Lamine Touré, an African sabar drum master, will give several master classes and performances at DU for Black History Month.
Lamine Touré, an African sabar drum master, will teach and perform at the Lamont School of Music as part of DU’s Black History month programming.
Touré, who was born into a family of percussionists in Senegal, will hold dance and drumming master classes with students Jan. 31–Feb. 4. The week will culminate with a performance from Touré and student ensembles at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 5 in Hamilton Recital Hall.
Touré also will perform with the ensemble Group Saloum at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 4 in Gates Concert Hall as part of the Lamont School of Music’s Convocation. Both concerts are free and open to the public.
“Group Saloum is a cross-cultural, multiethnic, collaborative group consisting of musicians from Senegal and the U.S.,” says Sarah Morelli, assistant professor at the Lamont School of Music. “The style they play, mbalax, is a fusion of traditional Senegalese music with music from African America — particularly funk, jazz and soul. As such, their performance is a testament to the global influence of African-American music.”
Students in Morelli’s “Intro to World Musics” class are reading the ethnography Masters of the Sabar by Patricia Tang (Temple University Press, 2007). Touré’s family and their musical repertoire form the basis of the ethnography.
“Students will have the rare opportunity to observe and ask questions to one of the text’s main protagonists, thus connecting academic knowledge with firsthand experience,” Morelli says.
Since fall 2002, Touré has served as artist-in-residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he co-directs the Senegalese drumming ensemble Rambax MIT.
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