Dansa, djansa

After years of playing this rhythm I finally got to attend a workshop with a Malian teacher that could show me how the Dansa (Djansa) is supposed to be played. Originating from the Khassonke people (Kayes region in Mali), the Dansa is known as a slow song with a strong swung feeling. In fact, it seems more ternary than binary when played slowly.

Still today in Bamako and other cities in Mali, the Dansa is recognized by this konkoni pattern:
1...2...3...4...
O--X-OO-O--X-OO-

The solo dun plays a ternary bell pattern (x-xx-xx-xx-x) and there are several solo phrases which I'll not write about.

Pushing it faster the konkoni starts leaving out one stroke:
1...2...3...4...
O--X--O-O--X--O-

From which you can finally switch to this pattern, when the tempo is really fast:
1...2...3...4...
O--O--O---X---O-

The last pattern is of course the widely known sangban pattern for the Djansa (as they would play it in Guinea and elsewhere).

Aminata Touré

Aminata Touré is a young Guinean dancer that recently started working in Brussels and its surroundings. She is very young and has an incredible amount of energy to share. When she moves you just feel the energy being transferred to you. I've accompanied some classes of hers recently and I was pleased to find out that she is one of those dancers for which you just can't stop playing for.

I can feel she made a big impression on the people from Brussels, and there are good reasons for this, so I think she might become very well known everywhere around pretty soon. Here is a promotional video distributed by the association that sponsors her (Gine Fare, site in French).

Swinging triplets

I managed to put together what I've been trying to master in the last year: the two ways of swinging the triplets. I have no clue what are the names of these two swings, so I will stick to the way some Malians refer to them: the "Father's rhythms" and the "Mother's rhythms".

Following are two examples of the Father's rhythm. The first recording doesn't have any feeling at all. The second one does - the feeling is quite strong but still not exaggerated. It already gets close to a binary rhythm.

No swing:


Father's swing:


The second two examples are for the Mother's rhythm. Again, the first recording holds no swing. The second does, having a strong swing while preserving the full ternary feeling.

No swing:


Mother's swing:

Kanaga System Krush record label

I bumped into this record label: Kanaga System Krush. As the description on their site says, they are "an independent record label, operating on a fair-trade principle, focused on the preservation and promotion of traditional music from West Africa." The "fair-trade principles" are big words, so it would be nice to find some detailed explanation about how they work. But what is sure is that they produced a lot of interesting albums. Check the page with the artist they support.

Kenkeni classes

I started following the konkoni (kenkeni) classes with Ibrahima Sarr in Brussels. The situation is funny because the classes were meant for beginners, but the participants are far from being new to this music. Yet it is not really easy to follow for no one of us due to the feeling the Malians use. On the other hand, it's a pleasant experience, specially for the ones of us that are used to play only the djembe.

This video of a konkoni is hosted at the Virtual Intrument Museum, where you can also find a detailed description of the instrument.


Konkoni is the Malian name for kenkeni, but it looks a bit different - it has goat skins which are not very stretched and have a very resonating sound. Many times the konkoni is made of old metal barrels that produce some extra buzzing and echo. In the Bamako-style of playing, if comparing it to the well known style of kenkeni playing of some Guinean artists like M.Keita or F.Konate, the konkoni carries out much more variations and it is often the only instrument to accompany the djembe.