AFRICA & THE BASSPart 3: The Polyrhythmic Basses Of Zimbabwe & CongoBY MAR LONB I S HOPWOODSOMEOFTHEWORLD SMOSTinventive bass playing can be found inAfricas modern pop music. While someplayers have gotten a share of the inter-national spotlight, most of the continentsgreatbassistshaveremainedunsungheroes. In this series of articles, werefocusing on four of Africas most bass-obsessed countriesSouth Africa (July10), Cameroon (September 10), and thismonth, Zimbabwe and Congoand find-ing out how Africans have been takingthe instrument to new places.NGouma Lokitos right hand dances spi-der-like between the four strings. Hesfinger-picking the bass, his thumb deftlymoving between the lower three stringswhile his index finger answers with com-mentary from the Gstring. Lokito is fromthe Democratic Republic of the Congo,and he plays the bass in a way that nobodyhas ever thought of doing in America. Bytakingideasfromlocalinstruments,African players like Lokito have come upwith some surprising technical and con-ceptual approaches to the bass. In this lastinstallment of the series, well check outa few styles inspired by traditional Africanmusical ideas.FewwouldarguethatthegreatestAfrican musical idea of all is polyrhythm.At its most basic, polyrhythm is the com-bination of two or more rhythms happeningat the same time, and its a common ele-ment of music in Sub-Saharan Africa. Forexample, if you have one musician play-ing in 2/4 and another playing in 3/4, youget a two-against-three feel. This is com-mon enough in the West, but in Africanmusic, the tension between the two-feeland three-feel is constant, driving the music.African musicians play with that ambigu-ity, slipping easily between grooves withoutcommitting to one or the other.The polyrhythmic, 12/8 bass part in Ex.1 hovers between those duple and triplefeels. In the first half of each bar, it has aquarter-note triplet against two dotted quar-ters. At the same time, the bass plays againsteighth-note triplets in the hi-hat (representedon the bottom staff), generating two levelsof the three-against-two polyrhythm. Theline is from a song by Thomas Mapfumo,the father of Zimbabwes guitar-driven popmusic. Mapfumos music comes directlyfrom the traditional repertoire of the mbira,a metal-keyed thumb piano. With just twothumbs and one index finger, mbira playersexecute a melody, a counter-melody, and abass line at once, all in glorious polyrhythm.In Zimbabwean pop music, those parts aretranslated onto electric guitars and, of course,the bass. Charles Makokova, Mapfumos prin-cipal bassist through the years, pioneereda style that imitates the mbira bass parts,preservingthetechnicalquirksoftheinstrument. Mbira players often strike theirlowest note at the top of each measure,no matter the chord, leading to lots ofinversions in the harmonies. And due tothe challenge of playing melodies and bassparts at once with only three fingers, mbirabass tones often hit on the offbeats.In Kinshasa, the booming capital of theDemocratic Republic of the Congo, bassistshave developed a unique playing technique.Congolesemusicknownvariouslyasrumba, soukous, or kwassa-kwassais themost popular sound throughout Africa; itcombines a laid-back, inherently dance-able beat with dense layers of interlockingguitars, each playing melodic fragmentsthat fit together like puzzle pieces. WhileCongolese music may not come directlyfrom any specific traditional sound, thereare old-school concepts at play. In Congo,players play their guitars like drums, some-times even thinking about particular drumpatterns and sounds, says Bob White, anexpert on Congolese music who teachesanthropology at the University of Mon-treal. Think of guitars like drums, and youget all kinds of wonderfully rich polyrhyth-mic patterns and counterpoint between theMore Ngouma.Audio qualitynot so good;groove,unstoppable. GET THESE LINKS AND MORE AT BASSPLAYER.COM/NOVEMBER2010NgoumaLokito,groovingcrazyhard.MORE ONLINENOVEMBER 2010BASSPLAYER.COM64guitars. Within this sonic tapestry, the bassacts as another, lower guitar-drum. Listen-ing to Congo bass lines, its clear that theplayers are not thinking in terms of sup-port. These days, Congolese bassists playthe bass like a lead guitar at times, oftenwandering into the higher registers, saysWhite. But they never seem to lose theheavy bottom that drives this music.Which brings us back to NGoumaLokito and his spider-hand. Lokito, whosevery name means Power of the Bass ina local dialect, is one of Congos greatestandmostwidelyimitatedplayers.Helearned to play on a homemade bass madeout of an oil can; he later studied at a con-servatoryinKinshasaandbecameabandleader. His repeating, riff-based linesseem simple, but they are nuanced by theCongolese thumb-and-index finger pick-ing technique (Examples 2 and 3). Whilehis index finger never strays from the Gstring, his thumb keeps moving on theeighth-notes, hitting muted notes, low basstones, and open strings as well as playingthe main melodic material. For faster bits,Lokito strikes his thumb up and down likea pick. He keeps his left thumb curled overthe fingerboard on the E string, allowinghim to reach down with the right andpluck a half-muted bassy thump at anymoment.InLokitoshands,thebassbecomes a versatile percussion instrument,producing a wide range of sounds whilemaintaining a hypnotic groove.Lokito isnt shy when it comes to thesource of his genius: This is what mademe the best bass playerbecause I listeneda lot to our folk music.SHEDT = Thumb downstroke U = Thumb upstroke I = Index upstrokeG C G DT T I1012 12T I T129T T(0) 10T U T88 9T I T1012 12I T1011T U T1012 12T U12 10 10= 115E AT T I T7(9) (9) (9) (9)T T7911HT T9119T T911T I T7T I7911HT T9119T911= 106Ab Db Cm/Ab Eb1113 101310101113 1113 101113 101210131311 10121013= 150Bass and drum part from Zeve Zeve, by Thomas Mapfumo (from Singles Collection).Congolese bass line from NGouma Lokito.Another Congolese bass line from NGouma Lokito.Ex. 1Ex. 2Ex. 3BASSPLAYER.COM NOVEMBER 201065