In the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall on Tuesday night, the four-person African Drum Ensemble performed powerful, very quick and energetic African tribal music that kept the audience in tune with their powerful sound.
Aboubacar Camara, who teaches African drumming at the University of Rhode Island, was the leader in this performance. There were two guest drummers, both friends of Camara’s, Jesus Andujar and Kali Otto-Gentry. The last member was student drummer Ryan Savage, a student in Camara’s class this semester.
The first song performed was “Koukou Rhythm,” by the Beyla Tribe. This song was started off by Camara, and then the other three members joined in. The song was very fast-paced and upbeat, and all of their hands moved so fast smacking the drums. This song went on for a long time, and it was impressive seeing the performers play their drums for that long without hurting their hands. Camara switched drums during the middle of this song, going from drumming sitting down, to standing and drumming. All the members were really getting into the performance, and they all looked like they were having a great time performing.
They finished the first song, bowed to the audience watching and then went back to their drums to perform the next song. Camara switched instruments with Otto-Gentry, and they all performed “Sofany Rhythm” by the Malinke Tribe. It started off very slow, but then it built up and became fast-paced, maintaining the same upbeat tone as the first song. As with the first song, their hands moved so fast and quickly, you could barely see them moving.
The entire time sitting there, listening to the songs, the bass and beat of the sound coming from the drums vibrated the entire room. You could feel the vibrations going through your body, and the sound of the drums was much louder than expected. It was also so much fun to see all of them on the stage having the time of their lives, and really getting into the performance.
Camara also said that he loves to perform all the time, anytime and anywhere. He has previously performed in Boston, Providence and at URI, and he said he loves performing for anyone who comes to see him.
“It was nice to perform again too,” Camera said.
Otto-Gentry and Andujar agreed with him, and they were very happy about the performance as well. Though it was a short performance, they said it was still very exciting for them to perform for people.
“It was really fun to perform with them,” Savage said. “I was the only person to sign up for the class too.”
Being the only student in the class, it was easier to learn from Camara and perform the songs easily. However, with more students learning from Camara, future performances could have more varieties of drums and sounds in the songs.
Camara really enjoys putting on performances for people, regardless of the place and time. He teaches MUS 398M: Chamber Music Ensembles-Mixed Instrumentation and MUS 598M: Chamber Music Ensemble-Mixed Instrumentation at URI where students can learn from him how to properly play African drums. If you take his class, you could be a part of the next performance too!