Adzenyah in There: A Tribute Concert DVD

Do you play or enjoy traditional West African music?
Have you attended any spectacular West African concerts at Wesleyan?
If so, there's a new DVD you'll want to own.

Adzenyah in There: A DVD Concert in Tribute to Professor Abraham K. Adzenyah by his Students and Former Students.

Buy the DVD
The Concert
Pictures from the Rehearsal

The DVD

Production
Chapter List
Performances
Performers

Clips from the DVD

Clip 1: Kpanlogo
Clip 2: Royal Hartigan Ensemble
Clip 3: Rehearsal

Ordering the DVD

The Adzenyah In There DVD costs $30. Please add $3.00 for shipping if you want it mailed to you. (All proceeds from this DVD go to support the Wesleyan West African Drum and Dance Program!)

How to order...

Mail a check for $33 (includes $3 shipping and handling) made out to Wesleyan University to:

Wesleyan University Box Office
222 Church Street
Middletown, CT 06459-0001

Or, call the Box Office to place your order by credit card: 860-685-3355

Or, you can buy a copy in person at the Wesleyan University Box Office.

During the school year, regular box office hours are 10am-4:30pm, Tuesday-Saturday.
Summer box office hours are 12pm-4pm, Tuesday-Saturday.

Box Office email: boxoffice@wesleyan.edu

Adzenyah In There

For the past 33 years, Abraham Adzenyah has been introducing Wesleyan students to the music of his homeland, Ghana. It is very different from Western music. It is not notated. It is not read. It is not timed by tapping feet or the wave of batons. It is passed down in the oral tradition. And that oral tradition requires a master who is both willing and able to pass along this body of music. It is extremely rare for Westerners to have more than passing access to such a master. But members of the Wesleyan community have been blessed, for three decades, to have in residence, a man not only regarded as among the finest musicians in Ghana, but a man whose spirit has been consistently generous. As a result, generations of Wesleyan graduates have walked away with a gift of music, and an understanding of a culture, that few in the United States have ever been given. This weekend, we are here to give thanks to the man who made this possible, the great artist and teacher, Abraham Adzenyah.

In his classroom, when Abraham would see a student tapping his foot, as the student was undoubtedly taught to do since childhood, Abraham would say "No. You cannot learn this music by tapping your foot. The music has to be in there," he would say, tapping his chest. "You have to have the downbeat inside of you." Tonight, we present just some of the many former students (and some of their students) who have gratefully internalized Adzenyah's music - people who have Adzenyah In There.

Production Team

In February 2002, more than 100 current and former students of Wesleyan University drumming professor Abraham Adzenyah, spanning the late 1960s through the early 2000s, put on an unbelievable concert in his honor. Only 400 people were lucky enough to be in Crowell Concert Hall that evening, but fortunately, cinematographer Daniel B. Gold ('83) was one of them.

Now Dan and his film crew have edited the footage onto an incredible three-and-a-half hour DVD called Adzenyah In There. Dan is no run-of-the-mill camera man. He's a Sundance Festival 2002 winner for Best Cinematography (and one of Abraham's former students).

On the DVD, you'll see and hear the exciting world music and dance one enjoys at a place like Wesleyan: traditional West African music, performed by Americans and Ghanaians, as well as other music directly influenced by Abraham Adzenyah's teaching and tradition.

DVD Chapters

Chapter 1: Introduction/Libation

Chapter 2: Pyramyd Dance Ensemble

Chapter 3: David Locke, Kiniwe and Agbekor

Chapter 4: Wesleyan Drumming and Dance Ensemble

Chapter 5: Jeannie Wolff-Gagne

Chapter 6: Eric Charry, Mark Slobin, and Jay Hoggard

Chapter 7: Wesleyan Singers

Chapter 8: Umass Dartmouth Drumming Ensemble

Chapter 9: Mikata

Chapter 10: Berklee African Drumming Ensemble

Chapter 11: Battle of the Bands

Chapter 12: Urban Renewal

Chapter 13: Royal Hartigan Ensemble

Chapter 14: Umass Dartmouth Creative Jazz Ensemble

Chapter 15: AK5G

Chapter 16: Adzenyah's Speech/Kpanlogo

Chapter 17: Bonus Rehearsal Footage

Performances

Libation
Performances in Africa are traditionally preceded by the pouring of libations to invite those no longer with us to come and be with us in spirit.

Pyramyd Dance Company
Drum Call: Before every important event the drummers will call everyone to come and join in the celebration.
Ekon Kon: An initiation dance for young girls from the Sene-Gambian Region of West Africa. Choreographed by Karen Miles (E.P.A.C.)
Mandiani: A social dance from Senegal performed on festive occasions.
Drummers: Renard "Nardi" Barnes, Renard Barnes, Edmund Eddings, Edward Eddings, Chike Lewis, Kofi Mahama, Kareem Revies, and Ankh Ujima.
Dancers: Aliya Barnes, Naima Barnes, Nia Barnes, Tiffani Barnes, Pamela Lewis, Nadiyah Smith-McCoy, and Mama Yaa

Kiniwe and Agbekor Society: Dagomba Section
Dagomba Praise Name Drumming
Tufts University African Music Ensemble, directed by David Locke (BA '72, Ph.D. '78) with the Agbekor Society: Dagomba Section. Dagomba Praise Name Drumming: Each item is a proverb set to music that praises the Dagomba chief who is the "owner" of the composition. Drummers compose praise names of this kind when a man becomes a chief. Members of the chief's family dance to the rhythm in honor of their forebears at occasions for public dancing such as festivals, weddings, and memorial services. Tonight, drummers from Tufts' Kiniwe and the Agbekor Society-Dagomba Section play excerpts from a few of these pieces: Nanto Nimdi, Dambobugo, Jeriga Da Salma, Sulugu, and Jenkun.
Kiniwe: Jennifer Caputo, Cindy Chang, Jake Cohen, Lou Esparza, David Gleason, Charline Han, Lisbeth Kaiser, Margaret Lloyd, James Mitchell, Alex Rappaport, Maria Robertson, Cheryl Testa, Chris Walters, and Rebecca Zook.
Agbekor Society: Dagomba Section - Rick Barry, Leigh Creighton, Jere Faison, Jerry Leake, and David Locke.

Wesleyan West African Drumming Ensemble 2002
Togo Atsia
Dancers: Helen Mensah, Mary Gyamerah*, and Nikki Duah*.
Drummers: Isaac Hirt-Manheimer, Eku Emanuel*, Greg Rogove, Schuyler Whelden, Nicholas Hockin, and Julie Strand.
*Members of the Royal African Cultural Dance Group in East Hartford.

Jeannie Wolff-Gagné and Friends
I'm Not With You (The Job That Stole September) by Jeannie Wolff-Gagné ('82), based on Gahu.
Friends: Joe Galeota ('81), Bryant Urban ('81), and Judith Cook Tucker ('82).

Professor Eric Charry and Professor Mark Slobin
Presentation by Wesleyan Music Department

UMass Dartmouth Kekeli West African Drum and Dance Ensemble Royal Hartigan (MA '83, Ph.D. '86)
Nandom Bawa: A traditional harvest music of the Dagarti people of Northern Ghana
Dancers: Candida Hemsley, Priscilla Samuel, Kathryn Pimental, Lynsey Smith, Kathryn Harlow, Ziddi Msangi, Antoine Vieira, Amanda Fraser, Monica Delgado, and Georginna Worthington.
Drummers: Gary Rawding, Adam Colucci, Sheila Doherty, Sean Simmer, Simon Desjardins, Chris Pantazi, Michael Piche, Royal Hartigan, Eric Phinney, and Peter Ford.

Mikata (which means "all of us" in Ghana's Ewe dialect)
Tratado (treatise) to Oshun, Yanvalou
Tratado (treatise) to Oshun, the Yoruba divinity of fresh waters (she is specifically associated with the River Oshun located in Oshogbo, Nigeria). She is also the associated with Eros, coquetry (flirtation) and romantic love. This tratado will be played as part of the guemilere section of the Bata ceremony in the Afro-Cuban tradition. Yanvalou is one of the principal drum beats used to invoke members of the Rada family of spirits in the central region of Haiti.
Drummers: Asher Delerme ('78), Richard Hill, Jeff McQuillan, Baba David Coleman, and David Yih (Ph.D. '95)

Berklee West African Drumming Ensemble
Adzrowo: One of the older social musics of the southern Ewe. The polyrhythmic dialogues, expressed between the various drums parts, create a shifting transparent downbeat. Literal translation: "they want to have it but they won't get it."
Performers: Nolan Warden, Jake Thompson, Orpheo McCord, Damian Padro, Mike Wiese, Ana Norgard, Lindsey Schust, Mimi Fiaindratovo. Directed by Joe Galeota (MA '81).

Battle of the Bands
Gahu Featuring Abraham's "Grandstudents"
Berklee West African Drumming Ensemble
Agbekor Society: Ewe Section
Rhythm Monsters
Not really! There's no competition here, but as in traditional Ghanaian celebration, many groups play in proximity, and simultaneously. These groups, featuring Abraham's "grandstudents" (students of his students) will trade off excerpts of various West African pieces, then join together, with the help of even more Adzenyah alumni, for a great, big rendition of Gahu, which was one of the first pieces many of us learned from Abraham.

Berklee West African Drumming Ensemble
Bobobo: A social dance of the Ewe people of Ghana's Volta region.

Agbekor Society: Ewe Section
Adjogbo: A Fon dance/drum suite with themes of defiance and struggle against enemies. The group will play a song heralding the arrival of the dancers, and then two short Adjogbo poems, which are first called out by master drummer Faith Conant, and then repeated in drum language on the instruments.
Performers: Doug Berman ('84), Faith Conant ('82), Leigh Creighton, David Locke (72, Ph.D. '78), Wendy McKelvey ('84), Warren Senders, and Vijaya Sundaram.

Rhythm Monsters
Sikyi, Fast Agbekor, and Tokoe.
Tokoe is an Ewe, Ada and Tonu recreational dance. However, modern improvisation brings this piece to occasions like funerals, festivals, and coming of age rites.
Drummers: Tom Huetz, Bob Stoy, Peter Ford, Jean Coe, Eric Phinney, Fred Kurdzialek, David Malchman, Linda Gariboldi, Leslie Smith, Eli Shapiro, and Robert Levin ('81), Director.
Dancers: Aliya Barnes, Naima Barnes, Nia Barnes, and Mama Yaa.

Gahu - An Ewe recreational dance
Featuring many of Abraham's former and current students and grandstudents.

Urban Renewal
Double A, based on Gahu, by R. Levin ('81).
Performers: Bryant Urban ('81), Joe Galeota ('81), Matt Penn ('80), Paul Spiro ('80), Robert Levin ('81), with special guests Rob Lancefield ('82), Carl Sturken ('78), John Nevin, Doug Cuomo ('79), and Rebecca Lichtenfeld ('97).
Threads, a composition by David Bindman in a fast 11 beat cycle which includes rhythmic feels in gospel/funk, reggae, afro-latin, and bebop styles. It expresses the underlying connections we all share, regardless of background.
Performers: David Bindman (BA '85, MA '87), tenor saxophone; Dr. Richard Harper ('71), piano; Wes Brown ('74), contrabass; and Dr. Royal Hartigan (MA '83, Ph.D. '86), drums.

UMass Dartmouth Creative Arts Jazz Ensemble
Wadsworth Falls: An original composition (1984) by Royal Hartigan based on traditional rhythms of Asante Akom religious drumming.
Performers: Marcus Monteiro, alto saxophone; Eric Van Dam, tenor saxophone; Jason Newell, baritone saxophone; Chad Abare, trombone; Simon Desjardins, contrabass; Sean Simmer, drumset; Chris Pantazi, conga/percussion; Michael Piche, marimba; and Royal Hartigan, piano/director.

AKG5
Red Afro Suite - A composition by Alex Kennedy Grant ('00)
I. Julia
II. Kundum
A continuation of Julia based on the Ghanaian harvest festival music Kundum.
III. Efe
Based on a one-string fiddle song of the Efe pygmies.

Alex Kennedy Grant ('00) Guitar, Peter Sax ('00) Bass, Noam Schatz ('00) drumset, Greg Tuzzulo ('00) drumset, Kevin Uehlinger ('99) Rhodes.

Presentation on behalf of Abraham's students
Representing Professor Adzenyah's students, Robert Levin and Doug Berman make a presentation to Abraham.

Mr. and Mrs. Everybody
Kpanlogo
"Mr. and Mrs. Everybody" is a classic "Adzenyah-ism." And we will invite our guest of honor to lead Mr. and Mrs. Everybody in Kpanlogo, the irresistible popular music of the Accra region of Ghana. He will be joined by his long time friends and colleagues Helen Mensah, Kwabena Boateng, Mama Yaa, Papa Taki, and his former and current students.

Bonus Rehearsal Footage
On the afternoon before the concert, the performers gather, greet each other, and talk about the music. Abraham couldn't resist doing some teaching, and his students and grandstudents gratefully soak it in.

Performers

Talking Drums
Abraham Adzenyah MA '79
David Bindman '85, MA '87
Kwabena Boateng
Wes Brown '74
Royal Hartigan MA '83, Ph.D. '86
Rob Lancefield '82, MA '93
Martin Obeng
Special Guests: Richard Harper '71 and Robert Levin '81.
Late for the gig: Peter Chipello '81 and Maxwell Amoh MA '84.
Spiritual Contributor: Freeman Kwadzo Donkor.

Urban Renewal
Abraham Adzenyah MA '79
Joe Galeota MA '85
Robert Levin '81
Rebecca Lichtenfeld '97
Matt Penn '80
Paul Spiro '80
Bryant Urban '81
Special Guests:Doug Cuomo '80, Rob Lancefield '82, MA '93, John Nevin, and Carl Sturken '78.
Late for the gig: Scott Hecker '80, Joel Kreisberg '82, and John Rudel MA '81.
Spiritual Contributors: Tim Alcock '80, Freeman Kwadzo Donkor, and Nancy Leavell '82.

New Talking Drums
Abraham Adzenyah MA '79
Julia Bell '01
Alex Kennedy-Grant '00
Peter Sax'00
Noam Schatz '00
Bill Sherman '02
Micah Silver '03
Daniel Raimi '04

Thanks to Barbara Ally, Ciaran Escoffery, John Elmore, Jamie Gilpatrick, Linda Secord, Rob Lancefield, Beck Lee, Ron Kuivila, Freddye Hill, Leilani Kupo, Michael Whaley, Annette Dunklin - Stage Manager, Mark Gawlak - Technical Director.

Special thanks for Pamela Tatge, Director of the Center for the Arts, whose help has been free-flowing and invaluable from the very beginning.

Adzenyah In There was produced by Doug Berman and Robert Levin, on behalf of the Wesleyan Community and thousands of students who have been lucky enough to study with Abraham Adzenyah.