Carlos Aldama s Life in Batá
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128 pages
English

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Description

Master and student trace the history of batá drumming


Visit Umi Vaughan's website

Below please find the audio files from the publication Carlos Aldama's Life in Bata.

Listen to a City Lights podcast with Umi Vaughan and Carlos Aldama


Batá identifies both the two-headed, hourglass-shaped drum of the Yoruba people and the culture and style of drumming, singing, and dancing associated with it. This book recounts the life story of Carlos Aldama, one of the masters of the batá drum, and through that story traces the history of batá culture as it traveled from Africa to Cuba and then to the United States. For the enslaved Yoruba, batá rhythms helped sustain the religious and cultural practices of a people that had been torn from its roots. Aldama, as guardian of Afro-Cuban music and as a Santería priest, maintains the link with this tradition forged through his mentor Jesus Pérez (Oba Ilu), who was himself the connection to the preserved oral heritage of the older generation. By sharing his stories, Aldama and his student Umi Vaughan bring to light the techniques and principles of batá in all its aspects and document the tensions of maintaining a tradition between generations and worlds, old and new. The book includes rare photographs and access to downloadable audio tracks.


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Informations

Publié par
Date de parution 02 avril 2012
Nombre de lectures 0
EAN13 9780253005670
Langue English
Poids de l'ouvrage 1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

This book is a publication of
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, Indiana 47404-3797 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931
© 2012 by Umi Vaughan and Carlos Aldama
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Te Association of American University Presses' Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vaughan, Umi.     Carlos Aldama's life in batá: Cuba, diaspora, and the drum / Umi Vaughan and Carlos Aldama.     p. cm.     Includes bibliographical references and index.     ISBN 978-0-253-35719-9 (cloth : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-0-253-22378-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-0-253-00567-0 (e-book) 1. Batá music – Cuba – History and criticism. 2. Santeria music – History and criticism. 3. Aldama, Carlos. I. Aldama, Carlos. II. Title.     ML1038.B38V38 2012     786.9097291 – DC23
2011028386
1 2 3 4 5  17 16 15 14 13 12
 
 
PAGE i
Carlos Aldama (foreground) plays batá, 2010. Photo by the author .
 
 
A mi maestro Jesús Pérez y a todos los tamboleros habidos y por haber que aman este tambor batá
To my teacher Jesús Pérez and all the drummers past, present, and future who love batá
CA
For my son Rumi, and all the singers, dancers, and drummers
Para mi hijo Rumi, y todos los cantadores, bailadores, y tamboleros
UV
 
 
 
 
Echu o Elegbara e Elegbara moforibale Elegba ago
Echu is the owner of vital force Elegbara, I salute you Make way
CONTENTS
 
 
Foreword by John Mason
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration
Timeline
Introduction    The Drum Speaks
1    Fundamento
2    Learning My Trade
3    Batá in the Revolution
4    Diaspora
5    Drum Lesson
6    Te Future, What Comes Next?
Conclusion      The Drum Speaks Again
Glossary
Notes
References
Track List
Index
Foreword
JOHN MASON
 
 
 
In his introduction to Carlos Aldama's Life in Batá: Cuba, Diaspora, and the Drum , Professor Umi Vaughan reminds us of what every percussionist, possessed by the spirit of the drum, must do – eat, drink, sleep, and dream drums. I have been a percussionist for forty-seven years and a priest of the Obátàlà for forty years. In the early years of my musical training, I would fall asleep in my bed while playing a drum, much to the annoyance of my very understanding parents. Even today, no tabletop is safe from my constant practicing. Just ask my wife.
Although the Africans in Cuba were able to reconstruct and invent innumerable musical instruments to represent and assist in cultural reclamation, the sacred set of three bàtá drums of the Yorùbá/Lùkùmí can unequivocally be considered the most important musical symbol of the reclamation movement. For the Yorùbá/Lùkùmí, the spirit that animates all drums is called Àyàn (Te Chosen) and the drummers consecrated to that spirit are called Àyàn (children of the Chosen). Like children everywhere, we all need good parents who will teach us about our place in the family history, show us the proper way to live in the world, and how to interact fairly with our fellow humans. For the traditional, religious drummer the discovering of the knowledgeable teacher who also possesses good character is critically important. Te master drummer devotes his life to perfecting his art and learning to manipulate the transformative powers of the drum in service to the community. He must learn all the songs, praises, dances, and ritual gestures associated with each of the /divinities. Good character helps to assure the ethical and prudent transmission of those transformative powers. Carlos Aldama is widely considered one of those master teachers.
I first met Carlos Aldama in 1986 in Havana, Cuba, during my participation in Folk Cuba) a two-week long folkloric course hosted by Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba. He and Mario Aspirina were the two main percussion instructors. I was told, without any fanfare and so didn't think much of it at the time, that Mario came from a famous drumming family and that Carlos had been taught by renowned drummer Jesús Pérez, who was well known among informed American ritual drummers. Being a professional drummer and drumming instructor already, I hadn't gone to Cuba to study drumming. In those days the Folk Cuba course allowed American cultural researchers to go to Cuba without problems from the United States government. My research goal was to document, firsthand, elders, Lùkùmí history, and ritual procedures in both Havana and Matanzas. So, farsighted, I missed an at-my-fingertips golden research opportunity.
But it wasn't a total loss, because I was able to see and hear Carlos Aldama play, in various drum ensembles, almost every day for the two weeks of Folk Cuba . He was also present during, and contributed to, an interview I conducted at the home of a famous singer, Ògún priest, and Folklórico organizer, Lázaro Ros. Carlos even offered to give me a private bàtá lesson, but I declined. The last time we saw each other was in Matanzas in 1988 during Carnival. We were both trying, without success, to sit in and play with the world famous rumba group Los Muñequitos de Matanzas. They performed every day during Carnival on a public stage set up near the marina. Some time later, information came to me that Carlos had come to the United States and was living in Oakland, California. Another master had graced our community. I met Umi Vaughan in 1999 at the University of Michigan, where I had been invited to lecture by Professor Ruth Behar, who was familiar with my works on Yorùbá religion in the Americas. Umi and I hit it off and kept in touch. His artistic enthusiasm, intellectual curiosity, and thoughtful respect serve him well.
Umi's finding and being accepted as an apprentice by master drummer Carlos Aldama was a blessing for us all. The title given to Aldama when he was initiated as a priest of the (Ruler who built enwrapped drums). This title seems to indicate that his life and story, spiritually tied to the initiators of the bàtá, may help those of us who missed the opportunity to study and spend time with him to fill in the missing blanks in our respective African drum-lore librettos. This book should urge us to ask Carlos and other living masters more questions, listen more carefully to their instruction, and record more of their great art and stories while they are still with us.
The term for drum apprentice, , translates as “He who turned to beating greetings/praise.” Professor Vaughan, compelled to turn his hands and feet to dance to the beat of the drum, has written a wonderful tribute that sounds out to praise his teacher, a master musician-historian whose lineage and biography must be closely studied because they spanned and impacted a very important period in both African Cuban and African American social and cultural history, and therefore, world history.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
 
Carlos Aldama would like to thank his mother and father, Jesús Pérez, and all of his old teachers. Thanks to Santa Torriente and Librada Quesada Mozorra. Thanks to his children: Maida, Dalia, Iliana, and Michel. Thanks to all of his godchildren ( ahijados ). Thanks to his life partner Yvette Phillips Aldama and to Piri Ochun. Thanks to Yagbe Gerrard, Michael Kramer, and Rick Ananda.
Umi Vaughan would like to thank Glen, Deborah, Yasmeen, Freddie, Jeffrey, Jeremiah, and Alan Vaughan, Secret and Ebony Onoh, and Nefertari Hawthorne. Thanks to José Francisco Barroso, Miriam Viant “La China,” Victor Mendoza, Gloria Rolando, Nancy Morejón, Pedro Pérez Sarduy, Tomás Fernández Robaina, Miguel Barnet, María Teresa Linares, Olavo Alén, Carlos Moore, Rebecca Scot, and Ruth Behar for teaching me about Cuba. Thanks to Ifeoma Nwankwo, Kevin Gaines, Julius Scot, Kim Butler, and Yvonne Daniel for teaching me about the African Diaspora and for opening key doors. Thanks to Zeke Nealy, Ariel Fernández, C. K. Ladzekpo, Juma Santos, Otobaji Ngoma, Marcus Gordon, David Frazier, Teddy Strong, Sandy Pérez, Jesús Díaz, John Santos, Bill Summers, Sekou Gibson, Pancho Quinto, Enrique Mora, Papo Angarica, and Jesús “Cusito” Lorenzo for what they have taught me about drumming. Thanks to Janet Hart for her course on Oral History at the University of Michigan. Thanks to Ruth Nicole Brown for the initial push to begin writing this book.
Thanks to the faculty and staff at California State University Monterey Bay. Rina Benmayor, Maria Villaseñor, and Richard Bains offered great encouragement and made important suggestions. Annette March and Luana Conley administered a Teaching and Learning Grant that funded part of the work. Renee Curry, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, generously supported the creation of the audio recording included with the book. Drew Waters engineered the recording sessions with student assistants Nick Rives and Jeff Mifflin, and university staff Cheryl Abbot, Yolanda Pérez, and Nicole Mendoza helped to coordinate it all. Thanks to Álvaro Gutiérrez (son of CSUMB professor Juan Gutiérrez) for his Spanish translation of an early draft of the manuscript. Thanks to library staff Rebecca Bergeon and Susanne Rodríguez for their help tracking down hard to find sources. Thanks to Troy Challenger, Barbara Beckmeyer, Jeff McCall, Aaron Roy, and Lark Simmons for help preparing digital photographs and maps. Thanks to all my students at CSUMB, especially from my class “Afro Cuba Hip Hop: Music and Dance in the Black Atlantic,” who were

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