Labour w/ Birame Ndiaye Rose

This show features the great living sabar drummer Birame Ndiaye Rose, a prolific public performer, griot, and son of the legendary late Doudou Ndiaye Rose. Equal parts feature on Birame and on his father, this show includes several recordings made with Birame by LABOUR in Dakar between 2012-2019, alongside recordings of his father when Birame was still a child. From here, the show highlights a few equally complex percussion works from Iannis Xenakis plus avant-garde works from a number of composers, and perhaps freely draws links to both the noisier and moodier aspects of the sabar drums and the abundant social situations in which they are found on a daily basis throughout Dakar and Senegal. The 3 spoken sections are from Birame himself and include first an introduction and solo on the xiin drum, specific to Baye Fall music; second a news clip from his big performance representing his father’s legacy on the occasion of Senegalese Independence Day; and third an explanation of the all-important ritual at the beginning of every tànnibéer (sabar drum event), called tagumbar, which protects the drummers by reciting verses of the Quran and playing directly related drum patterns. All spoken words are in the Wolof language.