Deep dive into the life of a drummer
THE current state of Zimbabwe’s music industry is probably one of the most difficult to gauge pertaining to the success of its key stakeholders, as artistes ride on the boom of success, while their band members do not usually reflect the tag of their masters.
Yet this can be viewed with mixed reactions and perceptions with only a handful of bands making efforts to do justice to their members’ welfare among the numerous bands in the country.
The current status is a clear testament that band members comparable to their masters are largely wallowing in abject poverty, while the prevailing economic hardships might be used as a veil to suggest that all efforts to improve lives of band members are being stalled as a result.
Taking a deep dive into the artistry life of a drummer, Standard Style in an interview with Gully Ncube, fondly known as Galiman Mr Ceremony, who sadly is an unsung hero in his four-decade-long career, gave a touching narrative of his musical journey.
For Gully Ncube, a veteran of the trade has a different not-so-good story in his journey as a drummer.
Since 1979, Ncube as a drummer, has assumed monumental responsibilities as he bravely marched to success various bands with his most treasured weapons, namely drums and sticks.
Ncube possesses an exceedingly high level of technique. Having been exposed to live studio time, his much treasured merit is his simplicity in manoeuvring with ease and authority among genres leads him to be lauded as one of the greatest and most sought after drummer.
Ncube talks nothing, but his insatiable role of being the vertebrae of the band, of commanding tempo and maintaining the beat of the band.
“My job as a drummer is to make sure that the speed is constant and the band is tight and this makes us the most important component of the band,” Ncube said.
“As drummers, we are on high demand because only a few of us are naturally gifted and coupled with the fact that very few people are willing to train as drummers.”
In Zimbabwe, the majority of drummers’ sorry state of life defines the general welfare of the music industry let alone band members.
More often than less there is no correlation about the riches and famousness of the band leader and his members.
For 41 years, Ncube has mesmerised his listeners and being the most sought-after drummer for various band troupes.
He has worked with renowned artistes such the late Solomon Skuza and Andy Brown, Chase Skuza, Allen Ndoda, Tornado Heroes, Madala Boy as well as Sandra Ndebele.
Across the Limpopo, Ncube has worked with Splash, Sipho Johnson, Mitchell Jambo and Zenzo Bhekimpilo just to name a few .
On the aspect of getting something out of the career which he has served so dearly, it is something the reverred drummer starts murmuring above and obviously not trusting anyone in sharing the disturbing details of his career.
“For all what I have done in my career I still lead a very simple life that does not resonate with the attention it deserves, especially to inspire the youngsters,” said Ncube
Despite the odds, Ncube leads a passionate plea of expressing his syncopated, conceptual engaging mastery of the drum and stick in teaching the youngsters as he now expresses himself as drum coach and player simultaneously.
“I am looking forward to opening my school and teach the youngsters. I don’t want to die with this talent I have to teach others,” he said.
Having been inspired by Jethro Shasha of the now defunct Real Sound Band and his all-time favourite drummer Isaac Ncamatshali of the South African jazz group Stimela fronted by Ray Phiri, Ncube says he is self-taught.
“I was nine years old of age when I started. I was self-taught on this skill of drumming, but as one moves along you learn from others and the feedback given by fellow band members also improved my drumming,” he said.
For a person who knows no other profession, he said drummers are not popular at music shows because they work behind the scenes.
“The problem is that drummers are not put upfront of the audience, in most cases the crowd only gets to hear the sound but not to see the player,” he said.
The veteran drummer believes that band members need to be professional enough to understand the roles played by their members so that their careers and livelihoods can be meaningful and inspirational as in other countries.
“The singers usually do not want us to develop and many times no meaningful remuneration to sustain our livelihoods with regard to the fact we are also specialists which helps in the brand image of the band,” he said.
Despite changing bands with the hope of ameliorating his life, Ncube believes drummers are looked down upon by band leaders.
“I think more has to be done for the general welfare of band members, especially us drummers,” he said.
“It’s not fulfilling, it is very hard to be a drummer to acquire material things. For example, owning a house is a dream which will never come true because of our earnings.
“We drummers are underrated especially when it comes to earnings only if our country could come up with representatives who advocate for our welfare may be as a result we can be somewhere in life.”
The dreadlocked drummer admitted that in his career he has respect for some whom he views as the best.
“Obert Gomba, former Alick Macheso drummer who is now based in Johannesburg, is one drummer in Zimbabwe whom I don’t doubt to be the best,” Ncube said.
Music critic Admire Kudita laments the lack of criteria to rate drummers.
“There are no objective criteria for deciding who the best drummer is. There are variables such as genre and personal taste which impact on that matter,” Kudita said.
“So, I don’t know exactly what they mean best drummer. Do they refer to the flourishes he makes whilst drumming? What exactly?
“Band founders don’t have necessary conversations with members and the lack of unionisation is another matter. The creative sector is notoriously ununionised and several attempts have been made towards setting up standards and best practices but to no avail,” he said.
Courage Masamba, a veteran music teacher and music analyst, argues that most people, as they develop interest in music, are attracted so much by melodies that are produced on pitched instruments.
“Now, a drum is not a pitched instrument, it does not produce notes of varying pitch to produce melodies like a guitar, keyboard, trumpet, saxophone and many other instruments,” Masamba said.
“As such, fewer people develop the interest to train as drummers, unless that intrinsic motivation and social background and exposure plays a part.
“Those who choose to train as drummers really find it to be very interesting. With time and practice, they continue to discover unbelievables in the drummers' realm they do wonders.”
Masamba is of the view that revamping the arts sector holistically is key to improving the remuneration of artistes.
He contends that the main challenge is perception changing of band owners in managing bands as true business entities as well as formulating policies governing the whole music industry.
“As to how drummers are treated in terms of remuneration, my view is that it is an issue which cuts across all band members — guitarists, keyboardists, dancers, vocalists, drummers, the composer, band owner and band manager,” said Masamba.
“The problem we have in our industry is that upon joining the band, members do not clarify to each other as to how each member is going to be remunerated. As long as there is no agreement upon joining the band, as to how the drummer is going to be paid, in most cases they get an unfair treatment in terms of compensation.”
Nonetheless, business etiquette still presents a couple of challenges to many artistes. For one, lack of managerial skills is still an impediment for many artistes, despite all efforts harboured to help artistes.
Generally, the failing economy presents lack of corporate support and the situation remains stubbornly bad to professionalise and shaping up these bands according to modern trends.