Jeh Kulu Drum and Dance Festival

Wulaba drummers and Soma Beats Dancers took the trip across the lake to participate in Jeh Kulu's Annual Drum and Dance Festival in Burlington, VT. The majority of the dance troupe was able to come on Saturday to do a couple classes with Jeh Kulu and learn some "new" moves.

We were most excited to learn the dance to Sinte. Why? Because Wulaba drum knows that rhythm and we hadn't created a dance to it. How wonderful to see the "real thing" as taught by Jeh Kulu's Sidiki Sylla.

The drummers took advantage of the djembe classes, krin, balafone and dunun classes. Our "craziest" wild woman dancer, ShoShana, took nine dance classes and one drum class over two days!!

Art Walk Saranac Lake, August 2010

We enjoyed playing for the Art Walk in Saranac Lake this August. It was two hours of almost straight drumming! Our favorite part is having a two year old boy dancing away to our music...and it was cool when a big dog howled after we finished!

Blue Mountain Lake Community Dance to Tiriba

Here is our video of Tiriba, the community dance - the last dance of the night where we get the audience involved. Notice the high energy and booty shaking going on! The song starts out with our Soma Beats dancers doing their solos, followed by the community being invited to dance along.

This performance was at the Adirondack Arts Center in Blue Mountain Lake, New York in July 2010.

A Night Full of Talent and Laughter

Johnna MacDougall of Soma Beats (left) Karen Kan and James Gann of Wulaba rock the Concert for Jambo Jipya.

Saturday March 6th marked the 2nd Annual Concert for Jambo Jipya held in the Saranac Lake High School Audito- rium. This year’s event proved to be even more lively than last year. Quite a crowd of people from across the north country showed up to enjoy an evening of high school musical talent, energetic college acapella, as well as African drumming and dance. Those who came certainly weren’t disap- pointed. Each group proved to be incredibly talented and seeing the college students on stage being led by Wulaba Drumming and Somabeats in African dance, was a real treat! If you missed out this year, be looking for information on next year’s event. It truly is an evening you don’t want to miss!

Thank you very much to all who participated and all who attended. A special thank you to Gail Meyer and her team of volunteers for all their help running the African Marketplace and making the night a true success!

NEW Solo/Dance West African Drumming CD released!

Want to Solo Like Master Djembe Drummers?

Well, now you can. James Gann had that same desire when he began West African drumming classes. The problem was that he was too intimidated to solo in class. At home he tried practicing his solo technique, but found it challenging without the accompaniment.



His Senegalese drum teacher used to say, “In order to solo well, you need to have strong accompaniment”. Now, a decade later, as a drum instructor and performer, James created this CD especially for drummers like you to help you rapidly improve your solo drumming ability with the drum accompaniment of popular West African rhythms.



“This CD will help your confidence. Feel free to find your own solo style that works for you. Give it a shot!" – James Gann



“Whenever I would attend a drum festival, I was nervous about soloing in front of strangers. Now I’m not because of this CD! I love it!” – Karen Kan

Also Great for West African Dancing!

This CD also makes a perfect practice CD for West African dancing, whether it is in the privacy of your own home or in dance class – with or without a live Djembe soloist!

Ten percent of revenue from the sale of this CD is donated to Reason2Smile, www.reason2smile.org, a charitable organization that supports Jambo Jipya The Future Child School (located just north of Mombasa , Kenya ) whose mission is to educate, clothe and feed orphaned and at-risk children of Kenya .



Bonus tracks with each purchase!

You can drum at any age!

Here's young Maggie learning how to play the Dununs to KuKu with an appreciative mom, Traci, playing the djembe. James was teaching both this past summer.

Wulaba Motivates ADK Marathoners in Schroon Lake

Volunteer Tony Kostecki jumped into to play with Wulaba!

While Wulaba Drum leader, James Gann, was in Africa doing an intensive training, the skeleton crew of Karen Kan, Christina and Dusty Grant, made their way yesterday to Schroon Lake for the annual Adirondack Marathon.

It was a chilly morning at about 40 degrees when we arrived so everyone was thankful they brought layers. Wulaba was stationed at mile 11, 22 and at the finish line having short break between drumming session. The first ten minutes were a bit challenging as our hands were cold and a bit stiff (karen had gloves on at first!), but we warmed up quickly.

As marathoners ran, walked or biked by, most gave us a wave, a thumbs up, a smile and a, "THANK YOU!" as we drummed them up the next hill. Given the 5:30AM wake-up call for us, I can say it was well worth it to see the difference we made!

One woman, as she ran by said in an incredulous voice, "Who ARE you guys? You are incredible!" We were surprised but obviously thrilled with the comment. My guess is that the drums reverberated among the trees and rocks to be heard for well over a mile along the course.

One man on bicycle (and later on foot) actually slowed to a stop to ask where he can buy an djembe. Luckily we had Wulaba cards for John Paul. So we hope we'll be hearing from him soon!

Once we made the move from the forest to the highway, we were in full sun and layers of clothing were peeled off. In fact, we all got a sun tan! Much to our surprise, we attracted another drummer to play with us! ADK Marathon volunteer, Tony Kostecki, general director of Seagle Music Colony, joined us for KukuKase, Kakilambe and Triba after a quick 10 second lesson from Karen.

We met our dance teacher, Johnna MacDougall at the finish line where her and her band of happy massage therapists were doing their thing for all the athletes. We also got to say a quick hello to Stuart Paton from Burlington Taiko who was also on hand with his group drumming around the last corner before the finish line.