Gravel Springs Fife and Drum

Othar Turner, a fife-maker and musician, owns his farm in the Gravel Springs community in northwest Mississippi. The rhythmical music he and his friends play is called "fife and drum." A 1971 film by Bill Ferris, Judy Peiser, and David Evans from the Center for Southern Folklore.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• fife
• drum
• mississippi
• african
• Othar
• Turner
• folkstreams
• folkstreamer

[mdinka]

african style

drumming

youtube.com/watch?v=Q43EEaxXYs­A

playing the flute

youtube.com/watch?v=bPHNeLrtSS­Y

sad to see that african heritage in north america will be lost in a couple of years

[bootlegpreacher]

Othar Turner poured me a shot of Jim Beam from his bottle once. He was up dancing at 2am at Wild Bill's in Memphis. he was 94 years old at the time.

[crowamonghens]

so far the towns i've identified that he mentions are: water valley, aquilla, holly springs, chulahoma, looxahoma, tillatoba, senatobia, (???), como and (???).

[betsarama]

Loved it, enjoyed the educational comment. Thank you!

[FuzzyCabesas]

Very interesting footage. Thank you folkstreamer and thank you flaco!

[franczke]

They sell a video at the site - but it's only 10 minutes, no longer than this clip! Hope the rest of the footage isn't lost. This is incredibly rare and vital footage of one of the giants of North Mississippi Hill Country Blues/Fife and Drum. Documentation on this, perhaps the oldest form of African music in North America is incredibly scarce. Deddicated fans of Afro-Peruvian and Afro-Colombian music will really appreciate the instrumentation: just African-derived drums with woodwinds.

[CultureKeeper]

EXCELLENT