In recent years, musicians and music writers have made a renewed effort to cast off the burden of the word “jazz” — a genre label which seeks to slice off a piece of the Black American Music pantheon and silo it, creating a category that’s palatable for record stores and billboard charts. This music’s most respected practitioners rarely use the language of genre; more often than not, they talk about ideas, identities, and lineage, all swirling about in the great canon of American music.
I can’t think of anyone who embodies that philosophy better than Kweku Sumbry. Sumbry is a rising star on the drum kit, a fixture in bands led by many of the music’s biggest names — Immanuel Wilkins; Brandee Younger; Charles Lloyd — but his first instrument was the djembe, an iconic African drum of which he’s now a master practitioner.
In this edition of our CB Sessions, Sumbry explains how the history of jazz drumming is intertwined with the story of the African drum in America, including his personal history growing up in DC, where he came to understand drumming through the traditions of traditional African music, jazz, and go-go. You’ll hear music from Sumbry’s drum and dance troupe Farafina Kan, as well as a sample of his Trio War performing the Benny Golson jazz standard “Stablemates.” // Jamie Sandel, CapitalBop
For more multimedia messages from the DC jazz scene, head to capitalbop.com.
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Farafina Kan is:
Kweku Sumbry – djembe
Ageyi Keita Edwards – djembe
Jamal Dickerson – djembe
Wayne Goss – sangban
Adrian ‘Gold’ Somerville – dundunba
Mikalah Davis – dancer/singer
Yaminah Gill – dancer/singer