African drummer for celebs steps into spotlight

By AMANDA PIERRE
Register Staff Writer
04/11/2003

The same percussive power that has fueled the sound of Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, Ziggy Marley, the Blue Man Group and other talents will be on stage tonight at The Vaudeville Mews.

Madou Dembele, a West African drummer who has played with these well-known artists and others, will lead a show with five other area drummers at 8 p.m. The show will kick off a series of classes he will hold on African drumming and dance.

In Dembele's home country of Mali, drumming is not just a form of entertainment, it is also a storytelling language and a form of prayer. It is part of basically every ceremony from conception to marriage to death.

"One of the best ways to experience West African culture is through drumming," said Fairfield drummer Fons Koster, who has been studying the jembe for about 10 years. "It is so interwoven throughout their culture."

For instance, Dembele said that to thank God for their fertility, women do a special dance to a specific rhythm of the drum after they have a child. Another rhythm is played for the children or grandchildren of the recently departed, as they roam the village accepting tokens of sympathy.

The rhythms are often highly energetic and dance-able.

"We've got a dance party for everything," Dembele said.

Koster, who holds a degree in music education and has been teaching drumming in the area for about five years, is a student of Dembele's.

She first encountered Dembele several years ago while attending a conference for jembe drummers. There, Dembele was being praised, even by world-famous drummers, as one of the best-known living jembe drummers.

Koster said there are many things that prove his mastery.

"The way Madou plays, the quality of sound that he gets out of his drum, his technique and his speed is phenomenal," she said.

Koster will be playing in Dembele's show along with some of his other students: Bob Miller and Jo Lynn Tolson, also of Fairfield, and Eric Hedberg, Dan Kopatich and Michael Thompson of Des Moines. They will play various drums.

Dembele has been teaching in Des Moines since he moved to the area from New York in late 2002.

"It is sharing the culture," Dembele said. "As a teacher, the more energy you give out, the more students will give you energy back, and in the meantime they will catch (on to) it.

"They have some idea how to respond to my stories - even without being born in Africa."

Drumming in Africa is passed down through male relatives. Dembele, from 33 generations of drummers, learned from his grandfather at a very young age.

"I feel like it has always been a part of me, in my blood," Dembele said.

The drum itself is an instrument that must be created through special means in order to be authentic and completely efficient. It is carved from the wood of a specific African tree, the Yoroco, which is cut down only after a ceremony.

Dembele decorates his drums, including those he'll use in the show, according to tradition.

"The jembe is a female, always, and you want your woman to look nice," he explains.

Decorations include cowrie shells, meant to repel negative energy, and metal tacks in star designs. His professional-grade drum is decorated extensively to signify his high talent level.

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