Search - Abdulai Bangoura :: Sigiri

When Mark Seidenfeld headed to Ghana to study djembe drumming in 1990, he was looking for a teacher. He happened upon the ultimate store of Ghanian cultural knowledge, multi-instrumentalist and griot Abdulai Bangoura. So Seidenfeld recorded Bangoura then and there, bringing back to the U.S. the music that made it--after almost a decade--onto Sigiri. With the success of the Drummers of Burundi and various other polyrhythmic extravaganzas, it makes sense that Seidenfeld's astonishment at Bangoura would be shared by music fans. Bangoura's got relentless fire and energy, a speed that boggles the mind as the drums swirl and the griot's voice matches the rhythms. When Bangoura takes up the kalimba and balafon, he loses precisely none of his powers. The kalimba work is slower, but no less dramatic, with washes of harmonic depth cascading as the rhythms gather traction and energy. Ditto for the balafon material, which finds patterns, shapes them, and then builds on them at times subtly and at times with great dramatic force. Bangoura's status as a griot illuminates the role he plays in his community, as storyteller, historical preservation society, and entertainer--all rolled into one. Sigiri makes all three jobs sound profoundly dramatic and riveting. --Andrew Bartlett