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Momodou
Denmark
11840 Posts |
 Posted - 06 Feb 2007 : 13:43:16
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EMBRACE THE ART - SAYS OKO DRAMMEH
Music is an Art that has the potential to evoke emotional and intellectual sensibilities. It can be utilized as a means for both entertainment and education. Music, combining both the arrangement of instruments sounds and songs, can also serve as a representation of and vehicle that can project and convey a people's culture.
The Foroyaa, therefore, explores this field of human endeavour through this exclusive interview that Ousman Sillah had with Mr. Momodou Drammeh, aka Oko Drammeh, a renowned international music promoter who is based in Holland. This encounter enables Oko to answer to questions about himself, culture, the history and state of music in The Gambia and the way forward.
Foroyaa: Mr. Oko Drammeh, this is the Foroyaa Newspaper and we want to conduct an interview with you. By way of introduction, can you tell our readers, basically, who Oko Drammeh is, where he originated from and his childhood?
Oko: Oko Drammeh is the son of the late Ya Arret Mboge who hails from Hagan Street in then Bathurst and now Banjul. Ya Arret Mboge was a female social elder who had a strong political influence. She lived at a place formerly called 'Sotokoto' in Hagan Street in Banjul. Our compound used to be a center for many youths, especially the young elite and educated Gambian professionals, at the time, called 'Hyde Park Vous. In front of the compound, there was also The Gambia Workers' Union headed by the late M.E Jallow whom Ya Arret also has to provide for. I'm from a mother who was very much involved in the then political and social life of The Gambia. I became a follower of her footsteps and that's why I took the job of culture, social management and preserving Gambian history as my profession I, myself, as Oko Drammeh, have gained numerous successes since 1980, to be precise.
I started my professional life as the manager of the legendary Ifangbondi Dance Band which was formerly known as the Super Eagles Jazz band. I was educated in the Ifangbondi industry and had a lot of opportunity to study professional music involving the legal and technical aspects of the music business.
From 1981, I left The Gambia with numerous musicians traveling abroad and we never came back. This was because in 1981 a coup d'etat was attempted and which interrupted my job as a musician. The musicians and the youths were held responsible for the coup. Hence the Art was also held hostage.
I am now trying to bring back the Art and that's what I'm here for: Oko Drammeh the Revivalist.'
Foroyaa: Well you have explained how you came to be wedded with music. But, why music? Was it something that you desired during childhood to pursue as a career or was it accidental?
Oko Drammeh: No it was not accidental. I had been in the heartbeat of social life in Banjul. As I told you earlier my mother used to organise a lot of social events. But this time there was nothing like electric music in the world. There was traditional music like the Sabarrs and other local stuff that my mother conducted. Suddenly, my brothers and sisters were quick to pick up or learn from the music coming from the outside world, like the Congolese and Swahili music from East Africa. We lived in an educated area in Bathurst (Banjul) where some of its inhabitants had been travelling to England up and down. I was fascinated by the technological presentation of the Record Player and the record and melodies that came through it. It was, though, not a natural thing, but I built up interest and later, of course, through media exposure and journalism I came to know the financial benefits and the historical rewards that are attached to this great profession.
Foroyaa: Can you tell us when organised professional music like a Dance or Jazz Band started in The Gambia?
Oko Drammeh: As I was saying earlier to you, organised music started around the late 1950s in The Gambia here. Then many Gambian musicians didn't have musical instruments at all. It was those who lived in a part of Leman Street, a district they used to call Jollof and Portuguese Town, and who came from the Cape Verde Islands with their music. It was these people who introduced their music in this part of Bathurst at a place called the 'Foyer' (Fuwayeh) hall or center at Hill Street. By that time there was no African drums in Music, there was the contrabass, the violin, congas, sometimes a box and on very few occasions a box guitar. Then there was no electric music by that time in the sub-region.
But after that, Foyer hall introduced some musical instruments as part of the French Cultural Exchange. This is how the Portuguese recruited Laba Sosseh, who came from the Mbayen family of Angelsea Street where many great drummers hailed from. Laba also brought Pa Touray along with him few days after. They became drummers and... they dare not sing there..eheh... Laba Sosseh and Pa Touray graduated from that, as they used to sing back-up vocals and copy those songs that the Portuguese used to sing.
From there they started the African Jazz. You see, before African Jazz there were pockets of small bands. There was the band at the Bright or Ritz Cinema at Fitzerald Street and also another called the 'Boggey Boys Band' at the shoemaker's shop. There were these pockets of bands but the African Jazz was the first organised band in The Gambia that's in the beginning of the 1960's.
By this time many musical tunes in the country were imported. The songs were, like I told you, played by instruments that are not electric. They were Congolese songs, Swahili songs and some Ghanian highlife music. All these musicians were non-professionals who were managed by Gambians who had never travelled abroad. People like Chamsu Coker. He was a great pinoneer of music and there were other Gambians. But nothing turned out professional until the middle of the 60's when a Gambian businessman called Malick Secka, a photographer, introduced brand new instruments and recruited the best musicians from 'Rocker Mambo' Jazz Band, African Jazz, Bogey Boys etc, and formed them into what they called the Eagles Band. The Eagles Band was the first professional band in The Gambia and it included artists like Pa Touray, Badou Jobe, Modou Cham and many others. However, the key people were Pa Touray, Badou Jobe, who were the driving forces; they came from Foyer to African Jazz Band and straight to Eagles Band.
But the musicians were not contented with Malick Secka. So when Solo Darboe, a diamond dealer, came from the Congo he bought brand new instruments and gave it to Pa Touray as a gift. That's how Super Eagles Band was born. Then Congolese music was very big in The Gambia and there was nothing else.
Foroyaa: When was this?
Oko Drammeh: This was around the mid 60's. Super Eagles went to England as one of the first African bands to go to Europe. BBC was stunned. They interviewed the Super Eagles along with the Beatles, the Edgar Broting band. The Super Eagles didn't care about the Beatles as they didn't know much about them. They just went and performed in such a way that they were admired. But they were admired for one wrong reason. They were copying. The Super Eagles were copying the music of the Europeans. This made some Europeans very disappointed as they asked the question: 'how can they come here, called themselves the Super Eagles and then sing the Beatles?' Fortunately for them at that time, they had recorded one album which was called 'Viva Super Eagles.' This album contained songs about the continent and sang in Swahili and Congolese rhythms and about Pan-Africanism that made the whole continent to start to know about Gambia. They did this album very successfully because they studied in England how to make cords and how to control tunes and notes. The band also learnt how to make musical arrangements using the modern, standard and mainstream techniques like refrains, transposing, ascending, descending etc. This made their music to became structured just like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. So they were the best in Africa, which could not be disputed. That became great phenomena, a big success. When they returned to The Gambia, they re-examined themselves and then decided to call the band Ifang Bondi. Many of the musicians, however, had already left then.
It was at that point that I was inspired to join them. Ifang Bondi embarked on a 'Cultural Renaissance.' The political and social activities of my mother also motivated me, as you know my mother was involved in bringing here ET Mensah, the biggest 'Highlife' king during Kwame Nkrumah's day. She was also responsible for sending so many young people to study in Ghana in those days. My mother's activities had led to the invitation of numerous legendary bands such as the Rico Jazz from the Congo, the Heartbeats, Gerald di Pino from Sierra Leone, Oliver Nelson from the USA and many others.
Our music reached every corner of the world. Gambians took pride in it, but the musicians of Ifang Bondi were so hurt that they were playing imitation music.
See next issue for continuation
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue
Issue No. 014/2007, 5-6 February, 2007
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