I am a percussionist and educator. I started as a self-taught guitar player when I was 13, learning by ear and playing for many years in amateur and professional rock bands. For a while in the 1990s, I was studying for my PhD in History, focussing on African and African American culture and experience. I taught for the Departments of History, African and Afro-American Studies, Music, and Performing Arts at Washington University for eight years. Self-taught as a classroom teacher at the college level, I earned several awards and fellowships during my graduate student career. It was during those years that I began seriously to study djembe drumming. After a series of setbacks in my personal life, I reoriented my career to music. I realized that the people I needed to reach were outside of the university. So I left the Ph.D. track behind and started teaching and performing African drumming to elementary school children and to adults. I have been very privileged to be able to study the rhythmic arts of Africa, and my goal has been to repay some of that debt by sharing what I know of the beauty and sophistocation of African culture to American audiences. I hope to leave my students with some idea of the great influence African people have had on creating American culture.
I began studying djembe in 1992 and have since had the honor of studying and performing with many master drummers and dancers from Africa. I started working as a dance accompanist in the mid-1990s with the help of my friend and mentor, Henry Claude, and in 1999 began accompanying master African dancer Diadie Bathily, with whom I am working to this day. I made the complete transition to a career as a full-time musician in 2000, after a study trip to Cote d'Ivoire. Currently I accompany dance classes by Diadie and by Karol Ababa. I am extending my research on traditional African drumming into Afro-Cuban bata music, the sacred rhythms of the Yoruba people to honor the Orishas.
I perform with world music group Nuclear Percussion Ensemble. NPE were featured as special guests of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at their annual Percussion Explosions concert at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on March 20, 2007. We are preparing a DVD of that concert for release in the fall of 2007. NPE is represented by TalentPlus Spotlight Entertainment Group and by Springboard to Learning/Young Audiences. We published a CD of our drum and mallet tunes entitled, N.P.E. See our MySpace page for more info: myspace.com/nuclearpercussionensemble.
Dance accompaniment has been my main focus as a percussionist since I began in the early 1990s. Within the last two years, I have begun accompanying belly dancers on dumbek. It has been a real joy expanding my vocabulary into the realm of Arab percussion music. That, along with the Mandeng djembe drumming I do, has given me a unique perspective on the cultural lives of Muslim people. I think it's especially important to share with audiences that the awesome groove music that we play originates from Muslim people, and that the Muslims I have met are among the gentlest, sweetest, most spiritual people I have ever encountered. It is my belief that art is the means to demonstrate a vision of the world as it could be: filled with beauty, respect, harmony, and peaceful power. I bow my head in respect to the drumming masters from Africa, Cuba, and the Middle East who have initiated and guided my career.
I perform with rock band Madahoochi, who you can catch every Monday at night at Cicero's in the U. City Loop. Madahoochi is St. Louis's top original rock band, winners of the Riverfront Times' Reader's Poll as Best Jam Band three years running! I play djembe and congas for them, and have been on their last two CDs, In Fantastic Stereo and Live in the Loop. We performed at the 10,000 Lakes Festival in Minnesota on July 21, 2007 and had a blast! Madahoochi is also preparing a DVD of the CD release concert for Live in the Loop at The Pageant, which we plan to release by the end of 2007.
I also work with Metro Theater Company of St. Louis as performing musician, composer, and actor. I am the composer for Stix & Stonz, a play by Nicholas Kryah, Metro's Artist-in-Residence. We have now performed Stix & Stonz in public over 90 times, including a special guest appearance at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Just recently, I composed music for Metro's new touring production: New Kid, and recorded bass, guitars, and drumset on the version which is currently out on tour. We are planning on touring Stix to schools throughout the St. Louis area again next year. See Metro's web page about Stix & Stonz at: http://www.metrotheatercompany.org/booking.htmStix.
I am represented by Young Audiences of St. Louis, who book me into schools for workshops, performances, and residencies. In my work through YA in elementary schools, I created a music program called Soundscape Adventures, in which I teach children all about making sound effects, found object music, the physics of sound, and professional sound recording and editing techniques using my laptop and Digidesign's ProTools system. My teaching of elementary school children is also supported by the Metro South Arts Council and my good friend Ed Grooms, Performing Arts Coordinator for the Webster Groves, MO, school district.
2006 was my first year as Music Director for Circus Harmony, St. Louis's professional children's circus. Each year, we hold a gala event to benefit the Circusday Foundation, which provides professional training in circus arts to St. Louis youth. As Music Director, I develop repertoire, hire musicians, and conduct the band, as well as perform myself on drums, marimba, and guitar. I trained a group of the circus kids to play some traditional West African drum orchestra pieces, which we performed in last year's shows. This year, our events will happen once again at City Museum on November 16, 17, & 18. Stay tuned for more info!
Currently, I'm learning how to play Chapman Stick, an amazing futuristic tap-guitar instrument. Thanks to Emmett Chapman, Tony Levin, and Greg Howard for piqueing my interest and getting me started on Stick! I am working to integrate the Stick into Nuclear Percussion Ensemble's music. I had my public debut in on Stick with NPE at the Shakespeare Festival St. Louis this last summer.
I am very blessed to be doing what I have always dreamed of and what I love best: playing music and working with children!!
My MySpace page was designed by my wonderful wife, Sarah!
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