Doudou N'Diaye Rose

Years ago, when I was in high school, I would watch the now defunct SCN television station (Saskatchewan Communications Network) and tune in to watch their Sunday showings of concerts from the Montreal Jazz Festival from the early 1980s. These was in the pre-internet era, so watching these unreleased concerts was always a rare find. Some of those memorable episodes included concerts featuring the Buddy Rich Big Band, Jaco Pastorious with Bob Mintzer and Peter Erskine, the Maynard Ferguson Big Band (with my old teacher Dave Mancini kicking it!), the Modern Jazz Quartet, Lionel Hampton and Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition ensemble.

Also, this network would often air interesting documentaries about music in general. One program which really caught my attention and left a deep impression on me was entitled: "Djabote: Senegalese Drumming & Song From Master Drummer Doudou N'Diaye Rose" (Directed by Béatrice Soulé and Eric Millot: 1993). Featuring the Senegalese Master Drummer Doudou N'Diaye Rose and his drum ensemble, this performance documentary was my first introduction to the world of West African drumming. I taped that program, watched it dozens of times....only to lose the cassette somewhere along the line (I'm sure it's in a box at my parents house somehwere).

Fortunately, years later in Montreal - while browsing the world music department at the HMV on St. Catherines Street (Hey, remember those days ? Actually going to a store to browse and purchase a CD ? Sage Reynolds - are you reading this ? : )
- I came across an audio recording of this very same documentary that was produced and released by Peter Gabriel's Real World label. Plenty of other great gems on that label. Are they even still producing albums ???

Anyways, I noticed that a portion of that original documentary has popped up on youtube. Please enjoy:



Thank you Mr. Rose !