Last September I visited my brother in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and met
up with a friend of his who plays Batá drums with a couple of friends.
I was extremely impressed at how complex the music sounded and how
many interesting rhythmic ideas it contained. I was also quite
surprised to learn just how structured it all is, as I'd always
thought that kind of music was a little more improvised. I'm out in Halifax again at the moment and one of the trio has gone
off to study drumming in Cuba, so today I sat in with them and started
to get my head around the music. It's amazing fun and is introducing
me to some really interesting rhythms. A lot of it is written in 6/8 but some parts will be playing a
straight 4 over the 6, or variations on that kind of concept. The
interplay of the drums is hypnotizing. Each drum has 2 sides - the
larger one giving more of a tone and the smaller one giving a slap
sound. When you're sitting in the middle of 3 people playing you hear
melodies split between the drums. It can be really hard to identify
what each drum is doing individually, but the overall sound is
fantastic. I'm heading over there again in a couple of days so I'll try and get
some video footage to put up on the blog. In the meantime, if you're
interested in investigating further, check out this page:
http://www.latinpulsemusic.com/albums/show/18 If you enjoy this content please spread the word. You can help by
clicking 'like' on my Facebook page, subscribing to my YouTube
channel, leaving comments, etc.
Thanks for your support,
Joe
up with a friend of his who plays Batá drums with a couple of friends.
I was extremely impressed at how complex the music sounded and how
many interesting rhythmic ideas it contained. I was also quite
surprised to learn just how structured it all is, as I'd always
thought that kind of music was a little more improvised. I'm out in Halifax again at the moment and one of the trio has gone
off to study drumming in Cuba, so today I sat in with them and started
to get my head around the music. It's amazing fun and is introducing
me to some really interesting rhythms. A lot of it is written in 6/8 but some parts will be playing a
straight 4 over the 6, or variations on that kind of concept. The
interplay of the drums is hypnotizing. Each drum has 2 sides - the
larger one giving more of a tone and the smaller one giving a slap
sound. When you're sitting in the middle of 3 people playing you hear
melodies split between the drums. It can be really hard to identify
what each drum is doing individually, but the overall sound is
fantastic. I'm heading over there again in a couple of days so I'll try and get
some video footage to put up on the blog. In the meantime, if you're
interested in investigating further, check out this page:
http://www.latinpulsemusic.com/albums/show/18 If you enjoy this content please spread the word. You can help by
clicking 'like' on my Facebook page, subscribing to my YouTube
channel, leaving comments, etc.
Thanks for your support,
Joe
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