: : Great drummers

Guem

Musicians or bands:

Guem, Zaka percussions, Rahmann, Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra, Louis César Ewandé, Didier Lockwood

Biography and commentary:

Algerian from Nigerian origin (born in 1947), initiated into the "Diwan" (Algerian worship incorporating percussions) from childhood by his family, Guem moved to Paris in 1960 to become first professional Footballer and then will start a career as a percussionist in jazz fusion formations ("Rahmann", 1979, with Didier Lockwood), before creating his own records and compositions with only percussion (in the African tradition). Guem is one of the first drummers to record himself in rerecording, in solo, to develop polyrhythms and to mix all kinds of percussions with various techniques and origins (from all parts of Africa and America) which he masters perfectly (djembe, congas, timbales, Magreb crotales (“krakebs”), cow-bells, bongos, maracas, etc.). His melodic and very composed approach of percussions (he plays with 5 synthetic congas) allows him to captivate a popular European audience, without resorting to tuned instruments (even xylophones for example, which are still percussion instruments). An almost unique model of its kind (with Mino Cinelu, perhaps, but the latter has a more jazz approach) with an impressive traditional "Pan African" culture, also integrating Brazil and Cuba (and the Caribbean in general), and perhaps unique in the world today.

Marc De Douvan, publication in French: November 22, 2006 (for the translation in English: July 12, 2015)

Official website