Product Description

Drummer, dancer, and folklorist Sule Greg Wilson introduces the principles behind African and Diaspora music, including breath, posture, and orchestration.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #620986 in Books
• Published on: 1992-06-01
• Released on: 1992-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

About the Author
Drummer, dancer, folklorist, and researcher, Sule Greg Wilson studied drumming under Baba Ngoma as well as the premier students of Baba Ishangi, Ladji Camara, and Chief Bey and performed with many of the finest artists and groups in the field, including Babatunde Olatunji, the International Afrikan-American Ballet, Africa in Motion Dance Theater, and the Bennu Ausar Aurkestra. He also produced the CD and audiocassette The Drummer’s Path. 

Customer Reviews

A GOOD BOOK TO LEARN THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF DRUMMING.
I had been playing the piano for many years and wanted to learn more about rhythms and I picked up this book in a local bookstore and within a year I had started to learn to play African rhythms on the Djembe and Djun Djun. This book really opened my eyes to the beauty and complexity of traditional African rhythms and how they influenced the rhythms of both North and Latin America.

The book does not teach any rhythms but teaches all the basic principles af playing the drum and the mental/spiritual aspect of it.

Highly inspirational and Higly recomended.

Two other good books about the philosophical aspect of drumming are Diallo's "The Healing Drum" and Reinhard Flatischler's "The Forgotten Power Of Rhythm;Taketina".

And a good book who teaches a lot of rhythms is "A Rhythmic vocabulary" by Alan Dworsky"

let down
As someone learning to play drums and interested in African rhythms, I must say that this book was quite a let down. It offers very little useful information on drumming itself, and the ideas it does offer (the 12 principles) are expressed in uninteresting ways, lacking in subtlety. If you're interested in a book that offers insight into the meaning of African drumming, avoid this book and look to John Chernoff's African Rhythm and African Sensibility.

Women CAN play whatever drum they choose!
As a woman drummer and drum maker of the past 10 years I was very disappointed by Mr. Wilson's ideas regarding women and drumming. The fact is, women throughout the history of humankind have endured countless hours of back breaking physical labor, many times with an infant strapped to their backs, from gathering firewood to working fields to walking miles just to find and carry home water. Sule, living in a place where most people are not subject to living so close to basic survival has forgotten what his female African ancestors had to endure upon their arrival in this country. His theory that women would "fry their eggs" if they played a conga or a djembe (I play both, as do many professional female percussionists) does not fly since most of us can imagine that the above mentioned forms of labor are much more demanding on anyone's body than playing drums. If his theory were in fact true, it is possible that none of us would be here. Women are not as fragile as most men think we are. Mr. Wilson does have some very good advice on spirit and the flow of energy while drumming. But I enjoyed "When the Drummers were Women" much more!