On 125^th Street near the Metro-North Harlem stop, I hear a hefty thumping. Towards the end of the block, it grows into a discernible rhythm over the Harlem traffic. That is the Saturday drum circle in Marcus Garvey Memorial Park, which has ferociously beaten out rhythms since 1969.

Babakhunne, dressed in a yellow dashiki and matching kufi, speaks close to my ear over the rhythmic sounds behind us. He started the drum circle nearly 40 years ago on April 26^th , after arriving in the states. “People was just in the park,” he tells me, “and I just started grouping them.” At 72, he no longer plays as much as he used to, but still presides silently over the event, absorbing the music and gazing into the crowd of dedicated and new drummers, young and old immigrants, Harlem born New Yorkers, and commuters just passing through the area.

When I ask Babakhunne why he started drumming, he says, “It was in me.”  Barbara from E 120^th Street, a white woman standing behind some benches and clacking sticks together, replies happily, “It puts me in this completely peaceful trance.” Dwayne from the Bronx contemplates a moment before responding, “There’s a connection with music in everybody.”  

Drum circles in general hold an important part in jazz. In fact, they represent the origin of jazz: while each drummer beats out a different rhythm, the whole circle creates ‘polyrhythm,’ a number of overlapping single rhythms. This idea was carried over from Africa hundreds of years ago, and is one the foundational elements of all jazz.

Back in the day, the circle would gather amidst filth and crime to drop their cultural anchor. Nowadays, conditions in Marcus Garvey park have vastly improved. Some residents credit the circle with helping to improve the area by providing a safe haven of sound for peaceful and constructive community gatherings. But not everyone is equally enthusiastic.

Forty yards from the circle’s now official site (as designated by a Parks Department plaque) is 2002 5^th Ave, a luxury co-op full of young urban, mostly white professionals who find the booming drum blasts a serious nuisance. A resident was quoted by the NY Times as saying “No one told me there would be unremitting noise every Saturday for the rest of my life.”

The resident complaints highlight the gentrification problems in New York, where constantly fluctuating communities tend to disrupt tradition and neighborhood ties. The drummers have moved within the park before, both of their own volition and due to Parks Department regulations.

Story by Joshua Fishbein. Igor Kossov contributed reporting. Photo by James Nova.