sabar — Spero

Sabar is a traditional style of percussion, song and dance hailing from Senegal, West Africa. It is an expressive, explosive and joyous tradition passed down through families of Griots, a caste of musical storytellers, activists and keepers of indigenous customs.

I have had the great privilege of playing with this music since 2010, traveling three times to Senegal in 2012, 2107 and 2019 to study Sabar drumming and dance with the Touré and Mbaye families, master Griot drummers.

Rambax MIT is a student Sabar ensemble based in Cambridge, MA led by Master percussionist and Griot, Lamine Touré, and co-founder of the group, Patricia Tang, ethnomusicologist and author of "Masters of the Sabar: Wolof Griot Percussionists of Senegal" (Temple University Press, 2007).

Rambax, MIT's senegalese drumming group, in Senegal. January 2017.

In January 2012, Rambax MIT traveled to Senegal to study sabar with the Mbaye family. Rambax student, Jess Kim '10, put together a 10-min video to document the group's tour and to thank the sponsors who made the trip possible.

Sabar is a traditional style of percussion, song and dance hailing from Senegal, West Africa. It is an expressive, explosive and joyous tradition passed down through families of Griots, a caste of musical storytellers, activists and keepers of indigenous customs.

I have had the great privilege of playing with this music since 2010, traveling three times to Senegal in 2012, 2107 and 2019 to study Sabar drumming and dance with the Touré and Mbaye families, master Griot drummers.

Rambax MIT is a student Sabar ensemble based in Cambridge, MA led by Master percussionist and Griot, Lamine Touré, and co-founder of the group, Patricia Tang, ethnomusicologist and author of "Masters of the Sabar: Wolof Griot Percussionists of Senegal" (Temple University Press, 2007).

Photography by Patricia Tang, Raeez Lorgat & Pedro Donaire Polanco.