Call the Drum Spirit Community Forum

Posted on 13/06/2016 by

Friday, June 24, 7 pm
The Great Room (2nd floor) of South Oxford Space
138 South Oxford Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn (map)

Makandal presents a community brase lide (brah-say lee-day, Haitian Kreyòl for brainstorming session) led by writers, scholars, cultural activists, and artists. What is the current state of documentation of Haitian Vodou drumming? Do you feel this cultural treasure merits more attention? Given Vodou’s status as a historically persecuted spiritual tradition, what, if any, are the limits of documentation? Who should be conducting it? Where and how? What is the role of the community? What is your role? Continue reading →

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Call the Drum Spirit! Rele Ountò!

Posted on 21/05/2016 by

The Third Annual Frisner Augustin Memorial Drum Concert

Saturday, June 25, 8 PM
Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue at Third Avenue, Downtown Brooklyn (map)

Bonga
Who’s Playing?
Bonga and Tiga
Makandal Drummers with Taïna Ligondé
Brother High Dreamteam Fulltempo

What’s Screening?
Video documentary on pioneering Haitian drummer Louis Celestin, by Zaka

TICKETS: Advance
$18 general  BUY
$15 students/seniors  BUY
Note: Advance sales end June 24

TICKETS: At the door
$20 general, $18 students/seniors
Age 12 and under FREE

Photo by Dawn Leikness: Bonga Jean-Baptiste, Haiti, 2009

Call the Drum Spirit Concert 2016 is funded, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts, public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Featured image (visible within post) by Chantal Regnault: Frisner Augustin drumming in Battery Park, Manhattan, July 5, 1986.

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Tales from the Archive: The Intimate Touch

Posted on 16/12/2015 by

From The Intimate Touch album notes:

“We can continue hearing pulses grouped in fours….Or, we can hear a shift from pulses grouped in fours to pulses grouped in threes: beginning on the second pulse of the third beat in measure 1 we hear four identical groups of three (bass-rim-rim, bass-rim-rim, bass-rim-rim, bass-rim-rim). The contrast between a heavy bass stroke and a feathery rim shot—on the pitch G4, the elusive G-spot, no doubt—reinforces the accent on every third pulse….

So which way did Frisner experience what he played? I can’t presume to know the answer, but I suspect he experienced both, and desired to use both as he plied his intimate touch in the privacy of his recording booth. After all, who knows what’s going to seduce a new listener?” Continue reading →

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Tales from the Archive: Vodou in the Voodoo Theatre*

Posted on 09/12/2015 by

She was planning the program with good intentions. “Do it just like you do it at home,” Verna Gillis told Frisner as we met with her in the run-up to our first performance at Soundscape, her loft in the Manhattan neighborhood known as Hell’s Kitchen. Verna presented contemporary music from around the world, and Makandal would share the October schedule with such luminaries as Roswell Rudd, Yomo Toro, Daniel Ponce, and Sun Ra.

After we met with her, Frisner told the other Makandal artists that Verna expected a staged Vodou dance. “Oh,” someone said—thinking of a rather sordid performance genre in Haiti—”she wants tourist voodoo!” Well, not exactly, no wild-eyed possessions, no rolling chicken heads. But Verna was asking us to dance on a slippery threshold. Just like you do it at home…
Continue reading →

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Tales from the Archive: A Day for Frisner, a Day for Haitian Culture

Posted on 02/12/2015 by

“Because of the drum, that’s why I can be here today.

“I remember the time I struggled in Haiti. A lot of people used to talk bad about the culture, the roots. But today is going to be my day, with my culture.

“All the friends I have, they’re like my family. The candle. You don’t light the candle for nothing. You light the candle for something deeply. And you don’t put water on the ground for nothing. The time I used to light the candle and look at the miwa (mirror), a lot of people thought Augustin is crazy. Augustin is not crazy. The time I come to New York, 1972, I have one candle. I light one candle. But that candle, it was my family.”

Frisner Augustin, reflecting on his life journey just after winning the National Heritage Fellowship. From the soundtrack of video shot by Kesler Pierre, September 28, 1999, in the Main State Buiding of the United States Department of State. Continue reading →

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Tales from the Archive: The Fire Tape

Posted on 25/11/2015 by

His hands gripped the steering wheel as he cut his eyes off the road to fix them on mine. “The tape.” I didn’t have to wonder what Frisner was talking about. In the summer of 1986 Makandal had been hard at work in rehearsal and then the studio to make its second music album, Erzili. Together with audio engineer Harry Leroy, we had finished both recording and mixing. Although it was customary to leave the master tape with the engineer, Frisner had insisted on taking home both the pre-mix (with tracks separated) and the final stereo mix. He stored them on a high—almost to the ceiling—shelf in the bedroom. I had just passed through that room before going out to find Frisner and break the disquieting news that half our apartment—including the bedroom—had gone up in flames while we were both away. I came home to the disaster first, and when it was safe, I toured the charred chaos. The pungent odor of smoke, and images of belongings scorched beyond recognition, filled my senses now as I struggled to remember. Yes, the tape. What had become of Erzili? Continue reading →

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Tales from the Archive: Take Your Time

Posted on 18/11/2015 by

Frisner Augustin’s drum students knew his “Take your time” as a mantra, but few could articulate what he meant by it. Most assumed he was talking about tempo, or speed. For example, the tempo is sixty beats per minute, and you’re running ahead at sixty-five. He stops you. “Take your time.” You start again, this time measuring out the beats with longer gaps in between. But somewhere down the line, you’re lost, and you stop. He sighs and gazes at you with the boundless patience of a Buddha. “You have to take your time.” Continue reading →

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