[rachelnguyen]

I am really inspired by these beautiful, strong women players.

Once I confessed to my teacher that I thought I would never be physically strong enough to play the way he does.

"You don't have to play like me to be good." he said. "You have to be good enough so that you can play what is in your heart."

True that.

R

[e2c]

Rachel - yes!

Besides, raw physical strength is only part of a means to an end. If you have the music in your heart, you'll find a way to play it. (Which you have!)

[bubudi]

here's another serious contender!

judith ricard began west african drumming at the age of 7 and afro-cuban drumming at the age of 10. in 1995 she travelled around france taking classes and workshops with african masters such as mare sanogo (ex ballet du mali), soungalo coulibaly, amara kante (guinea/ivory coast), sheikh tidiane bangoura, mamady keita, ibrahima sory diabate (circus baobab), fatogoma traore (burkina faso) and harouna dembele (yelemba d'abidjan).

in 2000 she began travelling to burkina faso and mali for 3-6 month stays each year to encounter other teachers and musical experiences and deepen her learning by playing in traditional ceremonies (weddings, funerals, naming ceremonies and 'cabaret') as well as playing with local groups (farafin'co, kitakoulou & miriagnouma). she also began studying the bobo bala.

in 2001 she started the group bolokan fola with whom she has performed many concerts and events. she regularly collaborates with other groups on original creations with diverse musicians and has therefore acquired experience in jazz, indian, oriental and afro cuban styles, participating in many such recordings (gingado, gustavo ovalles & ara onu, eric terrades, etc). other groups and artists she has played with include forilalou, concha marina, ames & bagages, repercussion & djina muso.

since 2001 judith has been teaching courses and workshops in schools, recreational settings and special education and regularly accompanies the dance courses of pele camara, khady sarr, fanta dembele and others.

http://www.myspace.com/judithricard
http://www.myspace.com/bolokanfola

[bops]

Wow, great playing! That trio was really nice.

[Dugafola]

judith is great. ripping player.

here's a video of Foli Laka with Monette Marino playing too. the woman on the far left is a sick player. her name is Muriel Finet and is married to a Kouyate from guinea.

babara bangoura makes an appearance at the end for the kirin piece.

[video removed due to double posting. see it here]

[bubudi]

here's a bit about the other members of judith ricard's sideline, djina moussa, who are also female, as the name suggests (djina moussa = spirit women). these girls kick ass!


Anne Kerkhofs
Bérengère Pleyiers
Jessica Tamsma
Judith Ricard
Pascale Seydel



http://www.myspace.com/djinamuso


anne kerkhof began drumming in the 90s and trained with sidiki camara (ex ballet du mali and sewa kan). she stopped her phd study to concentrate fully on west african percussion, then studied with mamady keita, famoudou Konate, fadouba oulare, soungalo coulibaly, amara kante (guinea/ivory coast), diarra konate (guinea), adama drame and zoumana dembele (burkina faso). she travelled to mali, studying with madou fane and sidiki camara, then to guinea, where she played at rehearsals of the circus baobab. in 2002 she started her own percussion school and became certified by mamady keita as a tam tam mandingue teacher in 2003. she founded her own group, mains dingues. in addition she has collaborated with electro group les zix, alkemia (based on traditional african music), foli laka and djina muso.

pascale seydel joined the world of music at the age of 9 (classical guitar training). in 1988, she began training with mamady keita (graduated in 2000). pascale completed her training with other percussionists including nansady Keita, bruno genero, adama drame, famoudou konate, o. dembele and sidiki camara. she rounded off her training during her travels in the ivory coast, senegal and burkina faso. she was cofounder of the group ryth'miss (1990-98). she has several albums to her credit, having collaborated with white strike, sakhodougou, nama, les zix and alkemia.

berengere pleyiers studied djembe with many teachers before coming to burkina faso and studying with zoumana dembele. she also learned the bobo bala there.

[bubudi]

duga, i posted that video of foli kan one page back. muriel should get a special mention tho. here's a video of her playing in her husband's (nfaly kouyate) band.



http://www.myspace.com/murielfinetkouyate
http://www.myspace.com/dunyakan

french born muriel finet kouyate began her musical training in classical piano at the age of eight. in 1982 she won the music in france award for a duet, after a performance with her teacher. after commencing her studies with the djembe she moved to brussels to study with mamady keita, ntoman keita and famoudou konate. in 1999 she received her tam tam mandingue teaching certification from mamady keita. she then travelled many times to ivory coast and guinea, where she worked with various ballets and the famous circus baobab. she taught 2 years at ntoman keita's school, then taught for namunkanda for 6 years before starting her new school, cadence mandingue in 2004. she organises various courses and workshops in belgium and france. her professional colaborations include performing with ntoman keita and being recorded on his cd, n'dania, performing with seny toure and ballet kassogna. she is currently the djembe player for dunyakan (a percussion group with kora player nfaly kouyate) and foli laka, the group of djembefolettes founded by mamady keita featured earlier in this topic.

[bubudi]

there's a group of djembefolettes in bouake, trained by ballet koba. things are starting to change in west africa...

djembefolettessm.JPG (61.27KiB)Viewed 3940 times

djembefolletes2sm.JPG (68.3KiB)Viewed 3940 times

[e2c]

bubudi, thanks *so much* for those photos! Very, very encouraging!

Ditto to you and everyone else for the videos - I need some time to catch up with all that's been posted over the past week...

[Davidjembe]

Hi All!

This is my first post on here.... I have been doing a lot of reading but no responding

But, I do have something to add to this thread. Someone mentioned Monette Marino Keita and of course she is a badass djembefola!! Another female djembefola who plays "crazy djembe" (as my teacher Dramane Kone would say ) is the woman from the group SOKAN...

Sokan is a group from Burkina Faso, the lead djembefola from this group is Harouna Dembele's (Yelemba, Parisi) brother. This ensamble is not well known and you can get their CD on ITUNES suprisingly for under $10!! It's great stuff you should invest if you have not already!

So, in Sokan there is a European woman who has studied djembe very well!!! The Africans in Sokan refer to her as the "white pearl" and she is married to one of the drummers. Check YouTube for videos of SOKAN... you will see her play solos and accompaniment. She is definately a crazy djembefolette!!
Thanks,
Dave

[Dugafola]

Hi All!

This is my first post on here.... I have been doing a lot of reading but no responding

But, I do have something to add to this thread. Someone mentioned Monette Marino Keita and of course she is a badass djembefola!! Another female djembefola who plays "crazy djembe" (as my teacher Dramane Kone would say ) is the woman from the group SOKAN...

i can hear Dramane laughing now....

[bubudi]

welcome david!

yes, we talked about the 'pearl' of sokan earlier in this thread and even included 2 videos featuring her playing. her name is anne-yolaine diarra.

[bubudi]

i was talking to aicha keita on saturday night and asked her how many good female djembe players she knows of back in conakry. she said quite a lot these days. in some of the ballets the dancers also do percussion and this means the ladies get to have a go on the djembe and dunun. so in several years we may well see a good few african women teaching djembe and dunun in the west.

[bops]

in several years we may well see a good few african women teaching djembe and dunun in the west.

Once they start with the "wara wara" style, can we stop lamenting that this is a guy thing?

@ e2c

[Dugafola]

i have seen Les Amazones de Guinee a couple of times.

i'd have to say that some of the women mentioned in this thread: monette, white pearl, muriel, judith etc...all play better then the Amazones. their phrasing is waay more developed. i found that the women in conakry played a lot like the youngsters in conakry. great energy with lots of rolls. short on language though...as well as a fat tone.