Danziger is a celebrated performer, teacher and composer known for her expertise on the
dumbek, or darbuka, the Middle Eastern goblet drum.
The songs range from "Jerusalem", a song that combines Middle Eastern harmonic sense in its guitar, and Arabic
Dumbek rhythm in counterpart to Dawuni's lyrics; to "Take it Slow (Love Love Love)" that was composed during a tour with Finnish pop stars, and involves Scandinavian rhythms and harmonies, even a Finnish folk flute.
Darwish riffed off the simmering exchange between his mother-in-law and the border police recruits, a high little 2 bar interlude you could hear the dry crackle of olive tree leaves or it simply could be the feedback in the monitors he was told once that the visions of Christ in the desert were just the wind charitably blowing from the Mediterranean down into the Jordan valley, he would strike the guitar with his palm, like a
Dumbek then thump!
If anything, Garin feels "Goldfarb's" most subversive act is putting Arabic instruments like the oud and the
dumbek into its score.
The band includes Chip Cohen on fiddle; Mike Curtis on clarinet and tenor sax; Jeremy Wegner on mandolin, sarod and sitar; Michael Rubinstein on electric bass; and Ken Sokolov on caj-n and
dumbek.
But he shines most in his collaborative concert performance with Grand Orchestre DuCaire, a classical ensemble from Cairo, Egypt, that combines traditional Middle Eastern instruments such as the oud (lute), nai (flute), and
dumbek (hand drum) with a violin string section and other Western instruments.
Balladina includes Stephanie Anderson on violin; John Blunk on bass; Bruce Cooley on tambura; Dan Dowes on tupan and
dumbek; Doug Sears on kaval, clarinet and alto sax; Jamie Webster on vocals, trumpet and rigg; and Bistra Zlateva on vocals.
The musicians play acoustic, ethnic instruments such as a kanun, a 76-stringed plucked zither; the harmonium, a keyboard instrument; and the
dumbek and flat drums, among others.
- "
Dumbek: Middle East and Khalegi Rhythms," Christopher Pfeffer