Want to talk with Nigerian master percussionist Ayan Bisi Adeleke? Pick up a drum….
The “talking drum,” most widely known in Nigeria as the “dundun,” is a West African hourglass drum a percussionist can manipulate to mimic a human voice, giving it a way to “talk.” The drummer does this by constricting the ropes that run along its sides to tighten or loosen the drum head and by using a mallet to hit the head in particular ways to elicit particular sounds. This is as cool as it sounds.
