Category Archives: Festivals
Drumroots Artist Spotlight – Iya Sako (Master drummer from Guinea)
This past year has been a tough one for performing artists, but with things starting to open up and the possibility of more live music events on the horizon, we thought now would be a good time to highlight some of the incredible West African artists we have had the privilege to work with. This will be the first in a series of blog posts, so please keep your eye out for more!
Mory Sako (known to friends and family as Iya) is a Malinke djembe master from Samakofadda in the Wassalon region of North East Guinea. We first met Iya in 2007 at a Drumroots Live event at the Rampant Lion in Manchester. He had recently moved to the UK, had heard about the event and decided to turn up. At this point, we didn’t really know anything about Iya, apart from his name and that he had recently moved here from Guinea.
(more…)Sidiki Dembele’s New Website
If you’re looking for something to bring a bit of joy and light into your life in these cold and dark,
wintry days, then look no further! Our good friend and world-renowned djembe master and Griot musician, Sidiki
Dembele, has a new website that is bursting with his positive energy! You can watch videos of his
explosive performances, sign up for online djembe lessons, buy merchandise and even think about
booking the holiday of a lifetime to the Ivory Coast…
2017 summer festivals and gigs.
Well, here at Drumroots HQ, we are more than a little bit excited about our forthcoming performances, so we thought we’d share a few details of what we’ve got lined up this summer. Feast your eyes on this lovely list of musical happenings...
Tananate to Perform at Solfest 2016 | 26-28th August | Cumbria
Drumroots are delighted to announce that our performance group Tanante are now confirmed to be performing this year at the awesome Solfest. This great festival has a fantastic line up, in which Tanante with guest artists will be delivering a performance on the main stage on Sunday at 5pm. Please see their website for full details and ticket information. Hope to see you all there!
Drumroots in Sudan at the Festival of the Nile
Early in the autumn, The British Council
in Sudan asked Drumroots to be a part of The Festival of the Nile. West Africa has been so successful in popularising it's traditional music around the world and our friend from the British Council, Mustafa, wanted to use this success as an inspiring example to encourage the youth of Sudan to engage with their cultural roots. Although we knew that we would be performing and leading workshops to celebrate traditional African music, little did we know what incredible experiences were in store for us during the week ahead.
New Generations Tour 30th April – 4th May 2015
It's less than two weeks until The New Generations tour and the excitement amongst our performance troupe is really starting to build up for this awesome weekend of music and dance! We've been working hard perfecting material that we learnt during our recent trip to West Africa and happy to see faces old and new in the group coming together to create an amazing performance. (more…) Tanante at Hexham Abbey
A huge thank you from Tanante and Drumroots to all involved in organising the Hexham abbey festival of music and arts last week, we had a fantastic time at the Abbey in Northumberland. We really loved the African drumming workshop for the local school children in the Afternoon, it had a fun vibe and we were particularly impressed with all the talented young people from Hexham! As for the evening concert, Tanante hugely enjoyed performing with our guest artists; Iya Sako, Sidiki Dembele, Jokeh Silla and Babba Galle Kante in such an awesome sounding and looking building, it really was pleasure to play in, and a truly amazing experience. (more…) Tanante to perform at Hexham Abbey festival of music and arts 26th September 2014
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to experience the power of West African drumming from within one of the country’s most sacred and resonant spaces?
Well, on 26th September Tanante will be connecting music from the tribal communities of West Africa with the awesome acoustics of one of the North East’s most spectacular landmarks; Hexham Abbey.
(more…) Tanante to Perform at Beat-Herder Festival 2014
It’s that time of year again! Beat-Herder 2014 is nearly upon us and our African drumming performance troupe ‘Tanante’ will be performing as ever in the Stumble Funk tent, this year at 9.30pm on the Sunday night. Our friends, the Stumble Funk crew have put together an awesome line up to contribute to this fantastic festival. We’re really pleased to have a Sunday evening set time and following last years well received show we can only raise the bar- we’re hard at work preparing an extra special stage show for you all! (more…) Drumroots Weekly African Djembe Drumming Classes Recommence for 2014
The weekly Tuesday evening African djembe and dundun drumming classes recommence tomorrow, Tuesday 7th January 2014. We’re really looking forward to seeing all our ace students after the Christmas and New Year Break. We are also particularly excited as for this occasion we’ll have as special guest; master djembe fola Iya Sako! Iya is from Guinea, West Africa and of the Malinke people, so to honour his presence we’ll be playing/teaching a Malinke rhythm from his homeland and tradition. (more…) 
