WOMAD

The Drummers of Burundi workshop

19:00 23rd July on the World Rhythms

The Drummers of Burundi Biography

The indestructible beat of central Africa

You can say what you like about the late Malcolm McLaren (and many people did), but he knew how to assimilate the sound of far-off lands into the music he was involved with. Not only is this true of the records he put out under his own name - the fusion of Soweto township jive and embryonic hip-hop on the still-invigorating Duck Rock album - but also of the output of his young charges. For Adam And The Ants and Bow Wow Wow, this meant the deep influence of those elemental, massed Burundi drums. It was only natural that, when we flew the Drummers of Burundi in for that first-ever WOMAD gathering 28 years ago, they became the hit of the weekend, inspiring everyone on site to start slapping their palms on the nearest available surface. And it gives us enormous pleasure to welcome them back more than a quarter-century on. Altogether now - dur-um, dur-um, dur-um, dur-um, dur-um, dur-um...

(Biography by Nige Tassell 2010)

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