The ‘atenteben’ punching above its weight
This year’s Copenhagen Jazz Festival (Winter Edition) ended in Denmark on Sunday,(27-02-2022) and a regular feature at the programme over the last few years had been Danish saxophonist, Katrine Suwalski’s Another World band playing with Ghanaian atenteben (locally made bamboo flute) player, Dela Botri.
Suwalski and Botri have played together on other occasions in Ghana and the United Kingdom.
Each time, the atenteben played distinctive melodic phrases which evoked admiration, mainly because people don’t often expect that sort of fluency from the notched bamboo instrument.
The atenteben is a lightweight, affordable and easily available instrument that has made its presence strongly felt in contemporary music settings.
In boxing terms, one would say it is punching above its weight because it is engaged in an activity or contest perceived as being beyond its capabilities.
Use of atenteben
Nowadays, it is quite common to see the atenteben being employed in contemporary settings. It is often in full flight at several live music venues in the nation’s capital and other places across the country.
For instance, Kwesi Ansong has jammed on atenteben with his son, Richmond’s band at the Jamestown Boutique and other social engagements.
One can catch percussionist Vida Feehi Ofoli of the all-women Lipstick band doubling on atenteben with her group at the +233 Jazz Bar & Grill or see saxophonist Dela Jackson switching to atenteben from time to time with his Breeze band at the Fridays Club and other places.
The late Dr Ephraim Amu probably never guessed what contexts the atenteben would find itself decades after he transformed it from a transverse instrument into a vertical one. He worked hard to generally develop the instrument and its playing techniques.
The atenteben was one of the few local instruments for which a notated music tradition had already been established in the 1950s through Dr Amu’s pioneering work.
Other musicians who wrote music specifically for the atenteben included Prof. Ata Atta Annan Mensah and Prof. J. H. Nketia.
Atenteben classics
Compositions by Dr Amu such as ‘Prelude for Atenteben and Piano,’ ‘Pipes and Drums’, ‘Pipe Trio’ and ‘Miato Agblemaa’ as well as Prof.
Nketia’s pieces such as ‘Quartets No.1&2’, ‘Work Song’ and ‘Ananse Theme’ are now revered classics as far as atenteben music is concerned.
Another musician who paid serious attention to the atenteben was the late Nana Danso Abiam who founded the Pan-African Orchestra (PAO) in 1988.
As a researcher at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon in the late 1970s, Abiam carefully studied the instrument and came up with a manual titled ‘Abiam’s Atenteben Tutor – Grade One.’
In his research dissertation, Abiam formally laid out his findings in atenteben acoustics and introduced a new fingering technique that for the first time, transformed the atenteben from a heptatonic instrument to a chromatic type.