Meet the Band!

[ Africa Junction photographed by E Mitchell Finch ]

Africa Junction is a band based around High Wycombe who perform traditional West African rhythms, playing drums (dun-dun and djembe) and other instruments, with dance and song. Many band members have played over a number of years with different groups such as Vitae, Drumweaver, Crooked Sixpence, Vitae Drummers, Secret Bass, Jambo Sana and Vibrazioni di Pace.

We learn our music, songs and dances directly from West African master drummers and teachers in the UK and on study trips to Africa. Among these are Seckou Keita, Nansady Keita, Ibro Konate, Bolo Kada Konde, Bruno Genero, Landing Mane and grandmaster of West African Drumming, Mamady Keita.We also work with some fantastic European teachers of African Dance such as Sonja Toure and Emma Nelson.

Justine Hart

Lead Vocals, Djembe, Dance and Percussion

Justine has performed over the years with a number of groups: Vitae, Crooked Sixpence and Drumweaver. Running African Drumming Workshops with Hartbeats since 1998, Justine has extensive experience of teaching groups of all abilities, working regularly both with adults in business and children in local schools. Justine also and leads the Vitae Drummers in High Wycombe and Wendover and is co-organizer of the successful African Beats Camp festivals.

She regularly visits West Africa to continue her ongoing study of this exciting musical form and to experience the culture from which it originates. Her two most recent visits in 2009 were to Abene in Senegal to study with Mamady Keita. In 2007 she performed at The Kartong Festival in The Gambia, representing Britain with its own traditional folk music.

Known for her passion and enthusiasm for African drumming, dance and songs, Justine leads Africa Junction performances and arrangements.

Ignazio Dentici

Djembe, Dun duns, Balafon, Krin, Adungu, Vocals and Percussion

Ignazio fell in love with the Djembe in 2001 when he began playing and carrying it around with him everywhere. He listened to West African music, studied notation and rhythms from the internet.

Finally deciding to really understand its background and culture, he spent five weeks in a small village on the coast of Ghana, discovering their rituals and culture, with the djembe playing at all the important moments of life, from baptisms to funerals.

On returning he started a group called "Vibrazioni di Pace", playing with then for three years and studying with African and European master drummers such as Ibro Konate, Bolo Kada Konde and Bruno Genero. He also plays Tabla, Balafon, Krin and a 12-string Ugandan harp called Adungu.

Later he founded a group called Jambo Sana, that worked its way up from the strictly traditional music of the African village, to a blend with Sicilian traditional music and recorded the CD "Sikilia Farafi". Recently moving to the UK from Italy he joined Africa Junction.

Jed Hoile

Djembe, Bougarabou, Dun duns, Vocals and Percussion

Playing West African rhythms has been both an inspiration and enjoyment since visiting Senegal in 1998 followed by a further two trips to study and play Djembe and percussion with Griot teachers.

In the UK, Jed has been a principle organiser of Winterdrum, a festival supporting hand-drumming in the UK, and was a founder member of the Vitae Drum Circle. He has been performing and playing in one form or another since 1983. Initially a stage performer/dancer and mime with 80's legend Howard Jones, Jed has been a member of world music band Vitae, working with theatre, percussion and guitar, followed by Drumweaver, Vitae Drummers and now Africa Junction. Jed is also formulating work as a storyteller.

Lawrence Vincent

Djembe, Flute, Vocals and Percussion

Lawrence has played Djembe with Vitae Drummers since 2005 prior to joining the band in 2008.

He has a musical background and has produced various albums of electronic music under the name 'Bantu'. Since 2005 he's mainly concentrated on hand percussion, specialising in Djembe and authentic African rhythms.

His introduction to world music and love for the Djembe was found attending Whirl-Y-Gig back in 1994 - a global dance nightclub that is still running today.

Barry Neilsen

Dun duns, Balafon, Djembe, Vocals and Percussion

After three decades as a synth and computer programmer, composer/arranger and keyboard player, Barry ventured into the world of percussion and joined the Vitae Drummers, in 2008.

Very quickly discovering a passion and aptitude for African rhythms he joined Africa Junction in the same year, playing dunduns. These bass drums with bells usually attached at the top are key to keeping the beat throughout a traditional West African rhythm. He now studies regularly with master drummers Seckou Keita and Vieux Bakayako.

He is delighted to have found so many talented musicians in his local area, emphasising how music like this links us all, wherever we happen to have been born.

Steve Roberts

Dun duns, Vocals and Percussion

Steve studied Fine Art and found joy in working in wild, natural places. He became a passionate supporter of the Green Movement and, with a view to trying to save the world, became an organic gardener!

For twenty years he lived and worked as part of a small community helping young people with emotional problems. During this time he also raised two lovely daughters. He now works with wood; he's a woodsman, forester, carpenter and joiner.

Still seeking joy in the pure and the beautiful, he discovered that rhythms from West Africa just about have it all. He has always had a passion for music and now, performing alongside the talented musicians in African Junction, has found a way of expressing this passion. He began playing Djembe five years ago and progressed to the Dun duns last year.

The great master drummer, Mamady Keita, believes that if all peoples and all the leaders around the world played Djembe there'd be no need for war and no more conflict. Steve says, "Maybe he is a dreamer... maybe I am too".

Kate Bruce

Djembe, dun duns, Vocals and Percussion

One of Kate's first memories is being percussive with her great aunt Ruby's saucepan and a wooden spoon in the kitchen aged around two. Nothing much has changed. After thumping timpani drums as a teen, then connecting with congas in her early twenties, studying regularly with Afro-Latin percussionist, Neville Murray. Kate has been a djembe djunkie for a decade, after dipping her toe in the water during one fateful trip to Wycombe and has studied many times with Seckou Keita and many others. She has since been inspired to acquire some drumkit, metallophone & dun dun experience, plus has written some tunes and lyrics which she sang and recorded in New York, under the guise of Kate English as half of a lo-fi electronica duo ‘Plain English’. Kate has adored live music for twenty years, going to plenty of gigs, usually singing in her car en route! Composing rough-around-the-edges songs over Casio beats, jamming, and learning traditional West African rhythms from ‘the experts’ are a few of her favourite ways to spend time. (Surprisingly, Kate’s least favourite lesson at school was music!)



Former members

Louis Labovitch

Djembe, dun duns, vocals, guitar and percussion

Jean Quaife

Djembe, Dance, Flute, Vocals and Percussion

Jean has played Djembe with Vitae Drummers since 2004 prior to forming the band in 2008.

Inspired when she first saw fantastic African artists such as Baaba Maal at Womad Festival in the early 1990's, this was also where Jean discovered Europeans playing African drums while dancing to the wonderful global beats at Whirl-y-gig (although she didn't bump into Lawrence!).

Her love for West African music and culture has grown following extensive travels in Ghana, Burkino Faso and Mali, going to the 'Festival au Desert' at Esskane near Timbuktu in 2005. She first started learning Djembe in 2003 on a trip to The Gambia before joining Vitae drum circle on her return. Since then she has studied with African teachers such as Seckou Keita, Moctar 'Mockoulo' Sawane and grandmaster drummer Mamady Keita.

Taking up West African Dance a couple of years later she now runs African Dancercise Classes in her local area, building a reputation for a fun, relaxed atmosphere and providing a great way to keep fit.

Malcolm Smith

Lead dun duns, Second Vocal, Balafon, Djembe and Percussion

Malcolm Smith has been studying percussion since his college days, and specifically djembe since 1992. Following intensive studies with master drummers in London and later in West Africa, he began teaching African drumming in 1999. In 2005 he extended his learning to embrace dun duns, the bass drum heartbeat of African rhythms.

Today working as Drumming Is Fun, he teaches djembe and dundun classes for adults and children throughout Herts, Beds and Bucks, as well as workshops for business and education. Running Beat Camp, a friendly drumming event near Bedford, Malcolm also performs regularly with Vitae Drummers, Secret Bass and The Naked Truth. He loves polyrhythms and thrives on syncopation.

[ Djembe and dun duns ]