Ewe drumming from SE Ghana Album

These first five tracks were recorded on a walkman cassette deck with an Sony stereo multi-directional mic, after my mini disc player had died, Christmas Eve 2004 in Anlo-Afiadenyigba, Ghana. The music here was played by Ewe speaking drummers and singers from deep SE Ghana and over the nearby border into Togo as part of a gathering to mark the fiftieth anniversary of a nearby village chief. I had been spending nearly a month in this small village, hanging out with the local drum and dance troupe, learning a bit of drumming myself from an area teacher and staying at the house of Gideon Alorwoyie, who was home from his teaching position at the University of North Texas for the holiday. I did not make any recordings of Gideon, but he is no doubt one of the best Ewe drummers there is. There are also a few tracks of rehearsals by the village's drummers and singers that were taped before the mini-disc player broke. Spending time in this place made me realize that all of the music on earth, the entire orchestra of sounds we hear, can be found in the drum.
For much more professionally recorded and wonderfully annotated recordings of this truly complex, polyrhythmic intensity, I refer you to James Burns' recordings released on the Topic label and titled Ewe Drumming from Ghana: The Soup which is Sweet Draws the Chairs Closer