Album Notes

Abdoulaye Diakite, Mamadou Sidibe and Jongo Drame are master drummers from Tambacounda, Senegal. These artists and other drummers took part in a Sogoni Festival recorded live in 2001. The Sogoni Festival is a traditional Bamana hunter's festival. It is used as a teaching tool for the young children. Various masked dancers come out dressed as different animals one may encounter in the bush. The animals dance to particular songs and djembe rhythms. The masked dances of the current Sogoni are a memory of the secrets contained in the older Sogoni that used to occur in West Africa. The Sogoni Festival originated inside of CamianDugu which is part of Segu, Mali. This is a very rare recording of an ancient festival that is difficult to see or hear very much in Africa in the modern age. The Sogoni djembe drummers of Tambacounda have to be initiated into the secrets of Sogoni so as to know how to play for the dances of the various animals. Some of the animals that can dance in the Sogoni are: the antelope, crocodile, tiger & bush spirit.