Category Archives: Uncategorized
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…
Drumroots on TV! Drum repair for Junk Rescue on CBeebies
Giving African drums a new lease of life is one of our specialties, whether the drum just needs a new skin or a full overhaul there is no job too big or too small which is why we were a perfect choice to star in an episode of CBeebies’ “Junk Rescue”, a show designed to encourage children to upcycle “junk” into useful or fun things.
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.
Drumroots New Pro Djembe Range
Drumroots are excited to announce that our brand new stock of professional, African djembe drums are now available to buy. It’s been a while since we began the process of ordering our new range of djembes, but they were well worth the wait. Each drum has been skilfully crafted by our colleagues in Conakry, Guinea, using a range of African hard woods (Lenke, Hare and Djalla) and only the best quality skins, rings and rope. (more…)
Drumroots deliver Team building drumming session for Macmillan Cancer support.
If you’re organising a corporate team building event and you’re trying to think of ways to keep your delegates on their toes, then we would definitely recommend taking a leaf out of Macmillan Cancer Support‘s book! We had great fun being accomplices in their secret plan to surprise their staff yesterday, at the conference centre of the Radisson Blu hotel in Manchester. (more…)
Tanante to Play at SORTED party 9th January 2015
After a well-deserved X-mas break our African djembe troupe Tanante are back playing live in Manchester city centre on Friday 9th January 2015 at the awesome club night ‘SORTED party’ @ Kraack Gallery – 11 Stevenson Square, Manchester, M1 1DB.
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 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…)
Sidiki Dembele Workshop @ Z Arts 3rd May 2014 (Video)
Following on from the success of our recent weekend workshops, Drumroots is pleased to announce we will be running a workshop for our friend, collaborator and awesome djembe teacher, Sidiki Dembele. Sidiki, from the Ivory Coast is one of the country’s top djembe players, regularly appearing not only with our own performance group Tanante but with other groups country and worldwide, including the mighty Ballet Nimba. Sidiki is an outstanding performer whose energy and charisma is clear to see in his unique teaching style contributing to the excellent reputation of his renowned and exciting workshops. (more…)
