obeah” and Vodou are said in some Reggae lyrics to use their “science” mainly to sabotage/attack enemies, and put wicked spells against their brothers and sisters.

Some Rastas, like Mutabaruka, however deplore this as an unfortunate Western/colonial remnant – once meant to disparage and destroy the African heritage – still within the otherwise Afro-centric Rastafari movement, that chose to be Bible-based.

Indeed, I have researched a period more deeply Vodou, Santería, Myal, Obeah, etc…, and such African “spirit possession” faiths, and their tenets and practices. I concluded it is more about “harmony”, “community”, and “healing” – i.e. the “good” – than wicked tricks and spells against people as the European stereotype indoctrinated people with.

Good and bad/evil are more clearly formulated and distinguished in text-based Christianity and the Bible (and the Quran), which might attract believers wanting to improve the(ir) world and take a clear moral stance, but a lot of that is hypocrisy and hidden power play, as the “conquering” religions Christianity, Islam,..clearly showed with their history of enslavement and second-class citizenships for nonbelievers or, well, women.

Even with this condemning of Vodou by some Rasta percussionists, they still admit that they draw on Vodou, Pocomania, Kumina, Burru, Yoruba, drum patterns or notions, when fitting musically in a Roots Reggae context. Repurposing “spirit possession”, and of course “ancestor worship” long common in Congo regions, can be seen metaphorically as honouring/respecting ones African foreparents, knowing their roots n Africa, so important for Rastafari.

This makes “sacrilege” not a very useful term for creative, rhythmic musicians. Rhythm is everywhere, it is life itself, and thus in all humans, enabling each one to express oneself through it. Just like you can get in a “trance” or meditate in quite different ways: sitting down and silent, or dancing/ moving, and singing.

Still, some “sacrilege” or “disrespect” objections were made by rigid critics against free-thinking” world music” instrumentalists who dared for instance to use a Nepalese singing bowl outside of the Buddhist lithurgical context, such as for a jazzy musical piece, or the double-sided Yoruba Bata drums in Cuba, used normally in spiritual contexts, when used in too secular “party” songs (Salsa, Latin). Those “purist” objections will remain, I think.

Rastafari adherents have at least the good argument that Rastafari arose in Jamaica among Afro-Jamaicans as a reconnection with the African roots and values (i.e. via Kumina drumming), as a broader goal “overruling” petty ritualistic considerations.

Rastafari’s Nyabinghi drumming with the characteristic “heartbeat” drum patterns is partly rooted in Congo-based Kumina drumming of Central African descendants in Eastern Jamaica, and Kumina was originally aimed at ancestor spirit invoking. Later it was replaced – or repurposed - by Rastas with Biblically based “chants” aimed at one God/Jah”, on the same drum pattern.

Some flexibility there, with fruitful results in developing Rasta culture. Culture is after all not static, but dynamic. Influenced by different cultures over time. In this case an own “Black” interpretation of the Bible.

FLEXIBILITY

Just like people are flexible too. Percussionists in the Western world, e.g. in Pop or Rock bands (or Soul, Funk, Reggae, Latin, etc.), or part of bands in Europe or the US, cannot escape being multicultural, with almost inevitably African musical elements, mixed with other ones. Standard percussion sets include Afro-Cuban instruments (conga’s, guiro, bongo), and often also African and Afro-Brazilian ones, along with Asian influences or modern factory variants, with often Afro-Latin models: examples are the now metal Cabasa shaker, based on the traditional beaded Shekere, or the Vibraslap rattle, based on the older (e.g. Peruvian) “donkey jaw”. All in all an intriguing variation of instruments, with own histories

On the other hand: many “pop” or Rock songs in Western music with standard structures (chorus-verses, bridge) are also “stories, more or less derived from Western poetic and prosaic traditions, and rhythm supports these, somewhat reminding of rhythm’s function in Asian traditions (Indian, Arabic, Chinese): supporting main melodies and stories, with timed sounds. Additionally, it also must fit a European harmony structure.

This is the musical playground, wherein it’s fun and inspiring to play, according to one’s own preferences: atmospheric, repetitive, polyrhythmic, syncopated, straight on the beat or swing. And yes, also “free space” and “breath” – as in Asian/Chinese musical culture – plays a role in this rhythmic work, (tension building, rest, etc).

What I like about Amerindian music (Peru, Bolivia, etc.) is the direct spiritual reference to nature of the drum TOOK-took-took-took, TOOK-took-took-took, like a beating heart and life line. That’s somehow part of many grooves in other genres too.

CONCLUSION

It’s good to focus on the “function of rhythm” for me as percussionist, but also as songwriter which I de facto also am, including vocals and lyrics (see my Youtube Channel).

When making/writing songs, I sometimes follow some Western pop standards (bridge, chorus, verse) and elements, mostly genre-wise Reggae, with (e.g.) often Afro-Cuban or Jazz influences adding syncopation and polyrhythm.

In other compositions of mine I depart from such “modern pop” formats and I try to make more traditional African polyrhythmic music, Salsa songs, Flamenco songs, or in European or Caribbean folk genres, with other musical structures: more asymmetric or unmetered.

Spanish Flamenco came early in my life, as my mother was from Southern Spain, and with a large family there. Some distant family members of my grandmother’s side – surname De Tena - are even Flamenco artists/singers I understood (like Miguel De Tena), so really in that culture. I like some genres and aspects of Flamenco enough to make Flamenco-like songs too, haha. This is aided by the aforementioned summary/description that Flamenco is one of the few European genres that has “polyrhythm” and further a non-Western rhythmic base. More toward “Africa”, let’s say, like Andalusia’s geography.

On the other hand: also Alpine Italian accordion music (my father was from Northern Italy), North African, or French chansons, grabbed my interest for periods.

That shows that I like to experiment with different global rhythms, even straying quite far outside my relative favourite African or African Diaspora genres (Reggae, Rumba, Son, Funk, African genres). Hoping to also find beauty in them.

That’s what an open mind – also a “musical open mind” - is: wanting to see beauty everywhere. Wanting to see possibility and inspiration everywhere.

Eventually, despite this, – usually – the “prodigal son returns to his own” to use a Biblical reference, used in also Catholic countries, as my Spanish mother used this expression regularly, for “returning “home”, where you feel in the end most at ease, and in some way “loved”, after curious wanderings.

My percussion playing on jamsessions in clubs (mainly in Amsterdam) can also be seen online, on my Youtube channel, and it also is flexible and “multicultural”, with varying patterns from e.g. Afro-Cuban Rumba and Abakua, Brazilian Samba, African bell patterns, Conga-fied Reggae basslines, Cumbia, Flamenco, but also classical music, “rock” or Pop , folk/Celtic, or Middle Eastern elements, which I try to flexibly add to the songs: usually nice covers of Rock or Funk classics.

I use thus a variety of multicultural, modern and traditional percussion instruments, but also adapt to the different functions of rhythm in Pop or Rock, while adding syncopation and counter-rhythms, without distracting from the main basic songs. This can be also “ornamentation” known in Celtic, Arabic, and Flamenco music rhythms, but also “vertically layered” on top of as well as interlocking with the main bass-drum beat, as in polyrhythmic sub-Saharan African music, hopefully to good “driving” effect.

This all is the multicultural and groovy fun of it.

Music, rhythm, and health effects

Recently, I added subtitles to a documentary I made in 2015. That documentary was on the Didgeridoo musical instrument, and was kind of experimental. I have never really made a documentary before, but still I wanted to take it seriously, approach it as professionally as possible.

That documentary was thus on the Didgeridoo instrument, neither an instrument I play. This way, in making it – I reasoned – it was also educational for me. I am very interested in (World) Music and instruments, so it was still somewhat “up my alley”. Musical instruments I play are mostly percussion instruments, and occasionally mbira, harmonica, balafon, flute, MIDI keyboard, or guitar.

The documentary included - or should I use present tense? -, includes, an interview with a Didgeridoo player I met once (Nick Bastiaansen), having seen him perform with a didgeridoo a few times.

This post is not an indirect, “sneaky” way of self-promotion, as some might see it: quite simplistically and negatively of course. Okay, perhaps a bit, I admit. Yet, I don’t make money with this documentary. Furthermore, in my experience, the “ego trip” accusation is sometimes just, but often also used selectively for people you already don’t like for other reasons. For people one likes it suddenly becomes “justful pride in one’s effort/work (or skills)” or “self-expression”.

Let’s just say that I learned more than I knew before about the Didgeridoo, making this documentary, and I am satisfied with the results. People can judge for themselves, and I hope many people want to see it too (subtitles switched on with button, first on the right below).

This post is not about making a documentary. Neither is this post about the activity of “adding subtitles” or “translation”. I translate texts quite a lot, mostly between Dutch, English, and Spanish, both professionally and personally. Then, “subtitling” is a specific skill and activity that has its specific issues (timing with film/images, didactics) even beyond “translation” as such. To be honest, though, I think translation and subtitling are not themes I find interesting enough for my blog.

Instead, I choose to focus on a theme discussed in the said documentary, specifically in its last part, involving the didgeridoo player Nick Bastiaansen. Especially, at the very end of the documentary.

I end the documentary with a short “jam” of me (with the Ashiko drum) playing with Nick Bastiaansen on Didgeridoo. I interrupt/interchange this with final questions regarding any eventual “healing” or “medicinal” properties of the Didgeridoo. That is a theme Nick Bastiaansen knew something about, he mentioned before. It is found after 40 min. and 32 sec. into the documentary (direct link to that part: https://youtu.be/0o-hMdD8w24?t=40m31s).

Nick’s answers were interesting, though maybe a bit difficult to grasp at once. Translating/subtitling it made me grasp it more (again), I must say. He mentions the effect of the Didgeridoo sound and playing on health: physiological: on brain waves (having a calming effect), on blood vessels, better blood streaming, and other aspects..

RHYTHM

This made me think. I sense there is definitely also a (positive) health effect of dancing to rhythms, when one allows oneself to come in a trance created by (poly)rhythms. When playing percussion myself, in songs/percussion instrumentals I made myself, but of course also in other music by others, even if primarily consisting of drums and percussion. This last is common (at least traditionally) in some cultures (parts of sub-Saharan Africa, for example).

Not everything needs to be, as an expression goes, “analyzed to death”, I realize this well. You just feel beter after you danced and got a time in a groove. You might even feel “renewed” or with a new perspective of life. Take it for what it is, one might argue: no need for complex, semi-academic, “textual” scrutiny.

On the other hand, I think a proper analysis would do it more justice. The danger of “over-analyzing” should besides not be exaggerated. After all, in my opinion there is a positive correlation between knowledge and enjoyment, not a negative one, as others state.. Perhaps, this is different for each person.

Some analysis I find appropriate, anyway. Just like Nick Bastiaansen analysed the effects of the Didgeridoo on human health, beyond just “fun” and “nice vibes” with the Didgeridoo.

One aspect in this is rhythm. Instruments I play are mostly rhythmic in essence, albeit with often secondary melodic or harmonic aspects. The Didgeridoo, however, is not really a rhythmic or percussive instrument as such. It is a single-tone/key “sound” instrument, that admittedly can be played in a percussive, rhythmic way on occasion. This made me wonder: are there health effects of “rhythmic music” or “drums” that are comparable, or in turn quite different but also positive for humans? On the brain and/or body? Psychologically and physiologally? I imagine there must be. I have read something about it in the past, seem to experience it as such, but decided to study it further for this specific post.

What I studied more up to now is the cultural function of percussive music and drums, especially in African music. That is a field of interest to me. I discussed it on this blog here and there already. The trance-like possibilities of polyrhythms in African or African-derived cultures and religions (Vodou, Santería, Kumina), as part of “spirit possession” in some way. Such rituals and practices relate to health aspects, even explaining their cultural existence. This seems to me self-evident. Drum music can have community and not just individual functions, but even “harmony in the community” has health or psychological aspect, of course. African world-views – especially traditional ones – tend to be more collectivistic than modern Western ones. This has valuable aspects as well. It might cloud, however, individual effects of percussive music, that are interesting to know about, I opine. Even in very collectivistic cultures, or extreme variants of “group” thinking, there are still individuals who cannot fully deny their own needs, thoughts, and feelings.

Moreover, in most sub-Saharan African cultures – more focussed on drum and polyrhythmic music, compared to other parts of the world – within the “collectivism” there still is a derived place for individual tendencies and difference, part of the same culture, even if fitted in community senses. Like in other cultures, special, “different” indiviuals are imbued with a special, important “spiritual” roles, venerated and respected. Arguably, such individual difference is allowed relatively more in traditional African culture when compared to other “collectivistic” cultures, e.g. in parts of Asia, or even in parts of the Islamic or Western world.

MUSIC THERAPY

In the modern, developed - and according to many “overly” individualistic and socially fragmented - Western world such individual health effects of music have been studied academically a lot. From the psychological, neurological, biological, or medical perspectives.

”Music therapy” is furthermore a quite developed field in several Western countries, often part of wider therapy contexts. Music therapy has been used succesfully in cases of autism, other brain disorders, motoric disorders, after strokes, cardiovascular conditions or disorders etcetera. Psychologically also in relation to “antisocial” behaviour, dealing with traumas, concentration and didactics etcetera.

Scientists have found in recent times “neurons” in the brain essentially there just to respond to music, rendering music an inherent phsiological or neurological (say: “biological”) effect, beyond psychological “inventions”, so to speak.

BRAIN WAVES

Also, as Nick mentioned in the documentary, the response of “brain waves” to music has been discovered, though the most common scientific terminology recognizes besides the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma wave types: Alpha waves (soothing, low frequency), Beta waves (activating, higher frequency), and Gamma waves (highest frequency), also Theta and Delta waves (even of lower frequency than the relaxed Alpha one, and not always relevant to adults).

In the following article “brain waves” and their characteristics and effects are explained clearly, I find.

http://mentalhealthdaily.com/2014/04/15/5-types-of-brain-waves-frequencies-gamma-beta-alpha-theta-delta/

Similar therapy applications of music – and distinctions - have been found, though, in Indian culture traditionally, in Yoga, notably in what is called ‘Nada Yoga’.

“Music” is broad, and includes of course melody, harmony, and rhythm, as well as different sounds (low, medium, high), frequencies, or speeds. I would find it interesting to know if “rhythm” (beats, cadence, “grooves”, metrums, steady beats etcetera) as such has different health effects than “tone” (e.g. the Didgeridoo), melody, or harmony. Drums in particular. Also, how about other percussive instruments like shakers, bells, scrapers, blocks, berimbau’s? Or semi-percussive xylophone/balafon-like or mbira/kalimba-like instruments, found in several parts of Africa traditionally as well?

Well, the studies I could find, seldom were that specific regarding instruments, especially not regarding “small percussion” instruments, as they are known. In a broader sense, though, rhythm, percussion, and drums or drumming have been studied also academically quite a lot. As I mentioned, it also has been put to use in therapy (including e.g. “drum circles”) in the US, Europe and elsewhere. Still, not yet in most “mainstream” therapy, must be pointed out. It is accepted more and more in Western therapy, both medical and psychological, that much is true.

All this – the present state of music therapy, in short - can be deduced from scrolling through the recent contents of the (authorative) academic journal Journal of Music Therapy (Oxford journals), specifically looking for rhythm, drumming and/or percussion.

http://jmt.oxfordjournals.org/

This journal represents, however broad and academic, still a mainly Western perspective, notable in the relatively limited number of articles on percussion, and even less on “polyrhythms”, being a common base of traditional sub-Saharan African music, feeding of course into “Black” music genres created by African descendants in the West. Elsewhere, this one (for example) could be found about that: (http://www.irietones.com/drumtherapy-article_5.htm).

This causes that biased perspectives arise, such as the popularized notion that Classical Music heard by an unborn child is good for its mental development. Read: Western Classical music. Polyrhythmic or other music might have the same positive effects, but are simply studied less. Moreover, what is “positive” is subjectively, and culturally determined. The same applies to intelligence or IQ tests. Contrary to what some might think, IQ (like education) is largely a culturally specific construct, aimed at specific cultural goals (to function in an industrialized Western labour market context, notably).

http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/mente/musica.html

The above “summarizing” article, argues that what makes music beneficial is “order” (math), going on to give (predictably), as representative of this, examples from “high-brow” Western classical music.

Well, I argue that “forest” African polyrhythmic, (“clave-based”) music also has inherent “order”, as does African, “swinging around the beat” Griot music. African polyrhythmic music influenced as well as Griot music influenced Afro-American “popular music” genres as Blues, Jazz, Reggae, Calypso, Son, Rumba, Salsa, Merengue, Samba a.o. in different ways. For the untrained ear, Didgeridoo music might not have that apparent order: yet is proven to be beneficial and soothing. It’s thus all relative.

RHYTHM IS EVERYWHERE

When in studies, also the academic ones, the health effects of rhythm are discussed, it is often pointed out that rhythm is everywhere in our lives as humans, and in nature: our heart beat (One-Two), breathing, pulsating of blood, day to night, seasons changing, singing of birds, ways of animals, plants etcetera. The heart beat is what we first hear when conceived and in our mother’s womb: the heart beat of our mother. This makes rhythm so essential and original, that by definition we need rhythm to be complete, balanced. Returning thus to a focus on rhythm, if needed to improve our well-being and health. That is why it is said that, among other things, drumming boosts our immune system.

Nice that scholars confirm this, but it can be considered also as just “common sense” that we can imagine for ourselves: rhythm is nature, we start and live with rhythm (heart beat), so it must be beneficial.

All the more surprising is thus, I find, that in modern Western societies, “rhythm” is actually oppressed and devalued, obfuscated in the life of people. This can be explained by industrialization, for a large part. The increased distance of “nature” in modern Western life: the seasons, plants, animals, natural regeneration.. in short, the balance with nature has been lost. A cliché, but a true one. In its stead came unnatural rhythms making you work productively for the economy – a control measure, basically -, or commercialized “rhythm” for monetary gain, such as commercial music forms, though here it is a bit more egalitarian and with at least partly artistic/entertaining aspects.

Still, some music forms sound more like “corruptions” of rhythm than actually real rhythm and yet became popular, partly by media manipulation. This last aspect disturbs the ideally egalitarian, democratic idea of enjoying art and culture and creates injustices: it’s easier to make money with it (House, Disco, Techno), than with complex music (with polyrhytms, jazz, other Black music). Of course, genres like Reggae or Funk have quite some fans, and at times enter the mainstream (though not structurally), yet are relatively much less popular, and thus less profitable.

On a personal level, the "loss" of rhythm - or perhaps better: the detachment of it - is noticeable among individuals who usually do not dance to music, not even to particularly rhythmic music. Many do not even "feel" or "sense" the basic beat or rhythm yet move ("dance") to the music, but not the rhythmic parts. This is often noted - or joked about - by Black people about White people. Similarly, White people do in many cases - at least at first - not "get" polyrhythmic music, finding it just chaotic. This is of course not a crime against humanity: tastes and cultural preferences differ. One is entitled to enjoy music in one's own way, even if at times it seems a lack of respect. I wonder though: do they really enjoy it as best as possible? Do they get out of it all that there is to get, notably the health effects inherent in rhythm?

One crucial lesson one learns in a.o. the Nada Yoga tradition, is that positive health effects of music can really only be achieved if one truly enjoys the respective music for its own sake, not just the derived social power (negative identity, sense of belonging) or atmospheric issues associated with it. Then they would be just "pretending", for some reason. Again, this is their choice and no crime against humanity (at most confusing or annoying), but culturally "fitting" clothes, hair or stated enthusiasm is not enough for it to be "real". This even applies sometimes to people in looks or genetically from the "same culture", yet with no real interest or love for certain music. All this is comparable to good food or beverage: just smelling it - or even tasting it - is not the same as actually fully digesting it within your body. The European tradition that developed made listening to music something of only the "ears", so to speak, and dancing circumscribed and marginalized. In the African tradition on the other hand, one "listens with the whole body": ear and brain for sure, but also the rest of the body, as music is meant to dance to.

That's, in my opinion, the real test of musical affiliation: if one can enjoy it according to its own terms and intentions. For the same reason that a love relationship with a person whose thoughts or opinions you do not care about is not "real".

Anyhow, returning to experiencing real, natural rhythms - and willingness to do so! - can be healthy and beneficial in response to absence of rhythm (in society and/or persons), or in response to the unnatural or disturbed, corrupted “rhythm” use.

RHYTHM AND HEALTH MORE SPECIFICALLY

The following article I also found interesting, especially the part on “synchronizing brain activity” and the link made between drumming and meditation. The last aspect I already imagined from own experience (a bit related to “Trance” as is a known effect of repetitive rhythmic music). The “synchronizing brain halves” part was new and insightful to me. Also, it goes beyond the arguments promoting “music that helps to relax, thus to concentrate and be more healthy”, that is not totally untrue, but a bit too obvious or better said: simplistic. Music therapists point out, that for some people in fact “activation” (like of the Beta brain waves), rather than "relaxation", is more helpful to their well-being and sense of health improvement. It differs per person and need. "Depression", often sadly triggering suicides, stems from too much of the "low frequency" brain waves (Alpha or lower).

http://healing.about.com/od/drums/a/drumtherapy.htm

Certainly worthy of mention in this regard is Cornell Coley, a drummer specialized in health and education drumming, basing himself also on the mentioned scientific evidence on health effects of drumming, such as the boosting of the immune system (including by creating cancer-fighting blood cells!), in dealing with disorders, with traumas (by focussing on the present), the also mentioned synchronicity between logical and creative brain halves, and other aspects.

In the lecture underneath (from min. 7:50) he summarizes these health benefits, and also his website is interesting to check out ( http://www.afrolatin.net/ ). He uses the significant term "preverbal connectedness" (with nature and universe a.o.) as one of the benefits of drumming.

Dancing to relatively fast-paced, rhythmic music can thus be beneficial too, inducing trance in a positive way, such as in rituals of Afro-American belief systems like Vodou or Santería: typically polyrhythmic songs (chants and drums with specific percussive patterns) meant to “heal” or “resolve” community or personal problems (often via possession by a specific spirit or “forefathers”, as added cultural aspects). Such rhythms can, to some ears, be too “busy” (even if relatively mid-tempo or slow), chaotic, or “boring”. The rituals are in many cases, however, meant to and accepted as “healing” or “resolving”.

Generally, African-(based) polyrhytms combine not only different independent rhythms, but also different tonalities and pitches (high or low, deep or dull, round or sharp etcetera), and different tempos.

Ritual, Nyabinghi drumming music by many adherents of Rastafari (an Africa-focussed movement arising among Afro-Jamaicans in the 1930s) has, in a restructured way, these same aspects, in that while the emphasis is on drumming a kind of (natural) One-Two “heart beat”, this is varied with “cross-rhythms” in the African tradition. This was originally influenced by surviving polyrhythmic African music traditions in Jamaica (Burru, Kumina). The drums used in Nyabinghi derive largely from Kete-type drums from the Ghana region (used before in Burru music in central Jamaica), whereas the played rhythmic patterns of Nyabinghi are influenced by Kumina patterns, originating in the Congo/Central African region. Rastafari is further Christian- and Bible-influenced (albeit from an own African perspective), which is combined with these African musical aspects.

Anyway, Nyabinghi certainly is used not only for beneficial community functions, but according to many also for personal (mental) health improvement, improving focus and concentration, and for “meditation”, similar to how Yoga functions for some. Rastas use the interesting term "grounding" or "groundation" for the positive effect of this joined "heart beat" drumming of Nyabinghi.

RHYTHM AND RELIGION

In Ethiopian Orthodox Christian church services there is also drum music (unlike in mainstream European Christianity or Islam): basic, “deep”, repeated beats aimed at inducing a spiritual mode or “mild trance”. Only the Suffi, more spiritual variant of Islam (influential in Islamic parts of West Africa as well) tends to use rhythm and drumming somehow in its spiritual/religious practices, though as part of other (melodic, harmonic) music. Drums and rhythms are used in Islamic countries outside of Africa or Suffi influence, but not as part of Islamic practice as such (i.e. in secular, folk culture). Early folk Christianity (Orthodox, Catholic) in some parts of Europe had a bit more attention to drums and percussion, before later the Vatican’s or Protestant rigidity took over. Remnants can be found in rural traditions in part of Eastern Europe (e.g. Ucraine), and parts of France and Spain.

In Ucrainian traditional culture, they tend to have (for European standards) relatively many percussion-like instruments (like rattles, sticks, drums) that were partly also used in Orthodox Church activities. This also because bells (now used a lot by churches, of course) were not used by Christian churches before the 10th century.

Likewise, the Basque, wood-based Txalaparta percussion instrument (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Txalaparta) has according to historians been used in early Catholic churches in that part of North Spain and SW France, maintained perhaps because of the territory being not really conquered fully by the Islamic Moors in the 8th c., unlike for a period much of more Central and South Spain.

The Castanets (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castanets) are further a well-known percussion instrument, commonly used in most of Spain, including in some Flamenco genres of South Spain, as in (Central Spanish) Jota genres. The Castanets, according to historians, predate however most probably both Islam (it was in Spain before the Moors) and Christianity, probably dating even back to pre-Roman, Mediterranean or North African influences in Spain, by Phoenicians, from Ancient Egypt, by Carthaginians. Interesting to learn..

Industrialization (or “Capitalism” if you want) as well as organized religion, thus, worked against rhythm and nature in our lives in profound ways. Making us even forget what “life” is essentially about. This causes disorders, illnesses, unbalance in humans that “rhythm therapy” might solve or heal. Also the “didgeridoo” I made a documentary about, is probably “healing” because it is a relatively very “natural” instrument: wooden, and originally not fabricated but rather “found” in woods by Aboriginals, as (eucalyptus) tree branches, hollowed out by termites (insects that only live in more tropical areas of this world). Even the way of playing (with a certain way of using mouth and breathing) seems to fit well, and be in balance with human biology. See the documentary for more information on that (more “self-promotion”, haha).

TO CONCLUDE

Some studies have by now been done in the "developed world" on the health effects of rhythm, psychologically and physiologically. This led to some interesting insights: on brain activity responses, relations of health to rhythm-induced "trance", or social effects. Although the studies are relatively limited in number, it led to the use of "rhythm" and "drumming" in therapy, sometimes as part of even formal health care. Partly still experimental, but hey..

I would welcome more scientific studies on the psychological, physiological, or neorological effects on human health of specifically African percussive music. Especially polyrhythmic music. This can lead to even more insight. This because even though, as I mentioned above, rhythm and percussion are used traditionally also in Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, and Asia, this use was and is rarely polyrhythmic: that’s a specific (sub-Saharan) African approach to rhythmic music. Health effects of it could be researched more in modern universities in the Western world.

On the other hand, ancient cultural and spiritual traditions in Africa and the African Diaspora have in practice already revealed and demonstrated that knowledge or wisdom about the beneficial health effects. This lacks only the Western urge toward categorization, fixation, written text, or terminology.

The Riddim the Rebel

It must have been the suggestion of solution. An apparent simple yet all-encompassing “truth” – or perhaps “deeper” truth – that promised to solve a lingering question in my mind. I remember this quote from since I was about 14 years old (so about 25 years ago). By then I was already very interested in music. I was well into reggae, but also focussed at times on other music. I already had an interest in geography and specifically Africa, so I combined that interest by listening sometimes to World music from different continents. It was in such a context that I got intrigued by the following “explanation”, I read in some book (I believe a library book).

“The main focus in music from Europe is on harmony, in music from Asia on melody, and in music from Africa on rhythm”.

Of course it is terribly simplified (and therefore not totally “true”), and I recall that the book in which I read this statement already had more nuance in separate chapters. Harmony plays a role in African music (though in some parts of Africa more than others) as does melody, for instance. In fact harmony, melody, and rhythm play – to differing degrees – roles in traditional music from all continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, and also America and Oceania for that matter).

The different “emphasis” in music per continent still holds overall true, though. This different emphasis still kept intriguing me: especially when considering it broader in a philosophical sense. Music should be seen – I think – as an essential part of any culture: it is never separate from a culture. Moreover: as culture, music is an essential part of life, of how people live their lives. That is ALL people. Not just the few musicians doing it for a living, or the music fans or listeners. I see it as more than a separate and specialized recreational form, like, say, snooker, chess, or mountain climbing. Those activities require artifice, a deliberate effort to fabricate. Music is there in every human.. with our heart beat, from birth. The Wikipedia article (English) on Rhythm states as much.

EUROPE AND ASIA

As music thus reflects basic culture and life, it makes the different emphasis in different parts all the more interesting. What does the fact that European music focuses relatively more on harmony - specifically with what is called “homophony” - say about its culture? That can be seen as positive and negative. While “harmony” for many has a (seemingly) positive meaning, to harmonize however also means to “structure”: read: to dominate/control. Not just oneself, but also others. Musical homophony and chords typical in European music exist by not tolerating dissonance or independence of sounds from a common harmonic base. You can say it is therefore more “intolerant” of difference and freedom.

Then within European music there are differences. I also remember having read earlier in my life, something I also still remember (for some reason): Italian classical/traditional music is characterized relatively more by melody, German/Austrian classical/traditional music by harmony, and Spanish classical/traditional music more by rhythm. Being half-Italian (on my father’s side) and half-Spanish (on my mother’s side) I found this remarkable as well.

Why Italians tend a bit more to an “Asian” melody focus, and Spaniards more to an “African” rhythm focus is not that self-evident, but can maybe be explained. Pure geographically: Spain almost borders Africa. There must have even been some cultural and/or genetic interchange with Africa since ancient (pre)history, more than in other parts of Europe (genetical studies on “African admixture in Europe” seem to confirm this). Historically: the Moors (led by Arabs, but including Berbers and other Africans) ruled over large parts of Spain for centuries (8thc-15 c. AD). Or maybe it is an imperial/colonial past coming back: African rhythms via Latin America and the Caribbean travelled back to Spain as it became the first colonizer of that part of the world, after 1492. Likewise, Marco Polo probably brought Asian influences/aspects to Italy, while there also is a long historical (trade) connection between Italy/Venice and Turkey (and beyond). The pizza is after all also originally Turkish, and pasta from Asia.

Asia is a very large continent, and imagine all the musical differences throughout that continent. I must admit, I haven’t focussed very much on Asian musical structures in my life (more on African music), let alone comparing Arab, Indian, South East Asian, Chinese and other music. It also is largely “outside the scope” of this post, as they say. If it is indeed true that “melody” is overall more important in Asia..what does that say about its essential culture? Is it a more “spiritual” culture? (as the cliché about Asia already holds). More “imaginative” perhaps? More “enlightened”? If these are mind-sets helping to shape melodies (which can be disputed)..

The aforementioned Wikipedia article on Rhythm also points at the use of rhythm in music in Asia (e.g. the tabla in India), and even gives examples of Polyrhythm – more common in Africa -, such as in Indonesia Gamelan music. This goes to show that all aspects (rhythm, harmony, and melody) return in world-wide music. Likewise, current Flamenco music in southern Spain, influenced by local Andalusian, Gipsy, Moorish and other influences, has many rhythmic aspects, often through castagnets or hand-clapping (or slapping the wood of the guitar). Interestingly: maybe the best-known Flamenco instrumental – Paco de Lucía’s ‘Entre Dos Aguas’, employed Afro-Caribbean (Eastern Cuban) bongos and other percussion, alongside Paco’s Spanish guitar..

AFRICA

Within Africa there is likewise much variation, of course. The North and parts of East Africa have received Arab and Middle Eastern influences (mostly moving the music partly toward melody and harmony). This is not a total change, though. Interestingly, the music of the people of Ethiopia speaking Semitic and Hamitic languages (Amhara and others) is decidedly more rhythmic and sub-Saharan African in character, when compared to Arab/Middle Eastern music (or from the other side of the Red Sea, so to speak), showing thus mixed influences, including from Africa itself.

Within Africa, further, West Africa is known for music with rhythm and polyrhythm, but also often “harmony”: vocally and otherwise. Although mostly in another way than the standard “chord progression” of Western music. African music tends to be characterized by “polyphony”, contrary to homophony (though this is also found in Africa), more common in Western music. With polyphony different musical parts maintain their independence in a same piece, while interacting. Just think of the rhythms and “answering” rhythms, or cross-rhythms, heard at the same time in traditional African music: polyrhythmic music. No forced harmonizing, and therefore freer, more tolerant. That can be seen as positive.

Then there is the (overall!) focus on “rhythm” by itself (poly- or not): more characteristic of African, especially sub-Saharan African music. What does that say about a culture? Babatunde Olatunji – a famous, earlier Nigerian percussionist – once said: “rhythm is the soul of life”. Interesting: because the “soul” of life refers to the spiritual and imaginative, some associate more with “melody” or “harmony” than with “rhythm”. Somehow “rhythm” got connected too much with the “basic” (and therefore “simple” or “primitive”) in the Western/Euro-centric mind. Olatunji’s comment contradicts that: rhythm is not just life practically (heart beat, day/night, eat/sleep), no, it is also the “soul” (spirit, imagination) of life..

This "soul of life" is also illustrated by the symbolic meanings attached to rhythms within African music. I refer specifically to how in polyrhythmic pieces the main rhythm - generally more steady - tends to be symbolic of the main "strength" or direction one goes in a human life, while other rhythms respond to this or interrupt this main rhythm, representing symbolically either "challenges" in life disrupting this direction/goal, or otherwise positive, alternative "hope". These meanings are mostly expressed through the use of different drum types, with lower/bass drums more often representing strength/direction and higher/treble drums often challenges or hope.

In the remainder of this post I will focus on this meaning of “rhythm” and polyphony in Black music, specifically reggae (of which I know most). How did music with “the soul of life” (rhythm) survive the slave trade/slavery: the African diaspora? And did “freer” polyphony survive the Western, harmonizing tyranny? Did rhythm and polyphony remain as important in the music of Africans in the West, as in Africa itself? Or did they become important in new ways?

That rhythm and polyphony survived among Africans in the West is evident and proven. Therefore I will focus on “in what ways”. Reggae will be the main example and case – due to my acquired knowledge about it -, through which I will do this. It is not the only genre I will discuss, though.

First a bit more about rhythm as such, specifically in African music.

RHYTHM

In main definitions of rhythm, also the one in Wikipedia, the word “regulated” or ”regular” recurs (recurs regularly, ha!). This was also the original meaning of the Greek term. These tend to be rational, scientific explanations. The Wikipedia (English) article on rhythm as I write this opens as such:

Rhythm (from Greek ῥυθμός—rhythmos, "any regular recurring motion, symmetry"[1]) generally means a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions."

I also know of more philosophical, or, if you will, “spiritual” explanations, such as in a book I have on Percussion instruments and percussion (the book is in Dutch and is called: ‘Trommels & klankinstrumenten’, author Töm Klöwer, year 1996). Interestingly, the author treats various kind of drums and percussion instruments, after which he focusses on rhythm in music, (and finally gives clues and guidelines for exercise).

In the more abstract/theoretical part on “rhythm” in the last book, the author, Töm Klöwer, associates the essential human connection with rhythm with the heart beat of the mother an unborn child hears. That’s where it starts. The three and two meter (3-2: common in several African drum patterns) also has this basic connection with life, nature, and biology: the heartbeat has two beats, whereas the act of breathing goes in three (even though some might think two): inhale – pause – exhale. African drum rhythms often relate to that.

Control over one’s own life – and the connection with nature’s cycle (of e.g. day and night, rain and sunshine etcetera) is thus based on rhythm. Simplistically you might therefore say that music focussed on rhythm deals more on the essence of life and the connection with nature, whereas harmony/chord music deals more with systems and organization, and melodic music with, well, imagination? These are maybe neutral concepts – not the one better than the other – though I find that the harmonic focus in much Western/European music has certain oppressive/intolerant aspects, inherent to systems, especially toward individual difference. Kind of contradictory in a culture (the West/Europe) which praises its own individualism so much.

In Africa there is harmony, in vocals often, melody too (the indigenous – tuned - mbira/kalimba thumb piano can make melodies for example, as do indigenous wind instruments and xylophones), but generally combining with rhythm (thus: life and nature). That’s the strength of it, I would argue, as it results in synergy..

That “rhythm is the soul of life”, as Babatunde Olatunji stated, is also exemplified by the fact that the rhythms by drums and other instruments in several African religious/spiritual traditions serve to invoke spirits or deities – through specific rhythmic patterns - , that then possess persons, directing their body movements, eventually to (as other religions) direct or explain life choices/events, beliefs, or situations.

Furthermore – and somehow in line with this - , dance and music are not separate domains in African music. Simply put: music is almost inherently to dance and move your body to. That differs from European culture, where dancing is a separate and specialized activity, like e.g. chess. That dance-music interrelation probably kept the rhythmical focus (or vice versa) in African music, as our common sense would of course tell us.

What can be seen as ironic is that some African languages do (or originally did not) have a separate word in their vocabulary for “rhythm” or even “music”. Different type of drums do have names, for instance, but there is then not a direct term for “music”, even if rhythm and music are very prevalent in the culture. The irony is that music and rhythm are so dominant in and interwoven with daily life itself in these cultures, that it need not be named separate as such. Music is simply part of life.

I know something about African music, a bit about European music, a bit less about Asian music, but I know most about Afro-Caribbean, especially Jamaican music. I am going to continue on discussing the deeper role of “rhythm” in music of the African diaspora, especially reggae.

SLAVE TRADE

The slave trade has been one of the greatest evils done unto the African continent, still affecting it today. Africa has been relatively more affected by it, even if slavery was found historically on all continents “since organized man”. Looking at the scale and numbers, Africa has been the continent most negatively affected by it.

First Arab and other Muslim slave traders held much Africans in slavery, sanctioned by a belief that non-Muslims or infidels could be enslaved. This was for economical and power reasons, but also the Islam as religion itself – like Christianity – enabled it in some sense. That the main messenger of God’s/Allah’s messages, Muhammed, owned slaves (including an Ethiopian/African) himself when converting, did not help to condemn it as “ungodly” or immoral, probably. Many millions of black Africans, with a slight preference for women for harems, thus were transported in chains across the Sahara, and ended up in several Middle Eastern countries. Not every one knows that due to this history, countries like Iran, Iraq, and Turkey knew discernible – and discriminated - “black minorities”. Eventually, most of them mixed with locals, but they are still recognizable. So-called Afro-Turks are still being discriminated against, and Iran – related to this – knows some carnivalesque “blackface/minstrelcy” depicting Blacks, up to today.

Then, came the Europeans on an equally large scale, perhaps more intensive in time. It started even before Columbus “discovered” the Americas in the name of Spain. Columbus was not a Spaniard (even if some history books at schools in the Caribbean still teach this, I read), but from Genova in what is now Italy: a city-state with a tradition of sea-faring and trade, including in (also African) slaves, also in the eastern Atlantic. Also the Portuguese, had a tradition already in the 14th c. of trading in African slaves in the eastern Atlantic. This was even before 1492 and Spain claimed ownership to the Americas.

In fact, Batholomew de las Casas, who is said to propose importing Africans as slaves in the Americas (first on what is now Hispaniola) to replace Amerindians, referred to the earlier Portuguese activities as example for this.

Spaniards started importing slaves – first gradually, later higher numbers - in their colonies since the early-16th c., the Portuguese in Brazil, and soon after the Dutch, English, French and others. Meanwhile the plantation industrial complex got more developed (under Dutch-Brazilian influence), requiring even more African slaves, in higher numbers than before, since the 18th c., when the English were also very active in it. Thus came about the “slave societies” in the Caribbean, with a majority population of enslaved Africans, though also Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, USA and other parts of the Americas had high numbers of African slave imports.

All in all millions, some say over 50 million, Africans were deracinated, many died along the way, and those who survived were enslaved, and lived shorter, harder lives. They were not only taken by force from their homeland – sometimes (as with the Arab/Islamic slave trade) aided by African middle-men/collaborators - , but were also culturally deracinated. They lost their family names, their family bonds, cultural connections, and often also their language.

There were differences between slave regimes in the Americas. “Divide and conquer” was applied by all European colonizers, but in different ways. In most English colonies – though to differing degrees – ethnic bonding of Africans – e.g. Coromantee or Congo socializing with each other and talking their own tongue, was feared and therefore at least discouraged. This group bonding was probably seen a s a forebode to concerted efforts of rebellion against their state. The Spanish and Portuguese slave regimes were known as a bit more loose and less strict, with at least in theory a few laws protecting slaves. The bonding on ethnic grounds among African slaves was tolerated more in e.g. Cuba and Brazil, and e.g. slaves of Yoruba or Congo origin, were legally allowed to come together in clubs, speak their own tongue and involve in music or other cultural activities, as long as it did not interfere too much with plantation work. Case in point: at some point, African slaves were forbidden to beat drums in English colonies; such an official and total prohibition of drumming did not take place in Spanish colonies (though it was limited and frowned upon).

The level of “tolerance” of the Spanish or Portuguese colonial or authorities did differ per period, but overall some direct African continuities could be maintained this way in e.g. Cuba and Brazil. But also in the British Caribbean , against even more odds, African culture was maintained: principles and concepts behind it, but even African direct continuities. I think that as long as basic and specific values were maintained, the essential culture also survived. Even the seemingly very African traditions like the Afro-Cuban Santería religion in Cuba, Vodou in Haiti, or certain percussive traditions, are partly similar to where they are from in Africa..but not exactly the same. They are not identical, so even there some difference developed between Africa and the West. This is due to a different historical development, and a different geographical location.

The Yoruba language can be heard in Cuba at Santería gatherings, or even Kikongo in other Afro-Cuban traditions of Central-African origin (like Palo), or Coromantee among Surinamese Maroons during certain rituals, but it is not linguistically identical to how Yoruba, Bakongo, or Coromantee people in Africa today talk, for example. Linguistically it is partly simplified and changed.

There was change, but to differing degrees, among African-descended people in the West/Americas, you can conclude. The underlying African musical and cultural principles – and their connection to specific world views and social life - were however maintained by Blacks in the Americas.

I am going to illustrate this by focussing on the role of “rhythm” in a Afro-Caribbean music genre I by now have learned a lot about (being a fan for over 26 years): reggae, from Jamaica.

JAMAICAN MUSIC

Some think that in reggae music the bass guitar is the most important instrument, others “know” that the drums are in fact the most important. I would say it like this: in Reggae Music (in general) the drums are the most important instrument, but in (specific) Reggae SONGS the bass guitar mostly is (along with the vocal parts). Not that the drums are always the same throughout songs, but the bass tends to drive the chords/melody – and sung part -, and partly the rhythm in a distinct direction, helping it to distinguish more from other songs (with e.g. a similar drum pattern, or rhythm guitar pattern etcetera)..

In any case, the drums helps define what reggae is. The accent on the off-beat, or "after beat" (not on the standard 2 and 4 of 4/4), distinguishes reggae from rhythm & blues or rock (or most pop). This is driven by the drums, accentuating the first and –especially - 3rd count of a 4/4 bar. Or on the 2 when counting double time One-AND-Two-AND-Three-AND-Four. The rhythm guitar chops in between on the 2nd and 4th, following these drums.

SKA

The change to the after-beat (or off-beat) gave rise to a new, Jamaican music style, developing from local influences, as well as from US Black music like R&B, called Ska, arising around 1960. Some think the New Orleans variant of R&B, which was a bit more “syncopical” rhythmically was especially influential in Jamaica. In light of the importance of drums, local Jamaican drumming, such as part of Afro-Jamaican belief systems like Kumina, Pocamania, or Burru had also an influential on developing Jamaican genres: from ska, to rocksteady, and reggae. Some drummers in the ska era, such as Lloyd Knibb of the Skatalites, and others, were influenced by Latin and Cuban drumming styles, which contained much African continuities, as were percussionists. The wide-spread percussion instruments Congas and Bongos are of Afro-Cuban origin (both with influences from Congo/Angola), found a way in US Jazz, but also spread throughout the Caribbean and Jamaica.

The “heart beat” of a.o. Kumina drumming in rural Jamaica (especially maintained in the Eastern parish St Thomas (East of the capital Kingston), influenced from early on reggae drumming (as well as Rastafari music). Some argue that the emphasis on the Third count of a 4/4 bar came indirectly forth out of this “heart beat” drumming (after two low counts, came a higher/”snare”/treble counter beat on the third). Sounds probable, I think.

The “heart beat” recurs throughout drumming in Africa itself, along with related 3-2 patterns.

‘MODERN DRUMMER’ ISSUE

There is a magazine/journal for drummers, called ‘Modern Drummer’ – self-claimed to be the world’s nr. 1 drum magazine -, which is published in the US. It had an interesting Special Issue, that appeared in August 2012, devoted to Reggae, Ska, and Rocksteady grooves, and among other things contained interviews with, or portraits of, famous Jamaican drummers Carlton Barrett, Sly Dunbar, Carlton “Santa” Davis, Style Scott (of the Roots Radics), Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace, Lloyd Knibb, Willie Stewart (of Third World), and others.

It offered a broad, if not a comprehensive overview of drumming in reggae (I missed some aspects), but it had definitely interesting aspects, even for non-drummers. Not strange that it contained specific lingo and specialized terms for drummers that are not explained (not really necessary with the magazine’s target audience). Looking at the theme I focus now on – rhythm/riddim – it had some insightful portions. It mentioned the typical rhythmical “displacement” of Jamaican drum patterns toward the after-beat or off-beat, setting it apart from other genres like rock.

The interesting thing about this is that Jamaican music distinguished itself – created an own “identity” so to speak – through rhythm. “The rhythm (is) the rebel”, as Chuck D of Public Enemy once rapped. This own after-beat-focussed riddim appeared first around 1960, when ska developed out of different influences: US Rhythm & Blues, jazz (many musicians then in Jamaica were then jazz musicians), some Latin influences, but also local Jamaican folk music like mento, drumming, and percussion. Lloyd Knibb who combined jazz/Latin influences with Afro-Jamaican drumming traditions like Burru, was one such connecting figures in this stage.

An interesting comment in the said issue of ‘Modern Drummer’ was that reggae drummers ought to realize to – obviously – stay in the beat/riddim -, but that is self-evident. Yet, in addition they should realize, it is stated, that: “less is more”, when compared to other genres where “flashy” fills are relatively more common by drummers. Drummers should, as said by Jimmy Cliff in the same issue, “keep it steady”, and therefore “hypnotic”. Less in indeed more.

At the same time, another interesting comment in the same issue, from an earlier interview with Carlton Barret (of the Wailers) - who deceased in 1987 - is worthy to quote in length:

"It's a spiritual vibe that I try and get from my drums to the music. Because drums are from the slavery days and from Africa, it comes from a lot of history. The reggae drummer carries that history more than the guitarist or keyboard player, and the good reggae drummers make playing a spiritual experience"(Carlton Barret).

In the same vein is a line from the lyrics of the song 'Very Well' (1979), by reggae group the Wailing Souls: "Every sound of the drum you hear it's an African beat".

ROCKSTEADY

Rocksteady, a genre following ska, developing in Jamaica around 1966, had the same off-beat focus, but was slower than ska, and had a more pronounced bass guitar (now electric), playing different, more closed patterns, when compared to the acoustic and “walking” (jazz-like) bass in ska. Rocksteady’s slower allowed more experimentation of drummers, including with different influences. On the other hand, it is said, that overall the role of drums diminished in most rocksteady, because both the bass and guitar in rocksteady began to play more “percussive” (when compared to ska). So, overall rocksteady is not less-rhythmic than ska, but “different rhythmic”. The “one drop” drum pattern, emphasizing with bass and snare drum on the third of a 4/4 bar (or, again, on the Two, if counting like One-and-Two-and-Three-and-Four), arose especially with rocksteady, since 1966.

The fact that (e.g.) the bass became more percussive in rocksteady has another interesting aspect, pointing at intra-Caribbean borrowing. Not from nearby Cuba this time, from where some musical influences already reached Jamaica, but now from Trinidad’s steel pan tradition. An important guitar player working in Jamaica in the Rocksteady era was the Trinidadian Lynn Taitt. Taitt himself said that he was a pan (steeldrum) player, back in Trinidad, before taking up the guitar and that this influenced his style. Also, when he decided to play simultaneously his guitar with the bass line, giving many rocksteady songs a distinct – I find “groovy” - feel, with – if one wants to hear it – somewhat the feel of steel drums. Nowadays steel drums are more tuned, and is a so-called “chording instrument”, but they’re still also drums/percussion, and originally a rhythmic replacement of the drums banned then by colonial laws.

REGGAE

Rocksteady gave way to Reggae around 1968.It differed from rocksteady in musical characteristics, though – at first- not too much in tempo: early reggae up to around 1971 tended to be faster than later Roots Reggae.

One aspect distinguishing Reggae from Rocksteady was in the drumming. This became even more “syncopic” and – as some argue – incorporating more Afro-Caribbean drum and percussion influences, such as from the Nyabinghi, Kumina, Burru, and Pocamania traditions. One of the first reggae songs, by Lee “Scratch” Perry, ‘Why People Funny Boy’ (1968), included, according to Perry’s own statements , drum patterns inspired by a Pocamania (Afro-Christian) session at a church he happened to encounter. Of course this is a relatively “percussive” song (the keyboard also plays drum-like patterns), but in fact Reggae is overall relatively rhythmic , including drums, percussion, the rhythm guitar , but also the way the bass is played. The bass guitar is also a chording (“harmony/melodic”) instrument but is also used relatively rhythmically in Jamaican music, especially after the “walking bass” (more harmonic) was abandoned for Rocksteady bass lines.

In the Wikipedia article (English) on Reggae, it is also mentioned that alongside the drums, percussion is much used in Reggae. Further analysis shows that especially in the Roots Reggae Era since about 1973 – when Rastafari was very influential on Reggae – the use of additional percussion instruments increased, like (a)kete drums (as used in Nyabinghi gatherings among Rastas), or also conga’s and bongo’s (both originally Afro-Cuban, but in sound similar to drums used traditionally in Jamaica), and rasps, cowbells and shakers (or self-made things like bottles). Congas are used and played by e.g. Burning Spear, while Sly Dunbar added bongos to his drum-set. The Timbales, another Cuban instrument, influenced the way the snare drum was pitched by some Jamaican drummers: tighter/sharper. African cross-rhythms occur when these percussion instruments are added, even when improvizing. The Itals ‘Me Waan Justice’ is a good example of this: an almost perfect blend of a Reggae Riddim (still there, albeit more “hidden”) with Afro-Jamaican percussive, drumming traditions, with evident African continuities.

INSTRUMENTALS

“Riddim” is also the Jamaican word for instrumental. More specifically the basic instrumental “to be reused” by other singers to sing or toast over. This practice of “reusing instrumentals/riddims had developed by the early 1980s, and seems less original to many, and it probably arose for economic reasons as well. There is however still creativity and talent needed to breathe new life into existing riddims by creating strong vocal parts. Plus, many Riddims just “stay” good, and do not grow old soon. The term “riddim” refers to the whole instrumental, including the bass line: drum and bass at its most basic, often including guitar and keyboard parts. So strictly speaking a Riddim (meaning here “instrumental”) is not “purely rhythmic”. Yet, the fact that an instrumental part of a song is called a “Riddim”, says something about rhythm’s role in the music genre.

Likewise Dub Reggae: also largely instrumental, remixed Reggae songs (with sound effects) were and are described as “Raw Rhythm”, also by its early inventors (King Tubby and others), even if the bass is often important in Dub, it is placed within a rhythmic framework.

DANCEHALL

Dancehall Reggae is generally associated with a shift away (in part, at least) from African consciousness and Rastafari. Perhaps ironically, it is however argued, also by people who know what they’re talking about - like drummer Sly Dunbar - that the digital/computer-made Dancehall Riddims since the later 1980s, seemed more bare and Techno-like superficially, but actually also continued more complex African drumming/rhythmic continuities, like the ones discussed before: cross-rhythms and polyrhythm/polyphony. A shift to “purer” riddim, meant to dance to, inherently meant a practical Africanization, but the precise musical ways this occurs in dancehall, shows more of the African heritage (cross-rhythms for example), than other electronic music known as rhythmic (Techno, House, etc.).

Jamaican music maintained more African continuities that related Black American music, The latter still also had some African continuities, only to a lesser degree. Ska was for instance more syncopic than R&B when it arose around 1960, while current Digital Dancehall is rhythmically generally more complex (overall) than most “new-school”, digital hip-hop music and beats, of the same time (some hip-hop fans contest this, saying it is different, not less complex or layered).

James Brown’s music (strongly focussed on drums and rhythm, of course: he used two drum kits for recording, and used a more rhythmic phrasing for e.g. horns, guitars and other instruments), on the other hand, came closer to the African polyrhythmic roots, as did/does the music of some other Black US artists.

VOCALS

In vocals the call-and-response singing is characteristically African, reflective of both the polyphony and rhythm in sub-Saharan African music, going back a long time. This survived in almost all Black music genres in the Americas: in the US, Caribbean, and Latin America. Even before ska, it was present in Jamaican Mento (an earlier rural, folk style, which I discussed in another blog post, of August 2013), and in various local Afro-Jamaican and Afro-Christian traditions. Via those two routes (US Black music, and local traditions), it almost inevitably entered Jamaican music.

The interesting thing about call-and-response singing is that it combines the three basic musical aspects I mentioned at the beginning - melody, harmony, and rhythm - with the rhythm being overall most decisive, albeit combined toward a synergy. Call-and-response is a vocal way, you might say, of rhythm- and counter-rhythm, found traditionally in African polyrhythmic music.

Another vocal tradition is of course evidently rhythmic: the dee-jaying: starting with toasting, now called chatting. I devoted another blog post to this, of October 2013. It is a Jamaican innovation, that would influence Rapping in the US. It consists of rhythmically singing/talking over existing instrumental music, with a higher emphasis on a rhythmic flow than on melody or harmony. Often it combines “pure” rhythmic talking with what is more like chanting or singing. Still, the shift toward the rhythmic is clear, and said to derive from ancient African Griot traditions.

Again, the Toasting and Chatting is not rhythmical in a simple, but rather in a complex/layered way, and just listening to experienced Toasters/Chatters from older times (like U-Roy or I-Roy), or current ones like Sizzla, Capleton, Jah Mason, Lutan Fyah, Junior Kelly and others, would show this: there are actually mostly more complex layers of rhythms within one song, interchanging each other. This often even gives the songs a polyrhythm/ polyphonic feel. Again: this – variety and layers (or: dexterity) within rhythmic Toasting - diminished somewhat in its derivative hip-hop: all in all mostly flatter and less-layered rhythmically, though there are exceptions.

CONCLUSION

Jamaican music created its own identity – a musical, but also broader a cultural and “national” identity – first through rhythm. In other words: by returning to African, cultural roots, which may seem paradoxical, but is not. For, as Marcus Garvey said: “a tree without good roots cannot bear good fruit(s)”. Rhythm had thus a foundational importance in Jamaican music, and the focus on rhythm remained important in all music genres that developed in Jamaica.

This focus on rhythm includes the changing drum styles (e.g. One Drop, Rockers, Steppers) but still on a solid off-beat or after-beat base and drum accent on the Third count of 4/4 (or the Two when counted differently: One – and –Two-and Three-and-Four), typical of Jamaican music since Ska. Further, it is there in the relatively percussive bass (and guitar) playing that became characteristic, and the relatively frequent use of added percussion/drums, often even directing songs, or at least adding counter-rhythms. Rhythm also shows, vocally, in the common call-and response vocals, and the later developed Toasting/chatting styles.

This rhythmic tradition was a crucial ingredient, that in a combination with good, honest, “soulful” singing, and good melodies and harmonies, resulted - as a type of “rhythm-shaped synergy” - in a tasteful, unique, and inspiring “recepy”.