Michael Markus
Magbana (Magbana, 2003)
Magbana is a New York-based drum and dance group composed of fourteen percussionists and dancers. Most of the instruments used are of West African origin, including jembe, dunduns, songbas, and kenkeni. There are also instruments from other parts of Africa, such as the udu drum and Afro Brazilian percussion: pandeiro, berimbau and tamborim.
The main percussionists in the group are not African, but that doesn’t matter. The rhythms are spectacular and a delight for percussion lovers. In addition, the use of several percussionists, using a wide variety of instruments makes the music interesting.
To make things even better, the drumming group invited several additional musicians to participate in the recording, including several big names in the New York African music scene, including Famoro Dioubate on balaphones, Sylvain Lerouz on Fula flute, and two additional jembe players, M’bemba Bangoura and Laurent Camara, who turn piece #11, "Kondé/Sankranba Dundun/Demosoni ‘Tuku’ Kelen," into a jembe fest, with three jembe solos.
Get the CD from www.magbana.com.
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
