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NANSADY KEITA & NAMORY KEITA From Hand To Hand: The Wassa Kunba! Drumming Experience 2010 Workshop Tour *Wassa Kunba! - Malinké for Great Joy!
Wassa Kunba! Great Joy! Through these amazing workshops, Nansady Keita and Namory Keita will share with everyone the great joy of traditional Malinké hand drumming from Guinea, West Africa. Fode Camara will again be joining the tour as their Sangbanfola. Improve your skills and experience Wassa Kunba! with these musicians.
Come be a part of a joyful environment where we come together as a small village and enjoy the uplifting beauty of the Malinké ensemble. Whatever your background or experience level, take this unique opportunity to study this amazing music.  NANSADY KEITA Nansady Keita started drumming very young on a tin can, and at the age of 8 received his first djembe. Soon he began studying with djembe-master Djoumeh Camara, later joining his group and travelling locally to perform at traditional parties and festivals. After Djoumeh's death Nansady took his own group to the Malinké towns of Guekedou and Macenta (near the Liberian border) to work. It was during this time (around 1997) that the world-renowned djembe-master, and Nansady's uncle, Famoudou Konate sent a messenger to ask Nansady to return to the village as Famoudou wanted him to go to Guinea's capital, Conakry, with him to teach non-African students Malinké rhythms. This was the start of an ongoing arrangement between Famoudou and Nansady where Nansady taught at Famoudou's annual percussion workshops, this continued until Nansady started his own annual Guinea workshops in 2007. Nansady has performed and taught around the world (USA, Holland, UK, France, Germany, Japan) and toured with Famoudou Konate's ensembles to Japan and Europe. Nansady features on six of the CD's Famoudou has released including most recently Hamana Namun. Nansady is a member of the traditional West African performance group 'Hamana Kalu' (who released their first CD in May 2008 with a new CD coming out in 2010) in Guinea-Conakry, and he leads three British based ensembles in the UK, Nansady Keita's Ensemble (consisting of Guinean musicians based in the UK), Funkama, and Meereeya Bedeh. Nansady is also known for his infectious laughter. To learn more about Nansady Keita go to www.NansadyKeita.com NAMORY KEITA Namory has been the lead djembefola for the village since 2006 and still lives there to this day. He grew up drumming with his family and friends, including Nansady Keita and Solo Keita, and has studied and worked with his uncle, djembe-master Famoudou Konate as well. Namory started playing plastic water buckets and tin cans when he was 5 years old. While going to school in the village he was upgraded to be able to play an actual drum and started playing the kenkeni. He could not wait for school to be finished each day so he could play the kenkeni. After four years of being in the midst of the drummers as the kenkeni player he then moved to the dununba for a couple of years and finally was moved up to the sangban and djembe. These two he started playing at the same time as understanding the melody between the djembe and sangban is most important. While talking to him about this he told me that "they talk to each other and you must know how to communicate". In the meantime, while playing the bass drums Namory started playing for the drummers while they were teaching foreigners and he started to learn how the visiting foreigners need to hear the music so they could understand it. In 2001, the visiting foreigners started coming to Namory to have him teach them about the music and culture. Some of his first students were from Australia, Japan, France, Germany and Poland. In 2008 and 2009 Namory completed two successful tours in Europe. He has recorded CDs with Billy Konate and Diarra Konate. Namory also hosts djembe and dunun workshops in Guinea. Namory is known for his love of his village, his respect for traditional music, and his infectious joy of life. The fact that he's a fabulous djembefola and a generous teacher only adds to his charms! To learn more about Namory Keita go to www.NamoryKeita.com From Hand to Hand The Wassa Kunba! teaching system involves an intensive 4 hours of instruction per day and ensures that you will leave with everything you will need to study and perform a complete Malinké rhythm. You’ll learn the basic rhythms on the three dununs and the djembe accompaniment parts. You will also learn echauffements (the patterns that heat up the song), djembe solo techniques, introductions and breaks, dunun variations and even songs that accompany the rhythms in the village. You’ll learn the origins of each rhythm, receive expert instruction on all instruments in the traditional Malinké djembe orchestra and deepen your understanding of the place of music, dance and song in West African life. Both Nansady and Namory are able to work simultaneously with students of all levels - beginner to professional. Absolutely everyone is welcome! Finally, each workshop includes a set-aside time during which all of the drum parts are played so that students can have a clean recording of the material.
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