Join us at Callie’s on Monday, August 26th, and Tuesday, August 27th, for a two-day sabar program as we welcome Family Ndiaye Rose from Dakar:

Sabar workshops
- Monday, August 26th, 3-6pm
- Tuesday, August 27th, 12-3pm
Callie’s will host two sabar workshops with Birame and Molamine Ndiaye Rose. Participation is free, but places are limited. All levels are welcome. Please register using the link on this page.

Sabar performance
- Monday, August 26th, 7-10pm
An evening of sabar music will begin with a DJ set by LABOUR, followed by a sabar performance by Family Ndiaye Rose. 10€ cash entry. No registration necessary.

Doudou N’Diaye Rose is hailed as the master of the sabar—Senegal’s traditional drum. Part of the Wolof griot, N’Diaye Rose began playing in the 1930s and continued until his death in 2015. During his lifetime, he developed more than 500 original drumming patterns. One of the first musicians to bring Senegalese music to an international audience, he performed with Josephine Baker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and the Rolling Stones. In 2006 he was designated a Living Human Treasure by UNESCO and has been described as the “mathematician of rhythm.” As the griots take part in an aural tradition, his compositions and musical knowledge were transferred to and are cultivated by his family.

Residents in Callie’s sound studio, LABOUR is the sonic duo Farahnaz Hatam and Colin Hacklander, known for their large-scale performances. Hacklander has had the honor of performing numerous times with N’Diaye Rose, and their friendship formed the starting point for the Transcriptions project: a collaboration with N’Diaye Rose and his family that began in 2012 and which is now dedicated to his legacy.

In early 2020, the Transcriptions project traveled to Dakar to record sabar rhythms performed by his descendents, led by his three eldest sons: Thione Ndiaye Rose, Tapha Ndiaye Rose, and Birame Ndiaye Rose. At the mystical Lac Rose outside of Dakar, the sixteen-member ensemble worked with LABOUR to record hundreds of original drum patterns created by N’Diaye Rose over his lifetime, including significant compositions as well as numerous patterns created for daily life and rituals, from weddings to Tannebiers—the ultimate sabar dance gathering. They were joined by Callie’s director Jarrett Gregory and Berlin Atonal’s directors Laurens von Oswald and Harry Glass; both institutions will welcome Family Ndiaye Rose to Berlin this August.

Register for sabar workshop

Colin Hacklander was born in Minneapolis, USA, and Farahnaz Hatam in Tehran, Iran. The duo have been collaborating under various guises since 2013, founding LABOUR in 2018. Among their recent commissioned compositions and performances are sungazing (رضایت, HAU Berlin (2022); Scalable Skeletal Escalator (with Isabel Lewis, Sissel Tolaas, et al.), Kunsthalle Zurich (2020); Constructs of Sanity, Musica Sanae, Berlin (2019); nine-sum sorcery, Berlin Atonal (2019); Activating the Gropius Bau, Sonically, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (2019); next time, die consciously (بیگانگی), Berlin Atonal (2018); Hacklander’s Activating the Messeplatz, Sonically and Stochastic Activation: Basler Trommeln (with Isabel Lewis), Basilea, Art Basel (2018); conatus/consent, Neue Musik in St Ruprecht, St Ruprechtskirche, Vienna (2015), and Levels of Intrusion, transmediale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2014). Hacklander and Hatam live and work in Berlin, Germany.

Doudou N’Diaye Rose was born in Dakar, Senegal in 1930. The drummer and composer is widely recognized as the modern master of Senegal’s traditional drum, the sabar. N’Diaye Rose was known as Senegal’s chief drum major: he created over 500 original sabar rhythms, founded a percussion school in Dakar, invented a new form of the sabar, regularly performed with his group, the Drummers of West Africa, which included many of his children and grandchildren. N’Diaye Rose appeared onstage and on the bill with Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, The Rolling Stones, and Peter Gabriel. His percussion work can be heard in the soundtrack for Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, and the recordings of Jane Birkin, Alan Stivell, and Nine Inch Nails, among others. In 2006, N’Diaye Rose was designated a UNESCO Living Human Treasure. He passed away in Dakar, Senegal in 2015.

Transcriptions was initiated by LABOUR, Berlin Atonal, Moe Sow, and the family of Doudou N’Diaye Rose. The initial project and recording was funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes; the events at Callie’s are supported by Musikfonds e.V. through the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media (BKM).