Sedu Balo (2006) Sunun

Sedu Balo: lead jembe; Drisa Kone: second jembe; Madu Jakite: Dundun. Recorded 2006 in Bamako by RP. Sedu Balo was a master of not only Wasulun rhythms but also of related repertoire such as the Kagooro piece Sunun, from Kaarta. His feeling here is prototypical. After 3:05 min he signals the change from the quaternary to the ternary subdivision, which Drisa responds to in 3:10 min. In the following 10 seconds, the tempo increases from 140 bpm to 200 bpm; allowing for this drastic accelerando is the reason for this metric transformation. Note that the uneven timing pattern of both the quaternary (short - medium - long - medium) and the ternary (long - medium - short) subdivisions allows for a hierarchic nesting (rather than conflicting coordination) of both subdivisions. This is why you hear almost no change at all taking place in the dunun pattern. A small side-note for the experts in playing the second jembe (ka jenbeden fò): Note that in the second part o the take, Drissa starts out with what today is the standard pattern of the second jembe for Sunun, |x.x.oo| (from 3:08). However, after a couple of cycles, he switches to
a different melody, |o.x.xo| (from 3:18), which maintains some key elements of the melody in the quaternary pattern, |o.xx.bxo|.