About Us

At Sewa Music, we are passionate about sharing the vibrant culture of West African Manding drumming, song, dance, education, and performance. Our journey began with a deep love for this rich musical tradition, and we have dedicated ourselves to preserving and promoting it.

Our team of experienced musicians and educators is here to guide you on a transformative musical adventure. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced musician, we offer a supportive and inspiring environment that will help you develop your skills and immerse yourself in the rhythms and melodies that define West African music.

With our educational programs, workshops, and performances, we aim to create a community of music lovers who appreciate the beauty and power of West African music. Join us on this rhythmic journey and discover the joy of Manding drumming, song, and dance.

Why Manding Music?

At Sewa Music we believe that Manding music, drumming and dancing binds and strengthens communities through joy and connection.Connecting with the community, the music, the instruments themselves,and of course connecting with yourself and your inner rhythm.

In Manding culture, music is woven through the fabric of communities. There are rhythms for every occasion. Fishing, Wedding, Initiation, Hunting, Welcoming, Farming, Courtship, Birth, Naming and many others. It is a participatory culture where everyone is involved. There is no stage, no fee to attend and everyone is in a giant circle. There are of course drummers, but there are women singing, everyone clapping and depending on the context, dancing too. The benefits are many:

  • As a drummer in this tradition one is working together with other people to create music and this creates a strong form of connection.

  • Drumming with others can release all four of the feel-good hormones. Dopamine, Serotonin, Oxytocin and Endorphins!

  • It can reduce stress, by reducing the production of cortisol and increasing the release of stress reducing neurotransmitters.

  • It can help healthy circulation by reducing blood pressure and stabilizing the heart rate.  

  • It can strengthen the immune system by triggering the production of gamma globulin A and killer cells.

Suffice to say drumming is like a superfood of activities!

Meet the Team

  • Raymond Burket

    PERCUSSIONIST–TEACHER

    Raymond discovered the djembe around 1995 and in 1996 he took his first workshop with Mamady Keita and found his teacher. In 1998 he met his other significant teacher, Monette Marino, who herself spent 20 years studying with Mamady, eventually marrying him and becoming his manager, assistant and partner.

    Raymond has spent several hundred hours studying, assisting and organizing with both Mamady and Monette, including two month-long trips to Guinea to study with Mamady in 2001 and 2005. He has also attended several workshops with Famoudou Konaté, Moussa “Bolokada” Conde, Mahiri Keita and others and continues his learning to this day with Bolokada and the community here in Port Townsend.

    Raymond has been teaching Manding drumming for over 20 years using the pedagogy he absorbed from Mamady and Monette. He’s also played for several dance classes and teachers including UCSD, Rancho La Puerta and now Port Townsend. He’s also dabbled in Taiko and Steel Pans and would love to work more on those when the opportunity arises!

  • Jeffree Clark

    PERCUSSIONIST–TEACHER–FACILITATOR

    Jeffree began playing West African Manding drumming in 2002. His first trip studying drumming in Guinea was in 2004 followed by trips in 2005 and in 2006. His most recent trip was in 2023 where he studied with Bolokada Conde.

    He has taken workshops with Wula drums in Pennsylvania featuring many great teachers from Guinea. His teachers include Bolokada Conde, Sekou Conde, Ousmane Sylla, Ousmane Camara, Manimou Camara, Abass Camara, Petite Mamady, and Milla Sylla. He also began studying the balafon during his recent trip to Guinea with his teacher Kahla Kamara.

    Locally here in Port Townsend for several years he plays for and organizes drummers for Rae Kala's West African Dance Class. In November of 2023, he organized (with a little help from Raymond) a series of drum and dance classes here in Jefferson County with Bolokada Conde, a renowned Djembefola (djembe player) from Guinea.

  • Rae Kala

    DANCER–TEACHER

    Youssouf Koumbassa and Moustapha Bangoura were my first teachers and inspiration to go to West Africa.

    I studied in Guinea and Mali for four months in 2000 and was fortunate to live and study in Guinea at the home of Hamidou Bangoura, former artistic director of Les Ballets Africains. My teachers there included Manana Cise, Moustapha Cise, Alseny Yansane and Sayon Camara. In Mali I studied with Djeneba Sako.

    Upon returning to Port Townsend, I began to teach in the community both in adult classes as well as public schools. I also produced workshops for African master teachers as they toured through the NW. After some time away from Port Townsend I returned in 2016 and have been teaching here ever since.

    I am deeply grateful to all of my teachers. Manana Case told me to bring these dances home and share them. She said:

    That it is a way to make peace in the world. If people dance our dances and know our stories, we are no longer strangers. And you can’t be afraid of something that you know. If we are ever in trouble, and need help, then you know us and may help.

    I am honored to carry out her wishes.