“There are heavy spiritual repercussions when masters of drumming express themselves in a tradition of artistic genius. The singing of the drums resembles the breathing of the wind, and when the sound of the drumming dies, it moves away like exhaled breath. The bass drums vibrate inside the earth. I have heard drumming in the night in Dagbon and gone to search for it, but as I moved toward it, it seemed to come from a different direction. It would not be until the next day that I would learn that the drumming had come from a village two or three miles away.”
“"The praise-name dances are danced individually inside a dance circle, where the drummers surround a dancer to beat their rhythms through his or her body so that, as the Dagbamba say, ‘the body is enlightened.’ The experience of dancing with drummers on all sides is incredible, for the sound is more than quadraphonic: those who seek the feeling of authentic participation may begin to appreciate the technological prescience of the Dagbamba drummers by using headphones at high volume.”
“Dagbamba music blends the clarity of the music of the savanna cultures with the driving power of the music of the forest cultures, and Dagbamba drumming is a resource for refreshing our appreciation of African music's rhythmic diversity. This recording contains beats that we can relate to. Some are rich in complexity; others exemplify the strength of simple repetition. Some are beautiful for the way in which the drums communicate with each other to build a fulfilling total sound; others offer models of aesthetic command and improvisational dynamics.”
