11-06-2008, 12:00 AM
Hi all
I would like to share a few stories about my trips
So the first will be about my trip to Guinea Conakry West Africa in 2004.
I am a musician, a drummer mainly (djembe drum). I applied for a grant from the Canada council for the arts to study the djembe with Master drummer Aboubacar
Fatouabou Camara..
I got the grant and was thrilled. I lived with Abou and his family for 2.5 months which was not recomeneded but i proceded anyway with this choice.
Learning and watching was incredible, there were little kids who could blow me away. Here I am like considerd a master LOL! if they only knew LOL!
So the trip was cool but it was hard, everything there is really slow and when you ask a question you get many answers (french).
The food was really good too fish rice mango dishes I remember like the 2nd day i was there we were walking in the market and i wanted to eat this strange
fruit later I learned it was a mango the size of a football!!
My girlfriend at the time was there too and she was like what are you doing?
I suppose she was looking out for me but i was like "just relax" then a month later she was eating them all the time.
There is many things about that trip which are very special to me. Like the day i was playing djembe with some guys on like a
front step and this old man came right up to me with a fixed look in his eyes and he asked me if he could play my drum which was carved for me and he played
very well with it. and then gave it back no big deal right? but it was his look that stuck with me.
Another time i was watching a a rehersal af the ballet (not like western ballet) and my master is one of the many masters who was in charge.
There are alot of dancers and drummers but more dancers in the troupe and when they screw up which is very easy to screw up if you could see the speed and
changes some of these pieces consist of Whao!!! So my master Abou would hit the girls with a big stick.... i was like what the F___!!!
It's just the way it is there. it is a very tribal yet urbanized culture. for example you see kids walking around with nike shoes and walkmans and stuff
but then they wear a talisman or many things can be taken as omens.
I really loved it, i felt like a kid again, there are people always around kids playing, people visiting and gorgeous women walking around with head wraps and
some girls, the younger ones dress like break dancers.
I saw, felt and smelt things there that blew my mind that you cant feel from a book or movie.
At my masters house kids would always come to watch tv and Mabinty Abou's wife would give the kids food and sometimes money too.
There is alot I learned from the people of Conakry and alot of it had nothing to do with music.
The people there are so so poor in a money sense but so so rich in ways that made me feel like a silly white man who was selfish.
So much i could tell you about but i thought i would just start with this.
Also I have some of the field recordings on my site if any of you want to hear some really intense drumming from Conakry.
www.drleepercussion.com music page, you need to turn off the stream player on the top of the
screen.
I also will do a later post about my travels in The Amazing Thailand!
Thanks for reading.
Lee
I would like to share a few stories about my trips
So the first will be about my trip to Guinea Conakry West Africa in 2004.
I am a musician, a drummer mainly (djembe drum). I applied for a grant from the Canada council for the arts to study the djembe with Master drummer Aboubacar
Fatouabou Camara..
I got the grant and was thrilled. I lived with Abou and his family for 2.5 months which was not recomeneded but i proceded anyway with this choice.
Learning and watching was incredible, there were little kids who could blow me away. Here I am like considerd a master LOL! if they only knew LOL!
So the trip was cool but it was hard, everything there is really slow and when you ask a question you get many answers (french).
The food was really good too fish rice mango dishes I remember like the 2nd day i was there we were walking in the market and i wanted to eat this strange
fruit later I learned it was a mango the size of a football!!
My girlfriend at the time was there too and she was like what are you doing?
I suppose she was looking out for me but i was like "just relax" then a month later she was eating them all the time.
There is many things about that trip which are very special to me. Like the day i was playing djembe with some guys on like a
front step and this old man came right up to me with a fixed look in his eyes and he asked me if he could play my drum which was carved for me and he played
very well with it. and then gave it back no big deal right? but it was his look that stuck with me.
Another time i was watching a a rehersal af the ballet (not like western ballet) and my master is one of the many masters who was in charge.
There are alot of dancers and drummers but more dancers in the troupe and when they screw up which is very easy to screw up if you could see the speed and
changes some of these pieces consist of Whao!!! So my master Abou would hit the girls with a big stick.... i was like what the F___!!!
It's just the way it is there. it is a very tribal yet urbanized culture. for example you see kids walking around with nike shoes and walkmans and stuff
but then they wear a talisman or many things can be taken as omens.
I really loved it, i felt like a kid again, there are people always around kids playing, people visiting and gorgeous women walking around with head wraps and
some girls, the younger ones dress like break dancers.
I saw, felt and smelt things there that blew my mind that you cant feel from a book or movie.
At my masters house kids would always come to watch tv and Mabinty Abou's wife would give the kids food and sometimes money too.
There is alot I learned from the people of Conakry and alot of it had nothing to do with music.
The people there are so so poor in a money sense but so so rich in ways that made me feel like a silly white man who was selfish.
So much i could tell you about but i thought i would just start with this.
Also I have some of the field recordings on my site if any of you want to hear some really intense drumming from Conakry.
www.drleepercussion.com music page, you need to turn off the stream player on the top of the
screen.
I also will do a later post about my travels in The Amazing Thailand!
Thanks for reading.
Lee