Aporia

Louis Moreau Gottschalk - Bamboula, ‘Danse des Nègres’

Performed here by Philip Martin, Gottschalk’s piece was inspired by the Bamboula, an African dance brought to the Americas by slaves. Gottschalk was a Creole -his father was a Jewish Englishman and his mother was from Santo Domingo- and he grew up in New Orleans. He was likely exposed to the Bamboula in Congo Square, then called the “Place de Negres,” where slaves were allowed to gather on Sundays, released from their labors.

Congo Square preserved many of the African musical traditions which would later intermingle with European forms to become jazz, blues, and rock, and their descendants. When I was a young drummer, I purchased a CD called Congo Square, from whom I don’t know, which had the African dance followed by this piece, which I’ve loved ever since.