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THE GAMECOCK ♦ Friday, October 11, 2002 5 CONTACT US - ' THEY SAID IT .. ' „ OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES: “A man’s Story ideas? Questions? Comments? mind stretched by a new idea can never E mail us at gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com g0 back t0 its original dimensions.” the new rhythm of -Columbia-; DJOLIBA DON TO PERFORM WEST AFRICAN MUSIC SHOWCASE I BY CHARLES TOMLINSON THE GAMECOCK If anyone thinks African music is only rhythm, Faisal Salahuddin, director of Djoliba Don West African Drum and Dance Ensemble, hopes to change that. Djoliba Don will perform its fall showcase tonight at the Columbia Music Festival Association in the Vista. The ensemble has been per forming since 1999, but Salahuddin said that this year, the group will add some new elements to the show. “It’s going to change the way people think about African mu sic,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot more melody this time,” he said. “And we’re going to show people that African percus sion is very melody-inten sive.” The group, a nonprofit educa tional and per formance com pany, will play an array of West African percus sion, including a hand drum called the jembe; the deep, booming dun dun; the balaphon, which is the African xylophone; and the wood en-sounding kryin. But the ensemble will also fea ture African flutes as well as singing. Salahuddin also said the ensemble will incorporate acro batics into African dance. Djoliba Don can roughly be translated to mean “dances of the Niger River” in the language of the Manding people of West Africa. The ensemble features 17 members, seven of whom have studied in West Africa. The show will begin with read ings from two local poets, Spiritual Metamorphosis and Shine. Then, Djoliba Junior, a group of children 9 to 16 years old, will perform a piece on the bal aphon. Before Djoliba Don takes the stage, Djoliba Divas, a group of 12 women drummers, will perform. Salahuddin said he thinks the Djoliba Divas’ performance will be “the most exciting part” of the show. Lee Ann Komegay, marketing director for the ensemble, is the director of the Djoliba Divas. She composes the music for the Divas, which she formed after she trav eled to Africa in February with Salahuddin. Kornegay witnessed the wom en drummers in the National Percussion Ensemble of Guinea. “I saw several of their re hearsals and it just totally blew me away,” she said. She said her experiences in Africa inspired her to come back to South Carolina and create an orga nization of women percussionists. She selected women with previous drumming experience to join the group. Salahuddin said, “They are very, very powerful.” “It’s a bunch of very self-confi dent women who play their drums,” he said. “They don’t beat their drums; they play them.” Kornegay is also working on a documentary titled “Boloba,” which means “strong hands” in the Manding language. She said the documentary, which is about Americans who travel to West Africa to study drumming, will air on ETV in February. In 1997, Salahuddin trained in Africa for three months with the director of the National Percussion Ensemble of Guinea. “It’s going to change the way people think about African music.” FAISAL SALAHUDDIN DIRECTOR OF DJOLIBA DON WEST AFRICAN DRUM AND DANCE ENSEMBLE PHOTO SPECIALTO THE GAMECOCK Top: The balatigui, right, or balaphon player, of the West African village of Niagassola sits with his brother, left, and Djoliba Don director Faisal Salahuddin. Above: The Djoliba Don West African Drum and Dance Ensemble will perform its fall showcase tonight. While in Guinea, he trained ev ery day with the National Percussion Ensemble, as well as with an 80-year-old man, called the balatigui, who had been playing the balaphon for 74 years. The bal aphon was 900 years old, and the balatigui was the only one in the village who was allowed to play it, Salahuddin said. But Salahuddin said that when he visited, the alignment of astral bodies signified to the people of the village that it was the appropriate time to bring out the balaphon, and Salahuddin was able to play it. Salahuddin brought the music he learned in the village back to South Carolina. He composes mu sic for Djoliba Don based on the rhythms he learned in Guinea. The ensemble plays the tradition al West-African rhythms, but Salahuddin said the group puts its own spin on the rhythms with the bridges he creates to link the changes among the traditional rhythms. Salahuddin, who helped found the USC West African Drum and Dance Ensemble in 1997 and 1998, said he hopes to introduce West African music into the mainstream in Columbia with Djoliba Don. “The beauty in African music is that it’s largely based in the power of rhythm,” he said. “And what I learned when I was in some of these villages is that the drums, that rhythm vibrates through ev erybody’s body, creating a com mon bond. All of a sudden, we’re united by rhythm.” And he said people get out of their seats and dance to the music at a Djoliba Don show. “That always happens,” he said. The showcase will begin at .7:30 p.m. at the Columbia Music Festival Association on 914 Pulaski St. Tickets are $6 for chil dren, students and senior citizens and $10 for adults. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Elf Power keeps live show exciting Athens, Ga., indie-rock band, with a sci-fi obsession and a plethora of odd instruments, comes to Columbia to support new album, “Creatures” BY WILLIAiyi MILLS THE CAMKCOCK Halloween is almost here, and that means more sightings of vampires, goblins and -- in Columbia - elves. Elf Power will play with Dances With Wolves and Robot vs. Rabbit at 10 tonight at New Brookland Tavern. Elf Power, from Athens, Ga., blends lo-fi indie rock with eclec tic instruments. This five-piece band doesn’t bore listeners with the same old heart-on-sleeve lyrics about failed relationships and lost love that is so common in indie rock these days. These powerful elves ground their sub ject matter in the realm of fantasy and sci-fi, a theme that is repre sented by their live perfor mances. “When I was growing up, I read a lot of comics and sci-fi,” singer/songwriter Andrew Rieger said. Elf Power has been known to tell elaborate and fantastic stories before its songs at shows. From time to time, it also plays in cos tume, keeping with the magical theme its music endorses. • The songs the band plays in concert can take on an entirely different feel from what’s on its albums. “We see playing live and recording as separate. We don’t try to recreate the songs,” Rieger said. To give its live shows a differ ent feel, Elf Power tries “to spice it up with different instrumenta tion,” Rieger said. The band has been known to use such mysterious instruments as a zanzithophone, a simpler ver PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Elf Power blends lo-fi indie rock with fantastical lyrics. sion of a saxo phone, and a gourdaline, a one-stringed in strument that keyboardist/gui tarist Laura Carter made with a broom stick and a gourd. Elf Power cuao incorporates accordion, violin and cello into its music, in addition to the tra ditional rock elements. The band started its tour in eastern Canada, made its way down the East Coast, and will fin ish in Europe. This tour is all about pro moting the band’s latest album, “Creatures,” released earli er this year. “Creatures” is Elf Power’s nnn iun length since its emergence in 1994. Early in the band’s career, it switched to a record label that al lowed it to tour in Europe, and it has gradually made the transition to the studio. The first couple of albums were recorded at little ex pense. For its first release, the band recorded at home with a tour-track recorder and, for the second album, used an eight track. Eventually, Elf Power came to ‘Creatures,” a studio album that rests on the shoulders of experi mental indie rock and a light dose of myth and fantasy. The name of the album and the cover art are enough to create a sci-fi atmosphere, but the refer ences to evil beasts, kings and palaces combine with the exotic instruments to produce an an cient feeling mingled with indie rock creativity. “The tJnseen Hand” is a perfect example of this sci-fi/fantasy vibe. The percussion and cello will carry listeners to a far-off land of legend and magic. Other songs, such as “Everlasting Scream,” have more of a straight ahead rock vibe. Elf Power’s eclecticism is mir rored in its influences. The band has taken a little from David Bowie, the Velvet Underground and Bad Brains. Elements of punk, high-fuzz rock, and singer/songwriter indie rock are evenly dispersed throughout Elf Power’s music. In homage to many of its influ ences, the band has released a cov er album that will be available at the show. The CD was released on the band’s own label and has songs from such artists as Bad Brains, Husker Du and T-Rex. But listeners can be sure the songs will be done in Elf Power style. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com ‘Much Ado’ about Shakespeare tour BY MEG MOORE ' TIIKIiAMECOCK Although centuries old, William Shakespeare’s works re main prominent on stage and in print. This fall, the South Carolina Shakespeare Company will per form the Bard’s “Much Ado About Nothing” as a part of its “Shakespeare on Tour” program. The South Carolina Shakes peare Company, now in its 13th year, was founded by master of fine arts graduates of the USC the ater program. The company is composed of classically trained ac tors who have studied at such in stitutions as the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. It also features local performers. Through its local productions, the South Carolina Shakespeare Company allows Columbia audi ences to experience the plays of the Bard. The Company’s “Shakes peare on Tour” program stages productions at local high schools and colleges. After these perfor mances, the group offers work Jliupo U11U 111UIV1 1UU that further explore the depth of Shakespeare’s work. This fall, the company will per form “Much Ado About Nothing” at Finlay Park’s amphitheater Oct. 11 and 12, as well as Oct. 16 through 19. All shows will begin at 8 p.m. The play, one of Shakespeare’s later comedies, details the events that hinder the impending mar riage of two young lovers, Claudio and Hero, as they welcome their friends home from war. The sub plot explores the eventual en gagement of Claudio’s friends Benedick and Beatrice,as the two engage in a flirtatious war of witty remarks and wordplay. The company perfoqns the plays outside, exploring theater works under a different set of pro duction dynamics. According to Scott Blanks, the company’s man aging director, playing outdoors requires the actors to consider a different set of conditions. “Since it is a large space and the seating area goes pretty far back ... one must keep a greater distance between actors than nor mal to facilitate the audience’s perspective,” he said. The actors must also project their voices more, Blanks said, and the outdoor event’s greatest adversary—weather—must also be considered. In “Much Ado About Nothing,” Blanks will reprise his role as Benedick. He played the part in a South Carolina Shakespeare Company production of the play six years ago that secured the group an invitation to the renowned Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston. Blanks emphasized the compa ny’s educational role. Most ot us nave gone mto tne ater education and greatly appre ciate the value of seeing live clas sical productions for study and analysis,” he said. The South Carolina Shakespeare Company provides the Columbia area with free per formances of Shakespeare’s plays. “I think that SCSC is different because our mission is to offer free theater to the citizens of South Carolina,” Blanks said. “Since we have no box office, we are depen dent on grants, donations and cor porate sponsorship to continue. Of course, that becomes harder and harder each year. But we are in our 13th year and will keep plugging along.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockmixeditorCiifiotmailsom