Kpanlogo drums Ghana, from the land of rhythm.

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Kpanlogo drums Ghana, from the land of rhythm.

Postby pavloconga » Sat Aug 16, 2008 3:52 am

This in response to Tone, a question about kpanlogo drums in previous thread 'Touches'.
Rather than get off topic here it is:

Tone said: "So tell us a bit more about the kpanlogo and how it compares to congas.
Do you own a set?"
tone
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Hi Tone,
The kpanlogo drums are a really beautiful instrument and I think quite unique in sound and also the technique required to get the best out of them.
I have a set of 3. In Ghana they're usually skinned with antelope skin which is thinner than a conga skin. They have a certain sonority which I think is quite special, sometimes they even sound a little like bata in the overtones etc.

Whether there is any connection to the conga drums of Cuba I don't know, but they certainly have the conga shape.

One thing I noticed with kpanlogo is that their sound seems to carry over long distances quite clearly. I would often hear the sound carry along the coast, sounding like many more or louder drums than was actually being played. When I got there it was often just 3 or 4 drums.

Though they're similar in shape to conga drum, the technique required is somewhat different to playing a conga. A lot of the rhythms played on them often use touch notes, taps etc. They're often played in a tuned set of 3 or more with usually one person playing one drum and one drum part. I once saw a drummer with a Hilife group in Ghana playing 7 tuned drums, it sounded really beautiful, almost like a balafon or piano-like.

These days, the kpanlogo drums are often played in combination with the djembe which are not really a Ghanaian drum and are relatively new to Ghana. When I first went there in '98 I saw few djembes being played. On my later visits I saw more and more djembes being incorporated into the drum ensembles.

So Tone, you live now in Brazil?
A friend of mine has invited me to visit Brasil later this year.
How's the life and music percussion scene there?

here' s some photos: 'Kusun Ensemble'.

anyway cheers,
pavlo
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Re: Kpanlogo drums Ghana

Postby pavloconga » Sat Aug 16, 2008 3:57 am

An earlier version of the Kusun Ensemble, circa 1998.
With the high pitched "Lightning Drum" at left, kpanlogos, djembe, soloist on high tuned kpanlogo and bass frame drum at right.

pavlo
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Re: Kpanlogo drums Ghana, from the land of rhythm.

Postby Sakuntu » Sat Aug 16, 2008 12:21 pm

Great thread! If I can add a bit of history from the book Highlife Time by John Collins....Kpanlogo is a "neo traditional" social music and dancestyle of the Ga People of Ghana . It is said to be invented in 1963 by a man named Otoo Lincoln. The name Kpanlogo was that of a young girl in a Ananse folk tale. Its the rhythms and dance are a combination of Highlife(Pop music), Kolomashie (street processional music), Oge (a Liberian based music drum style) and Rock n Roll (i.e. the Twist). In 1964, the Kpanlogo was banned by the elders of the Arts council of Ghana becuase the dance was considered to "sexual" due to its hip movements. :shock: :oops: It was later redeemed after a public showing to the Arts Council.

I spent sometime in Ghana back in 1996 studying at the University of Ghana at Legon. Experienced some of the most powerful musical experiences there. Used to play Kpanlogo, Oge, & Fume Fume for 2 hours straight several times a week....Pavloconga-You know you miss it! :wink:
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Re: Kpanlogo drums Ghana, from the land of rhythm.

Postby windhorse » Sat Aug 16, 2008 2:28 pm

These are the first drums I played; the Ghanaian Kponlogo drums. I loved them, and they were certainly good "trainers" for getting into the world of the conga. The drums are called "Twinchin" at least by our main Ghanaian teacher in town, Maputo. Another very similar drum to the Twinchin, is the "Obrenton", which has a narrowed vertical base. These Kpanlogo drums are hand carved in Ghana from Tweneboa, similar to Mahogony.
From what I can tell, the heads are antelope, so thinner and softer than the cow headed tighter feeling congas. So, when you hit a slap on the Twinchin, you dig way down into the skin which responds with an amazing crack like a bull whip! If you dug in on a slap like that on a conga, you'd get "thffp" as a sound, and you'd break your fingers. The tones are almost exactly like the conga, but you use less of the hand. The basses are quite different though. You slightly cup the hand; something you would never do on the conga. And this makes sense because the head is much loser and softer on these drums.
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Re: Kpanlogo drums Ghana, from the land of rhythm.

Postby Chupacabra » Mon Aug 18, 2008 1:44 am

I like the tweneboa wood that many (if not all) Ghanaian drums that I've seen are made from. It has a really nice sound and is easy to carve compared to the hardwoods. This drum here on the left would normally be a peg-tuned drum called atesimevu but since it is lug tuned and has cowhide on it I can't really call it that. I bought the drum as is about 3 years ago with a really poor antelope hide on it and it had some scars that needed repairing and came out with an awesome sounding and looking drum. The only thing I don't like about it is exactly what I dolike about it: The wood is quite soft and can scratch and chip really easily.
There's a nice kpanlogo for sale in town here that I'm seriously thinking of picking up if I can get the price lowered!
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Re: Kpanlogo drums Ghana, from the land of rhythm.

Postby pavloconga » Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:11 am

Sakuntu wrote:Great thread! If I can add a bit of history from the book Highlife Time by John Collins....Kpanlogo is a "neo traditional" social music and dancestyle of the Ga People of Ghana . It is said to be invented in 1963 by a man named Otoo Lincoln. The name Kpanlogo was that of a young girl in a Ananse folk tale. Its the rhythms and dance are a combination of Highlife(Pop music), Kolomashie (street processional music), Oge (a Liberian based music drum style) and Rock n Roll (i.e. the Twist). In 1964, the Kpanlogo was banned by the elders of the Arts council of Ghana becuase the dance was considered to "sexual" due to its hip movements. :shock: :oops: It was later redeemed after a public showing to the Arts Council.
:

Hi Sakuntu,
Hey good to hear you went to Ghana to study. Were you into drums then? It's true about Otu Lincoln, I met him in 1998 along with another man called Franklin (whose last name I don't remember) who is acknowledged by Otu himself as one of the inventors of the dance form. They were both were still doing well at that time and still able to dance the Kpanlogo with style and brilliance. I saw them performing together with one of the leading groups that specialise in Kpanlogo from Jamestown in Ghana. They were both amazing dancers. Franklin was very animated and theatrical while Otu was very stylish and minimal, yet his dance seemed powerful and full of meaning.

Yes it's true Kpanlogo was banned for a time. And you are correct about the origin of the rhythm - I remember Otu himself saying thru an interpreter that it was derived from, how he put it - an 'old' rhythm from Liberia called Ogé (another beautiful rhythm in itself).

The Kpanlogo rhythm itself is, like a lot of rhythms when you get beyond the surface, really deep. Beyond the essential part and the supporting drum parts and bell pattern(s) there is a complex (and evolving) phraseology played by the master drummer that signals the dancers as well as the pace of the theatrics and drama happening with the dancers. In addition to the dance phrase patterns and calls there are melodic ride patterns that the soloist plays that interact with the main Kpanlogo part itself. It is this interaction between the tones of the higher and lower pitched drums that creates the melodic structure which really characterises the Kpanlogo. The more I learned about this rhythm... the more I learned there was to learn.

cheers
pavlo

pic attached of Kpanlogo being played in a slightly non traditional way with the introduction of a djembe with the kpanlogo drums. I have a recording I made at the same time as I took the picture.
If someone can suggest a way of posting an mp3, I should be able to post a copy of the recording.
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Re: Kpanlogo drums Ghana, from the land of rhythm.

Postby Sakuntu » Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:45 pm

Pavlo...I was at the University of Ghana in 1996. I can't believe its been over 10 years! Yeah i was into drums then. I took some lessons from the master drummers at the unversities but it got to be a little too expensive so i ended up meeting this teenage dancer of a local cultural troupe who happended to be a kick butt drummer! We would hang and play for 2-3 hours at a time, starting kpanlogo really slow and then over the course of hours working it up till it was flying at breakneck speed. When I came back from Ghana is when my slaps sounded the best! My main focus was kpanlogo, oge , kpacha and fume fume. I learned about 30-40 songs. I have some old recordings of me playing with this guy and him teaching me the songs. if you'd like, send me a pm sometime and I'll send you some mp3's. Great times...eating kenkey, playing kpanlogo and trying to talk pidgin english!
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Re: Kpanlogo drums Ghana, from the land of rhythm.

Postby Tone » Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:34 am

Hey Pavlo,

I finally found the thread. Thank you, great stuff!
I bought loads of instruments from the traditional market in Ghana, but I didn't have the space for a set of Kpanlogo. I regret it!

Do you remember the name of those balls held together by a string, that make a shaker sound and a tac! sound when you hold and release one of the ball against the other. I still play this stuff, a great party pleaser. They are a lot of fun and generate a wicked groove.

I remember in Ghana how every saturday in every town, all over the country, people would have those big funeral or rather a post celebration of death. Big open air party, everybody dressed up and this wicked music played over a distorting sound system. With the bass being played on a box with metal blades. (don't know the name either). And people would play this complex clapping patterns...

Anyway I travelled all around Ghana for while, I could go on...

It was interesting and sad to see that the young generation was exclusively listening to Hip Hop and R and B with no interest in their traditional music. I can undersand how youth wants and should be modern, they will probably go back to it and make it eveolve gain one day.

I din't understand the difference betweem the slap and the conga slap. From what I remember it looked a lot like a cupped and side ways slap which reminded me of the traditional Cuban slap (unlike the flatter modern Giovanni type slap).

I am surprised that there isn't more historic connection between the conga and the kpanlogo, they are so similar in my ways. MAybe someone can shed some light on this...

Thanks everybody for sharing the knowledge.

About the percussion in Rio, that would be too long a story, and worth a few threads. So I will say it is fantastic to be here, in a place that breathes percussion. If you come to Rio I will show you around.

Abraço
tone
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Re: Kpanlogo drums Ghana, from the land of rhythm.

Postby pavloconga » Wed Aug 27, 2008 1:23 pm

Tone wrote:Hey Pavlo,

Do you remember the name of those balls held together by a string, that make a shaker sound and a tac! sound when you hold and release one of the ball against the other. I still play this stuff, a great party pleaser. They are a lot of fun and generate a wicked groove.

Yes, the name of that deceptively simple and amazing instrument is the aslatua.

Tone wrote:I remember in Ghana how every saturday in every town, all over the country, people would have those big funeral or rather a post celebration of death. Big open air party, everybody dressed up and this wicked music played over a distorting sound system. With the bass being played on a box with metal blades. (don't know the name either).

Man that brings back some memories! The instrument you mention is the ashiwa - to me it sounds so much like a bass guitar.

Tone wrote:I didn't understand the difference between the slap and the conga slap. From what I remember it looked a lot like a cupped and side ways slap which reminded me of the traditional Cuban slap (unlike the flatter modern Giovanni type slap).


On the kpanlogos I saw open slaps, muffled slaps, a kind of tapao that almost stroked the drum with semi-cupped hands and something resembling a rumba slap with one hand on drum and other hand slapping. I also saw one master player use a shockingly loud two handed slap (which I haven't seen before or since and probably wouldn't work on a conga) where the drummer would bring both hands onto the drum head in a kind of grabbing motion on the drumhead.

cheers
pavlo
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Re: Kpanlogo drums Ghana, from the land of rhythm.

Postby Djembe » Mon Oct 20, 2008 8:53 pm

Do you remember the name of those balls held together by a string, that make a shaker sound and a tac! sound when you hold and release one of the ball against the other. I still play this stuff, a great party pleaser. They are a lot of fun and generate a wicked groove.


My friend who's been to Ghana a lot calls these push pash. I've also heard it called something else out there on the internet, and if I could remember what that was I could like to a great site that's out there on the web somewhere with loads of tricks for these....

If anyone's interested here's some kpanlogo lessons. There's some info and warm ups for free, but you have to pay for the rhythms them selves.

Oge's in there as is Kpanlogo, fume fume and sodja.
I live in a world of infinite possibilities

I love all drums.....but I especially love African Drums.
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Re: Kpanlogo drums Ghana, from the land of rhythm.

Postby skinslapper » Mon Aug 02, 2010 9:32 am

kicking up an old tread .....

Ive started by playing cowe bell on the street. My teacher Kofi Ayivor(Nigerian born but raised in ghana ) told me that unless you can keep time ,there is no sense in learning to play a drum .
It took me 8 months of about 4 times a week 4/5 houers playing on the streets with him .His style is strange, non regular complicated beats . I felt like i was playing wrong . He used to curse co players for not keeping time .
The day i "mastered" the bell he told me : Look there not looking at, me there looking at you !

After that i have played Ghanaian traditional music with a band in amsterdam for a few years .Weve played :Agbadjah.Kpanlogo. Fume fume .Tokwe .padja ghota .And many others
Its complicated music, witch keep you sharp , but verry nice to play !!!!!!1

For me Ghana is the one of the most interesting music country s

Anyway many years after that i ve traveled Ghana with my girlfreind, took classes and ordered me an Ewe set . made for me .

These are 4 very nice drums played with sticks and or hands .The smallest is 60 Cm the biggest 1.70 mtr.

I dont know howe to put pictures here but if you google on Ewe drums you ll find them !
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Re: Kpanlogo drums Ghana, from the land of rhythm.

Postby skinslapper » Sat Jan 28, 2012 4:57 pm

So here the are then !!!

Image
From big to small you have :
- Skinslapper
- Atsimevu
- Sogo
- Kidi
- Agpackbang
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