Keith Johnson
Vusi Shibambo
3rd Annual
Spring Planting Festival
Terri Hendrix
Fri, March 11, 7:30 pm
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Rhythms of Spring Planting
Sat, March 12, 7:30 pm
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Our Sacred Garden
Tue, March 15, 7:00 pm
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St. Patrick: What it really means to be Green!
Thur, Mar 17, 7:00 pm
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Backyard Gardening Expo
Sun, March 20, 2:00 pm
Free to the public
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3rd Annual Spring Planting Festival
The Rhythms of Spring Planting
Keith Johnson, Vusi Shibambo
and the Arizona Dunun Ensemble
Sat, March 12, 7:30 pm
$12 adv $15 door $18 priority
Keith Johnson, Vusi Shibambo and the Arizona Dunun Ensemble join together to present The Rhythms of Spring Planting. This performance will kick-off the 3rd Annual Spring Planting Festival and a week of activities, workshops, speakers and concerts throughout the Verde Valley and Sedona. Richard Sidy, President of Gardens for Humanity, will introduce the event.
Weaving traditional music, storytelling, and traditional dress, Keith, Vusi and the Ensemble will take you on a journey of entrainment that features the djembe and dunun drums. Legend tells us that drum rhythms have evolved from our ancestors singing while they worked at planting seeds, harvesting, grinding grain, and communicating with one another. In Africa, music is not merely an art form or means of self-expression - it is truly a way of life. Every aspect of life is accompanied by music of the djembe. Noted historian Mamdy Keita states that “For centuries, the same rhythms have accompanied the farmer as he cultivates his field. These rhythms are as much part of reality as the acts themselves.”
Of particular significance is the djembe's relationship to agriculture. It is believed that the goblet shape of the djembe may have come from a large pestle used for grinding grain. Together the women of the village created rhythms and songs while working with the mortar and pestle. Later, an instrument was created out of a single tree trunk, using the same basic shape, opened the bottom and stretched a goat skin over the top. Some of the same rhythms played using the mortar and pestle were then played on the djembe.
The evening will feature solo, duo and ensemble playing by some of the finest drummers in Arizona. Keith Johnson has been at the forefront of African drumming since the 1980’s when he moved to Phoenix from the Washington, D.C. area. He has performed with many drum groups, including Kawambi, and has founded many groups as well.
Vusi Shibambo an international touring performer and recording artist, is a multi-instrumentalist, playing percussion, the African Djembe, udu, conga, Azhiko, and nagara drums, marimba, mbira (kalimba or finger piano), as well as the Bushman’s haunting berimbau.
The Arizona Dunun Ensemble is a musical group comprised of players from Sedona, Cornville, Cottonwood, Prescott, and Flagstaff, Arizona, and specializes in West African percussion. The Ensemble is dedicated to learning traditional rhythms and songs which accompany the Djembe, or Jebe Bara, which means Drum of Unity.
Come and enjoy an evening of rhythm that is embedded deep within our collective memory, during the times of spring planting.
Arizona Dunun Ensemble
Arizona Dunun Ensemble music clips
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