Adama Drame
Adama Drame is an African musician and a drum player. He was born in 1954 into a family of musicians and spiritual leaders called the griots. The Drame family has been known for cherishing their musical traditions for many generations.
In 1979, at the age of just 25, Adama put on his first performance in Europe at a festival "Bois de la Batie" in Geneva. Critics and other musicians were both delighted and astonished with his solo performance on just one African instrument, which was the djembe drum, still not so well-known then. At that time performances on drums with no accompanying instruments were still few and far between.
The performance in Geneva was a start to a great international musical career by Adama Drame, who soon got acclaimed the king of the djembe drum. In the following years he made over a dozen of his own records and participated in recordings by other musicians. Throughout the time he continued with his solo performances and enlarged his repertoire to become a leader of large African ensembles which played strictly traditional music. He began performing with European and American musicians, never ceasing to hold a fascination for unconventional and daring musical encounters. Adama Drame used to co-operate with a French classical-and-contemporary ensemble "Les Percussions de Strasbourg". He also made two records with an exceptional nomad pianist Marc Vella, one of them recorded during their concert at the L'Olympia hall in Paris. He also co-produced huge gigs with an avant-garde street theatre company "Royal de Luxe". He never shunned encounters with various jazz bands, joint performances with a pianist Francois Roslin being just one example. He used to contrast his African drumming with other percussion styles such as Brazilian or Cuban, at joint performances.
Although Adama Drame's style originates from traditional Malinke drumming, his music is very personal. It is also too inventive to call it typical for Western Africa. For an European ear it reveals a richness and a variety of subtly articulated sounds. The djembe drum is often called "a piano of African drums", and Adama Drame's musical style has surely contributed to such a reputation. The music by Drame continues to remain strictly African however, much as it is inspired by tradition, it is evidently new, innovative, and daring in the way he improvises.
Adama Drame, just as the whole of Africa, is at risk from economic and cultural colonialism. He is a contemporary African who vehemently protects his own identity, and also a musician who resists the temptations of an all-European musical career. Unlike so many other African artists Adama Drame does not wish to take his permanent residence in Western Europe. He safeguards his own tradition and culture in spite of it all and above all.
Last year marked the 40th anniversary of Adama Drame's musical career.
