As far as most Dartmouth students know, the only thing that African and Asian music have in common is that they are foreign and “not Western.”
There is little understanding of the polyrhythm beats of African music or the multi-tonal cacophony of traditional Asian music. Given how little of this type of music we hear around New England, this state of unawareness is unsurprising.

On February 19th, the World Music Percussion Ensemble sought to remedy that. That night Spaulding Auditorium was filled with the drumming of djembe and pipa—along with a variety of other drums and keyboard. The program of the night included Iya Ni Wura, Dounobah, as well as offerings such as Written on the Wind and Blue Pipa.

The entire ensemble performed well, but the stars of the night were the featured guests on the pipa, Min Xiao-Fen and Si Jie Loo ‘12 who has studied the drums for years. Min Xiao-Fen was amazingly dexterous on the pipa, filling the entire room with multiple lines of melodies that sounded more like an entire Asian symphony of zithers.

Amusingly, she cried out some unintelligible word over and over for “My Friend” which she later explained was her dog.

One of the odder performances of the night was a solo by Ms. Min where her performance was backed by a “kinetic painting” by Norman Perryman. Although the music was interesting, the kinetic painting itself seemed like a child playing on an old overhead projector, leaving the audience confused about the purpose of the song and the significance of the painting.

Less abstractly, Si Jie Loo was incredibly energetic, moving between different drums and acting as the driving force behind many of the night’s pieces. Matsuri and Mukala-Mukala were especially impressive. Matsuri, a Japanese “Shinto temple song” was introduced by Hafiz Shabazz (the ensemble director) as a piece that Si Jie personally brought to the group. Both pieces were filled with energy and made the audience move to the powerful beat of African drums.

Overall, it is difficult to say how much appreciation the performance brought to African and Asian music.

The audience was certainly entertained, but the turnout was somewhat disappointing, with only about half of Spaulding filled.

However, one cannot fault the performers given their energy and expertise. The music was enjoyable, and the Upper Valley experienced the strings and drums of Asia and Africa in one evening—a rare occurrence indeed.