About David Day and Jabba Jabba Jembe
Hello my name is David Day I am a musician from Athy in County Kildare.
My first instrument to take up was Guitar in my teenage years, I enjoy many different genres of music and I discovered the Jembe Drum and West African Drumming when I had finished school and moved to Dublin.
The dynamic range of sounds from a Jembe Drum sparked a huge interest for me in ethnic drumming and world music which in turn made me aware of the huge selection of Interesting Percussion Instruments and Drums there are in the world.
I decided to dedicate all my spare time and resources to learning and playing the Jembe Drum. And so my Journey began ...
I have since been studying African and World Drumming for over 15 years through independent travel and study tours and workshops here at home in Ireland and also while traveling in Europe, the US, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea and Ghana, West Africa.
I have been very fortunate over the years to have had the opportunity to learn from some of the finest musicians in these countries and spend time on study tours developing my knowledge and understanding of the Jembe drum and various other world percussion instruments in there natural environment...
Living in these countries has given me a wonderful insight into not only the music of these regions but more importantly the culture, tradition and people who have created it.
Group Drumming is something that has been enjoyed and practiced by people all across the globe for centuries is not millennia..
This is something I love to share and introduce people to.
And So JABBA JABBA JEMBE began..
My first experience of facilitating group drumming started out with me giving some Drum workshops and percussion classes to a local youth group who I've been a member of since I was 14 yrs old . These years attending the youth center and eventually receiving training and moving into an adult leader role gave me a huge amount of experience and knowledge of group dynamics and communication skills which are necessary for working successfully and Facilitating events with groups of people. These workshops proved to be a great activity for the youth group to enjoy.
It didn't take long for some more groups to take up interest in having some drumming Workshops and I had a variety of different age groups and environments to visit.
I decided to adapt some other elements to my workshops to provide educational and cultural content so my workshops would provide a range of benefits to schools and young children, with the aim of promoting cultural awareness and diversity through music.
The interest in my workshops allowed me the opportunity to invite some of my Drumming teachers from Ghana West Africa to visit Ireland for several month.
It was my wish to invite these musicians to visit Ireland and allow them the opportunity to showcase there music and give workshops on Percussion, Song and Dance. The aim of these events is to promote cultural awareness through workshops and performances with African musicians while providing an enjoyable, energetic and fun insight into Drums, Percussion, Song and Dance from West Africa.
We created a Road show called Akrowa which we toured throughout Ireland teaching percussion, song and dance.. We provided concerts and workshops to all kinds of venues, schools, community projects and festivals. The response and feedback was so positive we were able to provide these events for several years.
Group Drumming provided a very unique way for the kids to enjoy music making from the first moments of sitting with an instrument, It was accessible to all regardless of musical ability.
The Idea behind the "Akrowa" was to transform a venue in Ireland into an area filled with music song and dance from Africa , all of this was created by the participants of the workshops and the visiting musicians who are well experienced at working within various groups in many different settings, these sessions would take people on a musical journey, participants can enjoy meeting the visiting musicians and having the opportunity to play music with them in there school or office, or hospital or where ever they may be.
These workshops are extremely popular with all the groups we had visited over the years, many of these groups now enjoy annual events. I am very proud to say that some of the schools who I have worked with for several years now own they're own instruments.. These school now include percussion sessions into they're weekly activities in school. Some of the groups perform to the public arrangements and songs I have thought them and also pieces which they have arranged and composed themselves..
The increase in Popularity of Group Drumming Workshops has given me the opportunity to Facilitate events and workshops with many different groups over the years.
I now provide
Team Building Events for companies,
Drum parties,
Cultural awareness workshops
Rhythm workshops for health and well-being
Drum Circles to the general public.
It is my belief that Drumming and playing Rhythms in a group has a profound effect on people of all ages.
Drumming has huge benefit for the Health and Well Being for all who play.
Thank You for looking through my story, I hope to drum with you one day..
To get in touch, you can email him directly at dave@jabbajabbajembe.com
Office number 059 8638252
Mobile 087 240 4442
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