| July
3, 1998 "Kim Atkinson Brings Mozambique to Rhythm Fusion" By Kumar Lewis. |
|
|
The Mozambique wave has come to Santa Cruz in full force! Although this Cuban Carnaval rhythm is not very well know here in the U.S. in its original style, it has surfaced in Santa Cruz with a free workshop/video release party led by the amazing percussionist Kim Atkinson. The event was sponsored by Rhythm Fusion and co- sponsored by Latin Percussion and PulseWave Percussion. Held at Rhythm Fusion on Tuesday June 9 in downtown Santa Cruz, this workshop created an excellent opportunity to get a feel for the original Cuban Mozambique. After a hugely productive and entertaining three hour session with Kim , I and around thirty other lucky folks were feeling the intense polyrhythmic groove of this multilayered rhythm. Mozambique was created by Pello el Afrokan in the early 1960's in Havana Cuba as Carnaval music and soon become a hit in Europe. In 1985, Kim Atkinson had the opportunity to travel to Cuba and learn Mozambique for Pello himself. Since then, Kim has released two excellent instructional videos entirely on Mozambique; Volume 1 covering the original Cuban Mozambique in 3-2 Rumba clave and Volume 2 covering the more well know "New York" style Mozambique as well as band forms of Mozambique in 2-3 clave. For those of us at the Santa Cruz workshop, Kim presented the original Cuban version. Kim started us off with the 3-2 Rumba clave, presenting it as the essential key to understanding all the parts of this rhythm. From there he broke down the melodic two tone cowbell pattern , campana. Once we had a solid groove going with these two intricately intertwined parts, Kim revealed the two driving bombo (bass drum) patterns, focusing once again on their feel, relative to clave. The feel of these four parts so far was enough to keep us totally absorbed in a complex interplay of tension and release, all locked within Rumba clave. However, Kim took this dance with time to and ever higher level by showing us the tumbadora parts, one played on two congas which cycled every two clave and one the middle conga, cycling in time with one clave. Together, these parts formed the core conversation amidst this driving Cuban Carnaval Mozambique. And while Kim's presentation of all these innovative and intricate parts was totally clear and easy to understand, it soon became hard not to feel lost in the midst of this rhythmic jungle intertwined within clave. Where is the one again? A break was definitely needed to let things sink in......... After a few minutes of conversation and clarification, our group of rhythm enthusiasts assembled ourselves once again. Armed with cowbells, bombos, surdos, and congas, we plunged back in the pulsing, breathing rhythmic interplay of Mozambique and before we knew it, we seriously jamming! For the next half hour Kim led us through the biggest and best sounding Mozambique jam session Santa Cruz has ever heard! People walking by outside the store were drawn closer in awe as he called out breaks on the timbales and we engaged in a clave call and response. After a series of cycles, Kim would coordinate a breakdown of different pattern combinations , creating focus on the multilayered ensemble feel. As we approached the end of our jam, the different parts would drop out one by one until we were all left grooving to the feel of Rumba clave and singing each of our parts acapella. Our final break culminated in a silent Rumba clave cycle that was felt by everyone of us! For as Kim said, "To really know the rhythm, you have to feel it inside." Indeed the spirit of Mozambique has emerged in this highly successful workshop and Kim Atkinson has provided the tools to seek out a further understanding of Pello el Afrokan's innovative rhythm for all who are interested! |
|