Ustad Zakir Hussain's tabla connects with the ear more directly than Sumantra Ghosal's long docu on the master percussionist, "The Speaking Drum." While the film generously explores contours of tabla ...

Musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton are considered virtuosos, guitarists who could make their instruments sing. Drummers in west Africa who play hourglass-shaped percussion instruments ...

I didn't know how much I didn't know about drums. There are drums that talk, that can imitate speech. There are drums grouped in families for the purpose of talking to each other. Tapping a drum with ...

As a child, Oluwakemi Famugbode Adetula took to playing the drums. Now an adult and mother of three boys, she’s blazing a trail with her Gangan (talking drum) on a path traditionally meant for men.

Although modern musical instruments like the piano, guitar, trumpet amongst others are fast taking over the musical landscape across Africa, the place of the Yoruba ‘gangan’ or talking drum, as it is ...

Translation into English of an article from Journal of Asian and African studies (Tokyo) no. 40, 1990, pages 133-141. The original article is in Japanese. The lokolé is a slit-gong drum made from a ...