Talking about Drums

I have always been an admirer of Drums since I was 7 or 8 years old. I remember going to church then with my mom and transfixed by this visiting drummer boy drumming with so much passion, dexterity and smoothness that even as a small boy then couldn't ignore. From that day on, my "ear' for drumming developed and I totally fell I love with an art I never learnt but enjoyed listening to its output.

I went to Ohio in 2003 or sometimes and I saw this dance troupe with a perfect choreography to the blistering and magical sound of Bata. I was moved. The africanness in me surged and the flow of my emotions nearly broke into the well of tears - The refreshing sound and its rapidity was that good. Also good were the steps to the frantic beating of the Bata that no electric drum can ever produce. It was a sheer representation of everything that is good with the Yoruba drums.

As much as I love drums, it is a dormant hobbies for me. I never crave for it until I am in its vicinity again but everytime I hear the sound of good drums especially Gangan (the talking drum) and Bata those yesteryear feelings come back again and I am taken back to my boyhood years

I experienced this when I was in college. There was this Christain Music Festival at Obafemi Awolowo University called Livingspring. Livingspring is the stage where a lot of Christian musical groups become known and the known ones get better known. It was and I hope is still a refreshing three days of raw talents, entertainment, ingenuity and just plain ministrations devoid over over-spirituality that normally accompany a lot of Nigerian christain programs. There was this group from one Baptist church in Ibadan with this wicked gangan known as Asaju. Oh my God, it was Ecstatic! The rhythmic concoction led by this asaju was something my body still retains the taste till today. The sheer orgasmic feeling the body of the iya - Ilu, Olele, and Gangan Asaju drums brought to my mind was something only found in the fantasy world.

Fast forward to yesterday at the baby christening of Femi and Sola's baby at CAC Agbala Itura, Seabrook Maryland. It was time for the choir to sing and then comes the gangan drummer. It was an undiluted brilliance with the way he manipulated the drum and dictated the directions of the songs and controlling the pace of the dancing bodies as worshippers were lost to the beautiful aura of the charming beats.