Ben Aylon & Saboula Bangoura • TIRIBA

Ben Aylon & Saboula Bangoura • TIRIBA
When I was 18, after years of playing drum set, my best friend Yair Hashachar came and said: “There’s a Guinean master drummer living in Israel, let’s go and study with him!”. From that moment, everything changed for me. Saboula Bangoura was my first teacher of West African drumming, I spent a few years studying with him, and we had two trips to The Gambia in 2007-2008 together with a group of students.
We had some problems with our visas on the second trip, which got us arrested for four days and eventually deported to the neighboring country - Senegal. This challenging experience brought me to see and hear the Senegalese culture up close and has led me to find my inner purpose. I found my place.
Naturally, my connection with Saboula dissolved. I was on a journey to discover and research the Senegalese drumming. Finally, around six months ago, I reached Saboula and offered him to renew our connection and started to meet him every week to play and enjoy our drumming together.
Slowly, I realized that I had been waiting for this moment to return to Saboula with more knowledge, technique, and, most importantly, a deeper understating. Saboula is a humble, deep soul, and he is a true example of someone being his own creation. Saboula is a minimalist and super-focused musician; he can stop time with one hit on the drum. I am so happy I have him here close to me. I can taste, touch and feel Africa by driving 40 minutes to visit him.
We documented five videos, focusing on different rhythms led by Saboula's perspective. He is from an older generation and blends his traditional knowledge with a fresh signature approach. I learned so much from him, without him ever really explaining anything in words.
The first video of the series is called TIRIBA.
Tiriba is the rhythm and dance of Sablula’s tribe, The Landouma from Guinea Conakry. The rhythm is played in ceremonies and different events. We searched together for ways that I could play with my full Senegalese drum set to accompany him. Saboula taught me several different parts, and I came up with creative ways to play these simultaneously so he could feel a massive tribe behind him while he was improvising. The videos were captured at the Bangoura House.
Thanks to Nir Averbuch for recording and mixing, Ran Shneck for filming and editing, Rachel Bangoura - Saboula’s life partner for the support, and Yair Hashachar for being a huge inspiration.
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