THERE ARE probably more jokes about drummers than about any other kind of instrumentalist. The spoof rock-documentary movie This Is Spinal Tap even featured a band in which the drummers were so weird they often exploded on gigs. The jokes stem from a prejudice that drummers make too much noise to listen to anybody else.
But the real truth about drummers – all kinds of drummers, from rock players to classical tympanists – is very different. Their job is to listen as much as to play. They perform a key role in any band, from a hip hop group to a symphony orchestra. They may have to drive a beat for dancing, emphasise rhythms, and add to the drama of a classical symphony, sometimes provide textures more than beats. In Africa, drums were a method of communication across long distances, with small variations of tone and rhythm conveying quite different meanings. Seb Rochford shows that all is not quite what you think you're hearing, when a drummer plays what seems to be the simplest of beats.
