Playing Away: Afro-Irish band, De Jimbe, are performing at the World Cup opening ceremony. Kathy Fox reports
As a front-manof Afro-Irish percussion group De Jimbe, Brian Fleming has chosen an interesting mix of memorabilia to decorate the walls of his Dublin home: pictures of the largest drum in the world are proudly displayed alongside photographs of De Jimbe. But the most eye-catching objects are the white pages containing Japanese and Korean phrases neatly handwritten in blue ink. Fleming is enthusiastically learning as much of the languages as possible before going to Korea, where De Jimbe will take part in the opening ceremony of the World Cup.
The ceremony has been named "Far From the East" and the theme is communication. More than 2,000 people will take part in the experience that will incorporate dance, drumming, performance, video, art-work and pop.
The De Jimbe members who will be joining Fleming at the event are Bisi Adigun, the Nigerian presenter of RTÉ's Mono; Maori muscle-man Ken Samson (both playing a range of drums); Gwen Frinn, traditional Irish/Breton flute-player from Brittany; Hugh O'Byrne from Dublin (dununba drums) and Padraic Lavin from Co Mayo (uileann pipes/whistles/percussion).
This is the band's second trip to Korea, where they have 11 performances; one at the opening ceremony of the World Cup and 10 as part of the Annual Seoul Drum Festival. Audiences can expect a combination of traditional Irish music and West African rhythms.
"The fusion and tension between the pulsating, hypnotic rhythms and intricate airs is what gives De Jimbe their original, immediate and exciting sound," says Fleming. So they will be easily recognised, the band may wear Irish football jerseys, he says, and they hope to teach an Irish song to their audiences at the Seoul Drum Festival.
De Jimbe's relationship with the organisers of the festival began two years ago when the band was invited to perform and play what Fleming calls "the big drum". As one of the driving forces behind building the drum, he is affectionately describing the world's largest drum (which is 15 feet across, six feet high, and weighs 1.5 tonnes). The "big drum" won't be travelling this year but Fleming suspects that the Korean's will have their own version at the festival and World Cup celebrations.
At the World Cup opening ceremony, De Jimbe will be drumming alongside the world's greatest drummers, to illustrate the power of sound as a means of communication. De Jimbe shares this philosophy because it prioritises communication through music "making it more accessible to more people, so that they can make it useful in their lives".
Since it was formed in 1995, the band has consisted of "black and white people playing black and white music", and Fleming feels that De Jimbe's "music and presentation gives voice to a new multi-cultural Ireland". He is quick to explain that De Jimbe is not on an anti-racist crusade. Instead, the musicians get great satisfaction from going into a town and transforming bemused onlookers into performers, through workshops and involving people on the street.
For De Jimbe drummer Bisi Adigun the process is simple: "If you can talk you can sing, if you walk you can dance and if you've got a heartbeat you've got rhythm". The band members are fuelled by an urge to share their talent: "owing it to the African people from whom we learned so much, to educate people". De Jimbe has visited Senegal several times to learn more about the people "whose music we are borrowing". Forever indebted to the people and traditions of Africa, the band will continue to bring the sound of Senegal to the people of Belmullet and beyond.
When the hard work in Korea is over, the musicians are hoping to attend a few soccer matches. However, they might have some difficulty deciding who to support: Nigeria, France or Ireland.
De Jimbe might be divided in their football following, but will remain united and continue to unite others through their music because "playing music just for money wouldn't be satisfying, for us music has to serve a purpose in this world".
The World Cup opening ceremony is on RTÉ 1 at 11.15 a.m. on Friday
De Jimbe's next Irish performance is at the Project Arts Theatre, Temple Bar, Dublin, on June 24th