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I was fortunate enough to spend a few weeks at the end of 2004 immersed in the complex, drum-focused Ewe culture, thanks the generosity of the chief of a small village- Anlo-Afiadenyigba- in the Volta Lagoon near Keta, deep in southeast Ghana. And aside from attempting to learn how to play the music, I was able to witness the local drum troupe, record their performances and rehearsals, and travel into the mountains with them for funeral rites. In fact, if one wants to hear this most radically intense drum-and-dance collaboration, funerals are often a good place to find it. For while Ghana’s cultures and languages shift from rural to urban and north to south, how they celebrate death with music can be found all over the country, as well as in the countries of their immediate neighbors. Ewe funerals could be all night events, perhaps including a local amplified gospel band before the drums hit. But when they did, so did dance. Ghanaians told me repeatedly that they wanted to send people out of the world in a way that the deceased would want. So they celebrated. Sure, there was sadness, but these were not somber affairs. And to this westerner, whose limited funeral experiences involved tears, mourning, black clothes, and a formal etiquette so clenched it choked any attempt at humor, seeing this for the first time was something of a relief. Maybe this death thing wasn’t so bad after all.
And the spirits know that right now, the world is experiencing death, thanks to covid-19, at a rate for which words such as “alarming,” “astronomical,” or “horrifying” just don’t do a whole lot to sum up something many of us have never felt before. Which all makes this release, part of musicologist Ian Brennan’s ongoing Hidden Musics series, timely. Perhaps infuriatingly so. The Fra Fra live in the North of Ghana, and the musicians here were recorded just outside of Tamale. While the sounds they make may seem worlds away from the polyrhythmic assault that is Ewe drumming, the idea behind funeral celebration is the same.
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On some of these tracks, one musician and vocalist plays the Kologo- a two-stringed lute with dog collars stuck in end for a rattling, percussive effect- while two others respond to shouted vocals as they shake gourds to help sustain the groove. Promotional video for this release shows the Kologo player dancing in between the other two players, as they literally bounce off of each in a fashion no different from a sweaty, high energy punk rock gig.
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The CD also contains a number of near-solo performances, such as the track “Helpless (Death has Taken Everyone),” a song for vocal and Kologo, which responds in a sustained, two-note pattern to the vocals. If this isn’t a contender for where American blues came from, I’m not sure what is. Elsewhere, as on “I Will Follow You for Life, Everywhere,” percussive gourds rattle, as a bone mouth-flute drives the tune over communal harmony vocals. “We Must Grieve Together” is a Capella and features harmony vocals over which a soloist bobs and weaves, responding to the other singers.
YouTube videos provide a link between drum-based funeral music from Bolgatanga in the extreme Northeast, to Ho, in the south, just below Mount Adaklu. Yet, what Brennan has documented is something both more intimate, and less percussion-focused. It also serves to remind us that music and celebration are a crucial way to deal with circumstances completely out of our hands.
- Bruce Miller
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