10/28 - The Global Rhythms Concert and the Gyil

I didn't have time to read and analyze anything today. I had a little relaxation time after classes finished (noon, awesome), but other than that it was go time all the time today. Fortunately, the ethnomusicology came to me today in the form of the global rhythms concert.

Let me just start by saying UNT is a pretty sweet place for diversity and covering all your bases as a percussionist. Not only do we have a drumline and three classical ensembles, but we also have two steel drum bands, beginning and advanced South Indian, African, and Afro-Cuban ensembles, Brazilian, Gamelan, and the indoor drumline. And a plethora of jazz bands, concert bands, and solo opportunities. I believe that is quite literally all of the bases to be covered.

But, on top of all of this beautiful madness, Valerie Naranjo, an expert gyil player and percussionist of SNL, came and performed with most of the ensembles.

The concert started with Gamelan, and they played a very traditional piece. The ensemble consisted of a gong ageng and siyem player, a kethuk player, a full bonang barung, a 5 gender and 5 saron, and the leader played a hand drum, probably a kendhang. There was also a dude playing something similar to finger cymbals but with a buzzy sound, in fast rhythms on the ground. They had Valerie play her gyil with them on their next piece, which isn't traditional at all, but it sounded great.

Then Valerie played a gyil solo on marimba. I guess I should probably explain what a gyil is.

A gyil (say jeel or jeeli) is the main instrument of the Dagara and Lobi people from Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire. It's very similar to a marimba, but the bars are in the pentatonic scale and spans three octaves. It's low to the ground and uses gourds for resonators. The distinctive part of this instrument is its buzz sound, which is created by drilling little holes in the sides of the resonator gourds and fastening dry spider eggs, which rattle around. Traditional gyil music is very polyrhythmic, polymetric, and a brilliant display of right and left hand independence. I'll put a link up:



Valerie has studied with Leigh Howard Stevens, Gordon Stout, and lots of other big name marimba players, and most importantly Kakraba Lobi. Kakraba was a gyil master, and he was Valerie's gyil mentor. Her study intense study of the gyil led to a chiefly declaration in Ghana that women could be allowed to play the gyil in Ghana for the first time.

So, generally, she's the cream of the crop.

The marimba solo was her mentor Kakraba Lobi's favorite tune, Banda Jel, which means lizard's egg. Whenever Kakraba got sick of practicing or couldn't understand, he would think of how the lizard's egg can't be cut or smashed because of its thick shell, and it can't be broken when thrown or dropped because it will bounce right back. A good philosophy, I think.



Then she played and improvised on the Fra Fra Song with Jose Aponte and the Brazilian Ensemble, and led the Afro-Cuban Ensemble in Kaang Kuon Kpar (The Oil has Spilled). The Fra Fra Song is the Baiao people of N.E. Brazil making fun of the Fra Fra people, their next door neighbors. Kaang Kuon Kpar's moral essentially states "don't cry over spilled oil;" if you're carrying oil to light your fire in your bucket, and you trip and fall, don't cry because you lost your oil, you can't do anything about it, just keep going about your day and something good will happen.

She took a break while The Bridge, UNT's Advanced South Indian Ensemble, played two songs. The Bridge currently consists of two drummers, two guitar players, and another percussionist, today he played vibraphone. They played a song Sriji wrote that was in some ridiculous time signature with easy audible mora and tihai, and then performed a song the ensemble wrote as a whole. It was in 105/8, or 52 1/2 / 4, because the two drumset players, Colin (from lessons) and Zack (plays in Singers), kept different patterns of 3, 5, and 7 going.

Colin's bass drum played X - X X -, common khandatala subdivision.
Zach's bass drum played  XX - X -, not khandatala.

Ride cymbals
C: X - X  - X - X X - X  - X - X
Z: X - X  X- X -  X - X X - X -

And Colin's hi hat played X - X, Zack's played X X -

Since 3 5 and 7 don't have any LCM's lower that 105, that was when they all lined up, that was the measure. It was pretty crazy.

Valerie came back on and played a little solo with some call and response stuff for the audience to enjoy. So I sang in some crazy African language today, Mom.

Her last piece was with the African Ensemble, called Kpanlogo, which had more call and response stuff. It was cool to see the kaganu and kidi strokes still played, even though the song was from a different tribe in Ghana, the Ga people. It was pretty awesome. That's all I have to say. It's indescribable.

After she received a well-deserved standing ovation, the Indoor Drumline came on and played the music they'll be playing when the go on tour to Belgium in March. It's not typical indoor music either, it was Alberto Ginastera, Debussy and Bartok, so maybe they're doing a clinic on classical music applied to the percussion ensemble. But it was perhaps the cleanest I've ever heard a percussion ensemble play before. All of the mallet runs, the tenor solo, the bass splits, and the impacts were spot on, even through tempo changes and funky meters. I wish I made it so I could go to Belgium, but I see why I didn't make it.

Indoor was an excellent conclusion to an very diverse concert. I made sure I came home ASAP so I wouldn't forget anything.

I hope this suffices for what I was supposed to be doing today. Except you don't even know what I was supposed to be writing about today. ...muahahaha.

M