Danny 'Slapjazz' Barber and Sekani Thomas: An Apprenticeship in Hambone (aka Patting Juba)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- Master artist Danny 'Slapjazz' Barber (Spring Valley) and his apprentice Sekani Thomas (San Diego) participated in ACTA's 2009 Apprenticeship Program in an apprenticeship in hambone, or patting Juba, an African-American tradition which stems from life under slavery in the United States.
Due to the Stono Insurrection in North Carolina in 1739, slaves were forbidden to own drums, which were a vital part of their cultural lives and highly regarded as a form of communication. Also prohibited to gather en masse due to perceived threat to the slave owners, slaves sustained drum rhythms by using their bodies, resulting in a body percussion form which merged musical expression with covert communication in a gesture of survival, defiance, ingenuity, improvisation and connectivity. Hambone at one point had coded rhythms or visual patterning which relayed information between slaves, unbeknownst to slave owners.
Barber reflects that "it is important for people of my culture to see the beauty that rose out of oppression, and that they should take pride in the struggle that has brought us to this day." Rife with complex cadences, hambone demands ambidexterity and a refined sense of polyrhythm and unison.
Barber first learned at age sixteen in Florida, by his cousin Todd Barber from Georgia, who learned from their grandfather Judson Barber. When Barber was first introduced to hambone by his cousin, Barber "literally beat myself to death to master the form. To own it." Barber describes himself as always having been a "rhythm person," developing skill early on in hambone, in addition to developing a background as a percussionist, first starting out playing bass drum, then advancing to tenor and snare drum, and finally becoming a drum major. "Rhythm has always been a part of my life, and I've always wanted to harness it, to perfect it for myself. Now that I have mastered hambone, I feel the obligation to pass it on, and Sekani is a beautiful student."
Drummer Yiriba Thomas agrees that his son is a "shoe-in to receive the gift which Danny can pass on to him" and feels that this practice under Barber's direction not only keeps the tradition alive, but also benefits his son as "a precursor to math skills, mental exercises, real time sequential thinking and developing a 'stick-to-it-ness' in Sekani. Rhythm is multitasking -- you need to think both vertically and horizontally."
Barber and Yiriba Thomas see engaging Thomas as a strategy which can have benefits beyond the apprenticeship, by developing young people's interest in hambone based on Thomas's own progress. Yiriba Thomas says: "Sekani likes to demonstrate his ability to friends. He's anxious already to let others know and to show others. We need to get this to Sekani's school and to expose this form to young people, to get youth to inspire other youth."
As an apprentice, Thomas wants to learn all the rhythms and forms of patting Juba. Barber's own innovations and original cadences are embedded in movement phrases with names like "heart cross," "the pop," "the flick," "to the top," "roll cross," and "roller coaster." Yiriba Thomas describes Barber's own development of a distinctive style as one which emerges from "a deep well of expression, coming from the spirit and the soul." An apprenticeship goal is to instill Barber's Slapjazz style and technique-inclusive of timing, execution, coordination, logic, sequential thinking, and focus-solidly in Thomas, to "pass it onto Sekani so that the form will live on when I'm gone," says Barber. "It's hard to make him stop!"
During the course of one lesson, Barber demonstrates his technique and tells Thomas to "Conserve your energy. Extend your creativity." This direct statement exemplifies the very spirit of survival and expansive improvisation within this form.
Yiriba Thomas links contemporary hambone and its values back to its origins: "The patting Juba tradition speaks of 'Making the way out of no way.' There are Inherent lessons of life in wading through difficult matter. Sekani is now sitting at the foot of Danny. This apprenticeship is a reaching out to Sekani which will provide the vehicle for his consciousness."
actaonline.org
actaonline.org/content/danny-rural-slapjazz-barber
thank you for this history lesson and proper historical factual persoective.. they took our druns but we were the drums. the patterns and forms still existed in our heart mind and Spirit AsheO
that opening Juba is also the time step rhythm in tap dancing.. Wwww i love this... Danny take me on as a student.. I'm a jazz trumpet player and highschool choir director here in Shreveport Louisiana
this is amazing! thank you for sharing.
Wouwwwww.... tis is so deep and inspiring. The story and the rhythm.
I came across this video studying for a class. Good video and an accurate description of why patting juba is important. I'm glad to see the culture being passed down with a sense of historical significance
This is amazing! I read about Juba in a book on Appalachian Dance and went down a rabbit hole here- so much wisdom and talent, thank you for sharing this with the world!
BEAUTIFUL. THE SMOOTHNESS. AND RHYTHM SO BEAUTIFUL.
HAMBONE HAMBONE HAVE YOU HEARD ETC. Theyy would HAMBONE in good ole NYC where I came from.
Danny!! I'm Martinez from the Forrestal! It is so GOOD to see you. I'm looking you out, bro. Been looking for you for years.
Pretty wonderful. Great to hear the knowledge being passed along and see the relationship.
Thank you so much for posting this. I really enjoyed it. I would love to see a documentary on this to help spread the awareness about this art and the history behind it!
EmpressChiChi, do one.
Cool! Thanks for passing on this tradition to the younger generation. This is especially useful info. for students of drumming.
wow, such great history behind this dance. and the creativity is amazing. It goes to show the spirit and resilience of artists when met with opposition
This is a perfect example of a man with something that will stay with him for night he will never go broke he will always be entertaining just because of that seemingly insignificant knowledge it draws crowds for reals
That was awesome!!!
Cool!! True art!! Funny too...❤
Sonny boy liking that freestyle cross up yes we do rockin
Wow, I knew a Danny Barber on a navy ship, Forrestal. He looks and sounds like the same guy!
Very cool, very important video. Thanks for this.
I recently read Noah Smithwicks's "Evolution of a State". In it he frequently made mention of "patting juba" or "patting ju be." From context, I could kinda imagine what he was talking about, but it's great to see it.
.
(Noah came to Texas in 1827, saw revolution, nationhood, and annexation, but left for California when the state seceded and joined the confederacy. He dictated his detailed recollections to his daughter about 1890 something...)
Love it
Thank You! This erases some of my own ignorance that is sometimes confused as racist.
Wonderful video, thanks!
Excellent video and history lesson! Just found out about Pattin' Juba today. Sounds and looks great. :) The kid will get it with practice.
I LOVE this!
Wow, this is very impressive!
very good! your a beast man! haha i wana learn this so bad!
It looks like old boy was happy as hell to pass it down and it looks like the young boy is like what else you got LOL beautiful black people keep being
Thanks so much for this. Is there a restriccion for the use of this video for education?
THANKS!
Oops that's what happens when you are too good people forget to give you a like LOL I'm liking this all the way number one and number two doing the do making it happen getting it cracking
I included this video with comments about what I think is the real meaning of "skinned a yellow cat" (and the page citation for Talley's version and notes) in my cultural blog post. Google Pancocojams Hambone - African Roots & Contemporary Examples
Thanks!
very interesting info
HAMBONE CAME FROM AFRICA AS JUBA PATTING; IT WAS CALLED HAMBONE IN AMERICA...DOES ANYONE REMEMBER SEEING THEIR ANCESTORS DOING HAMBONE PATTING (JUBA)? THANKS FOR SHARING THIS VIDEO
haaaAAAAaaaamboooOOOOOoooning
Nice
From now on though the people need to stop calling themselves black that is where the legal complication is if you know your history if you know your background call yourself that as far as I know they go by your mother's it may help you find your history if that is what you are looking for from time to time
This is an excellent video of pattin Juba (Hambone) and I very much applaud the skill & artistry of the teacher & passing this tradition on. However, from my reading of Thomas W. Talley's 1922 book Negro Folk Rhymes, the words to that version of Juba was "Juba skinned a yellow cat". Talley indicates tha this was a dance step. I don't agree that it was any kind of coded reference. While there were coded words in some spirituals & other songs, all songs didn't have coded words.
Juba up.... And juba down... Juba all around and round.... The young boy has given up.... Before even attempting...
man this dude got some fast hands
Xris Carter exactly imagine a hambone practitioner in the boxing ring or martial arts..Fast swift mighty hands
I know this is an old comment but what exactly was you assignment?
mmk spirit say try find he on Facebook
So it isnt from Africa, Blacks invented it here and it should then be Black American History. I think it is fantastic and it certainly represents a cultural and historic contribution to American History. thank you for that.
TheBigD Foodie African body percussion existed before slavery though
Wtf? I was just watching this video of hamboning and all of a sudden it turned into a very sobering history lesson about the slave trade.
you can't take the pain out of the the culture. we took that pain and turned it into creativity.
@@daniesavage True, adversity is so often a hotbed for expression.
if you can’t appreciate our history you don’t deserve our culture they go hand and hand