Senatobia to Contonou
May 26th, 2008
Sharde Thomas will travel from her hometown of Senatobia, Mississppi to play with The Rising Star Fife and Drum Band at the Masonic Temple in Ft. Greene on June 1st, 2008
The fife is a handmade instrument cut from natural cane – it’s roots music, literally. Fife blowing is an African-American tradition that goes back to the Deep South during the Civil War (some even say to the Revolutionary War). Slaves transformed marching band music into a hybrid — straight 4/4 European rhythms got bent into syncopated drumbeats. In this new musical form, the fife’s melody projected high above the drums — it was the sound of a not-so-new Africa. On a recent trip to Benin, 651 ARTS Project Manager, Wills Glasspiegel recorded this sound-clip (see below) in Cotonou, Benin. Listen and you might hear the logic behind fife and drum music in Mississippi.
whistle <— click here to hear it
Photo by Drew Alt
Entry Filed under: Delta Heritage Project
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