Rainer Polak is an ethnomusicologist and
djembeA djembe also known as djimbe, jenbe, jymbe, jembe, yembe, or jimbay, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin-covered hand drum shaped like a large goblet and meant to be played with bare hands...
drummer who has done extensive research in the field of West African celebration music performances and wrote important contributions in the field of
ethnomusicologyEthnomusicology is a branch of musicology defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."...
.
Biography
Dr. Rainer Polak studied
social anthropologySocial anthropology is the branch of anthropology that studies how currently living human beings behave in social groups. Practitioners of social anthropology investigate, often through long-term, intensive field studies , the social organization of a particular people: customs, economic and...
, African linguistics,
Bambara languageBambara, also known as Bamanankan in the language itself , is a language spoken in Mali by as many as six million people . The differences between Bambara and Dioula are minimal. Dioula is a language spoken or understood by a lesser number of people in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, and The Gambia...
, and
History of AfricaThe history of Africa begins with the first emergence of Homo sapiens in East Africa, continuing into its modern present as a patchwork of diverse and politically developing nation states....
from 1989 to 1996 at Bayreuth University (
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
), and
jenbeA djembe also known as djimbe, jenbe, jymbe, jembe, yembe, or jimbay, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin-covered hand drum shaped like a large goblet and meant to be played with bare hands...
music performance from 1991 until today in
BamakoBamako, population 1,690,471 , is the capital and largest city of Mali, and currently estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa . It is located on the Niger River, near the rapids that divide the Upper and Middle Niger Valleys, in the southwestern part of the country...
(
MaliMali, officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked nation in Western Africa. Mali is the seventh largest country in Africa, bordering Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west...
). All of his studies and work in
BamakoBamako, population 1,690,471 , is the capital and largest city of Mali, and currently estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa . It is located on the Niger River, near the rapids that divide the Upper and Middle Niger Valleys, in the southwestern part of the country...
were accomplished with the help of the musically outstanding, yet rather locally and traditionally minded drummers whose playing is presented in his book and the corresponding CD.
Polak has worked as a professional
jenbeA djembe also known as djimbe, jenbe, jymbe, jembe, yembe, or jimbay, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin-covered hand drum shaped like a large goblet and meant to be played with bare hands...
player in
BamakoBamako, population 1,690,471 , is the capital and largest city of Mali, and currently estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa . It is located on the Niger River, near the rapids that divide the Upper and Middle Niger Valleys, in the southwestern part of the country...
for one year in 1997/98, performing at well over a hundred traditional weddings, spirit possession dances and other celebrations on the basis of being hired by the late Jaraba Jakite, most of the times, and occasionally by the late
Yamadu Bani DunbiaYamadu Bani Dunbia was a notorious djembe master drummer from Bamako, Mali. Although recordings of his playing are scarce, he was well known across Bamako. He recorded his first songs at the age of 78.- Biography :...
, by Jeli Madi Kuyate, and by
Drissa Kone- Biography :Drissa Kone, born in the fifties in a village named Kuruba , is a master drummer now active in Bamako....
. The ethnomusicological dissertation and book he wrote on that experience won the academic prize of the German African Studies Association in 2003/04. Polak ranks as an outstanding
jenbeA djembe also known as djimbe, jenbe, jymbe, jembe, yembe, or jimbay, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin-covered hand drum shaped like a large goblet and meant to be played with bare hands...
soloist in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. As a teacher he has specialized in giving focussed classes on micro-timing, and master-classes in
jenbeA djembe also known as djimbe, jenbe, jymbe, jembe, yembe, or jimbay, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin-covered hand drum shaped like a large goblet and meant to be played with bare hands...
solo performance.
Publications
- (in Vorbereitung): West African Percussion. One World–Many Musics, vol. 6 (DVD). Rotterdam: Codarts / Hogeschool voor de Kunsten.
- 2004 Festmusik als Arbeit, Trommeln als Beruf. Jenbe-Spieler in einer westafrikanischen Großstadt. Berlin: Reimer.
- 2007 »Performing Audience: On the Social Constitution of Focused Interaction at Celebrations in Mali«. In: Anthropos 102.2007/1: 3–18.
- 2005 »A Musical Instrument Travels Around the World: Jenbe Playing in Bamako, in West Africa, and Beyond«. In: Post, Jennifer (ed.), Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader. NY: Routledge Press, 161–185. [Erstveröff. 2000 in The World of Music]
- 2005 »Drumming for Money and Respect. The Commercialization of Traditional Celebration Music in Bamako«. In: Jansen, Jan and Stephen Wooten (eds.), Wari Matters: Ethnographic Explorations of money in the Mande World. LIT Verlag, pp. 135–161.
- 2004 »Die Kommerzialisierung der Hochzeitsfestmusik in Bamako«. In: Beck, Kurt, Till Förster und Hans Peter Hahn (Hrsg.), Blick nach vorn. Festgabe für Gerd Spittler zum 65. Geburtstag. Köln: Köppe, S. 235–249.
- 2003 »City rhyrhms: The urbanization of local drum/dance celebration music in Bamako«. In:Jansen, Jan (ed.), Experts in Mandé. Leiden: Nederlandse Vereniging van Afrika Studies, pp. 1–24.
- 2001 »Festmusik: Zur Ethnographie musikalischer Gattungen in Westafrika«. In: Marianne Bröcker(Hrsg.), Berichte aus dem ICTM-Nationalkomitee Deutschland IX/X. Bamberg: Universitätsbibliothek, S. 19–50.
- 2000 »A Musical Instrument Travels Around the World: Jenbe Playing in Bamako, in West Africa, and Beyond«. In: The World of Music 42/3: 7–46.
- 2000 »Ein Musikinstrument geht um die Welt. Zur Verflechtung lokaler, nationaler und internationaler Kontexte im Bamakoer Jenbe-Spiel«. In: Bauer, Ulrich, Henrik Egbert und Frauke Jäger (Hrsg.), Interkulturelle Beziehungen und Kulturwandel in Afrika. Beiträge zur Globalisierungsdebatte. Frankfurt a. M.: Peter Lang Verlag, S. 291–312.
- 1998 »Jenbe Music in Bamako: Microtiming as Formal Model and Performance Practice«. In: Iwalewa-Forum 2: 24–46.
- 1997 »Bewegung, Zeit und Pulsation. Theorierelevante Aspekte der Jenbemusik in Bamako«. In: Jahrbuch für musikalische Volks- und Völkerkunde 16: 59–70.
- 1999 »Andreas Meyer: Afrikanische Trommeln«. In: The World of Music 41/1.
- 1999 »Gilbert Rouget: Guinée. Musique Malinké«. In: The World of Music 41/2.
- 1999 »Thomas Hale: Griots and Griottes«. In: The World of Music 41/3.
External links