Sound Tribal Drum amp Dance Troupe (South Metro Denver)
Come Join Sound Tribal!
WHAT IS SOUND TRIBAL?
~ Som Tribal (tribal sound) aspires to be a drum and dance preformance troupe and school. Som Tribal is a semi-non-culturally-specific (in so far as such a thing is possible) performance group that is modelled on the blocos afros of North Eastern Brazil.
~ Som Tribal is a group of drummers and dancers who are devoted to high standards of musicianship and dance.
~ Som Tribal has a heirarchy of leadership and musical direction: ensemble leader, choreographer, section leaders, players and dancers.
~ Som Tribal is 'music-by-design,' which means that players are concerned more with performing an individual interlocking parts, sections, breaks, tempo and meter modulations, etc., than in displaying individual virtuosity and improvisations--this is not a hippy, thunder drum circle! However, hippies are welcome and the percussion music we will perform will be thunderous, indeed!
~ Fidelity to the leader's arrangement is necessary to create a larger, more intricate, high-powered sonic experience than North Americans are use to. The fierce, unrelenting ego of North American individualism is willingly surrendered for the sake of the rhythmic and musical bliss. The leader must be able to communicate his or her ideas without any resistance--life is too short to deal with musically insensitive intrusions and the like.
~ Som Tribal members are not interested in debate, controversy, political affliations, sexual prowess or preference, race, religion, etc.. The name of the game here is submission of self to the group purpose:
~ SOM TRIBAL'S PURPOSE: to become a high-octane sonic and visual spectacle capable of massive, balls-to-wall, kickass musical arrangements and breaks, and gorgeous, sensual, dance choreographies; blowing minds, enkindling hearts, reviving spirits and producing giddy laugher through music and dance is to be our primary group purpose
~ Som Tribal should jealously protect a spirit of warmth, inclusion and community--everyone should feel welcomed and valued; Musically, players should more concerned with blending dynamics and entraining rhythmically as a group than being heard over others, the leader will be the ultimate authority on decissions regarding performance--rhythms, parts and arrangements all allow for varying degrees of individual expression and variation--sometimes there is room to solo and sometimes just holding down a simple ostinato with a steel pulse is required. The leader should not have to bicker, persuade, argue, debate or beg players to cooperate with his or her vision.
~ All skill levels ate welcome.
~The heirarchy of leadership and creative direction and control is based on individual commitment to the group, musical facility and competence, and investment in achieving Som Tribal's goals and purpose.
~ There are three stages to establishing Som Tribal as a vibrant drum and dance troupe and community. The three stages will culminate in a co-operatively owned entity with a board of directors that directs resources, manages funding, oversees logistics of various performance events
.~ SomTribal will be an organization that can draw from a community of trained drummers and dancers. Subsets of smaller performing ensembles can perform for a full range of events--from the staduim to festivals,, parades, parties, weddings, bar gigs, to accompany dance classes and workshops.
~Although Som Tribal is modeled after the large blocos and samba schools of Brazil, we are an American institution and do not make any pretenses about carrying other's cultures. SomTribal is to be free from any form of ethno-politics or cultural or artistic servitude. As such, we are free to mix, blend and create anyway we choose. All committed members will get a chance to wear the leaders hat and run rehearsals and test out compositional ideas. First though, the three stages:
~ (STEP 1): I, Mike K, will be the leader to establish some order and languange to communicate verbal and non-verbal ques to start and stop the group, teach breaks and rhythms and see who else emerges as co-leaders.
~ (STEP 2). Mike K will retain primary control as the group builds in numbers, so there is a central figure to coordinate the emerging heirarchy of group control. Co-leaders will emerge and begin applying their artistic ideas, arrangements, rhythms, whatever. A lead dancer will be sought out. Som Tribal will canvas dance classes and schools for classes to accompany. Dancers will join the collective and a dance leader will assume primary control of the choreography and be the go-to person for dancers,
~ (STEP 3). A Som Tribal will incorporate with a CEO and Board of Directors will be formed with 12 of the members through group vote, 6 drummers and six dancers will be elected. The CEO will be a one year term. Mike K will assume the first year term. After that, the CEO with be determined by the 12 Board of Directors vote, plus One Vote counted from the Group majority--the CEO does not get a vote, but can vote with the Group's one vote. During the first full year, the CEO and Board of Directors will reformulateSomTribal's mission statement, will establish positions like financial manager, assets and contracts managers, marketing, promotion, event coordinators, bank accounts, drum, costume, set snd props, A/V techs, etc.. We will establish a system of stocks in shares so investing members reap the rewards of their work and sacrifice. The culmination of STEP 3 end in a large scale community organization with an infrastucture and system of communication and execution that provides a full range of drummers and dancers for all types of events. SomTribal should remain non-partisan and non-political. It should remain devoted to music and dance and a celebration of life. Som Tribal can be hired to perform for political and religious events, but it is to never promote or align itself with any causes or controversies, there are plenty of forums for people to bicker and argue about. Life clause: Som Tribal has no opinion about how members vote or operate outside of the context of the group--however, Som Tribal shall never perform or endorse or lend it's name to institutions, policies, groups, movements or politicians that publicly or professionally support, conduct, encourage or promote abortion, social engineering, population 'control,' eugenics or artificial 'family planning' methods outside of Natural Family Planning. If Som Tribal ever breaches these guidlines and principles and is used to further some agenda beyond dance and music, then Mike K will retain the legal right to disband Som Tribal and retire Som Tribal in all it's forms.
SOUND TRIBALS HISTORY & FUTURE
Som Tribal was first created by Itaborá Rios Ferreira, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Itaborá is a master of percussion and capoeira who lives in Santa Cruz, CA.
Som Tribal has had several incarnations around the San Fransico Bay Area, and now along the Front Range of Denver, CO.
Itaborá remains the artistic father of SomTribal and any dues collected in the beginning phases of Som Tribal while go to him to honor and pay respect to his patronage. Later, when this venture incorporates, we will make sure that Itaborá remains the honorary founder and father, and shares in the ownership and prosperity of Som Tribal. Indeed, once we are up and running and our numbers grow, we will bring him and others here to do workshops and performances.
This Rocky Mountain incarnation of Som Tribal will depart from the original forms of Som Tribal, in that this Rocky Mountain Sound Tribal makes no pretense about representing any culture from which we borrow and draw our influences, thus illiminating the various forms of cultural purism and ethno-politics, which amounts to nothing more than disparagement, elitism and bigotry.
Som Tribal holds no room for any form of elistism and snobbery--, we are Americans (even those non-naturalized immigrant members should, for the sake of this group, embrace an American identity) and we are an American troupe. In this regard, we will express the fierce individualism and liberty that marks America as different--inspiring endless masses to seek entry into this great and generous country-- by doing whatever the hell we want to do, when we want and how we want. If you are have contempt for America and Americans and see everything through the lens of persecution, victimhood and subjugation, then this is not the group for you. That said, this is not a nationalistic organization, rather a collective democratic republic of artists that embraces and operates according to spirit of free market enterprise: a commune of capitalists free from the bitterness and nonsense of partisanship, whether political, religious, ideological, philosophical. We only care about what you love, not what you hate. Our sensibility and group dynamic will be respectful and seek to honor the traditions that influence our music, dance and community; and we will refrain from plagarism and blatant ripoffs, but we will freely color our artistic creations in any way that tickles us. Since there is not a culture on earth that did not originate and take shape through conquest, folly, violence and syncretic creation, and since America is a multicultural melting pot, then Som Tribal is not obliged, and will not cow to anyone for any reason outside of occasions of individual or group misbehavior or legitimate breaches in common decency.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN THE BEGINNING STAGES OF SOUND TRIBAL
Initial meetings will be drum lessons. The content will include:
Building Blocks of Brazilian, Haitian, Puerto Rican, Cuban and West African Music:
~ meters: simple, compound, duple, triple, quadruple, asymmetric/odd
~ 2,3,4 & 6 pulse, asymmetric
~ bells, claves, bomba, surdo, jun-jun, cow/goat/plastic drum families, culturally-specific interlocking parts, idiomatic and stylistic techniques, genres, etc
~ shuffles, upbeats, downbeats, cross-pulse, polyrhythm
~ hand techniques: open and closed tones, slaps, bass; heel-tips, muting, muffs, finger articulations, etc
~ sticking techniques: stick and hand, double-sticking, hand-over-hand, muting, muted, side and rim, ornaments,
~ touch, feel, swing, push, pull, rubato, dendê, jeito,
~ rhythmic structures, polyrhythm, interlocking drum patterns, instrumentation, calls, breaks, styles, forms and genres, idiomatic phrasing and feel
~ culturally specific styles:
- Brazil: Samba--enduro, afro, reggae, bossa nova, pagode, caboclo, duro, de roda, partido alto, pagode; Baião--forró, côco, maracatu; Sacred and Popular-- Ijexá, maculelê, baha vento, etc
- Haiti: Petwo and Rada rites of vodou (strictly rhythmic studies--we will not be calling upon Loas for spirit possession, ancestral or otherwise)
- Cuba and Caribbean bembe, palo, guaguanco-rhumba, songo, mozambique, salsa--tumbao, son montuno, cha cha, merengue, comparsa, bomba, etc.
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