Blind Will, thanks for your comments.

I look forward this exchange of information. You wrote that you have discussed call & response " elsewhere in musical discussion (on another site)". Would you please post that site name and URL?

Btw, here is that link that you gave at the end of your last post:
NPR: Barbershop Quartets

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Appreciating what you said, if I understood you correctly, I have some responses to specific comments you made in your last post.

You wrote:
"Different sources suggest that drums were rare amongst black Americans prior to the 20th Century, and quite often banned.Plus the fact that most of the black slaves that came to the United states came from the northern savanna's, and in this area of Africa drums were not as common."

-snip-
I'm not sure what you mean by the "northern savanna". Furthermore, my reading indicates that most of the African ancestors of Black Americans came from cultural areas that had rich drumming traditions.

See this excerpt from this article: MELT Press: Drums & The Origin Of Jazz

"Most of the slaves were taken from three main cultural regions: (1) the coastal rain forests of West Africa w ich includes the Yoruba, Ewe, Shanti, Fon, lbo and other Nigerian, Dahomeyan and Ghanaian tribes; (2) the savanna belt, which covers the coast of Guinea to the north of the Sudanese rainforest and includes largely Muslim groups such as the Wolof of what used to be called Senegambia, the Malinke of Guinea, the Haus and the Fulani of North Nigeria and surrounding areas, and the Mandigo, who cover as wide an area including Senegambia and what is now Sierra Leone; and (3) the Congo-Angolan area, populated largely by people of other language and culture groups, such as the Bantu. These group were into the Americas at different times, partly reflecting upheavals in Africa itself, much in the same manner that we are witnessing today with the influx of these same group into South Africa as a result of political and economic upheaval in the continent."
-snip-

Among other documentation of drum playing by enslaved African Americans, there is documentation of drumming in Congo Square in New Orleans.

See also this excerpt from that MELT Press article:

Besides the drums, other musical instruments and elements (marimbas, rhythm bells, maraccas and the role of the performer) made the Trans-Atlantic crossing. In 1775, in Georgia, US, slave-owners forbade drumming. lt was decreed by law that 'whatsoever master or overseer shall permit his slaves, at anytime hereafter, to beat drums, blow horns or other loud instruments, shall forfeit 30 shillings sterling for every such offence".

This edict was difficult to enforce and in 1811 legislators were still saying: "It is absolutely necessary to the safety of the province to retrain Negroes from using or keeping drums."

-snip-

See this website that shows photos of some West African drums:
West African Drums

Also see this excerpt about the Ngoma [drum] from Central Africa:
"Ngoma-General name for drum in Bantu language, this common term varies from central to southern Africa. In the Great Lakes area, for instance, "ingoma" means both "drum" and "kingdom".

When associated with festivities this drum becomes a dance instrument, but in ceremonies it is linked to royal or magical powers. Its form is generally conical or cylindrical, and can be played as an individual instrument or in an ensemble - sometimes with more than 25 players."
BBC Music..Echoes from Africa: Ngoma