SEATTLE’S GOT RHYTHM! (IT’S IN THE WATER)…

Two weekends ago Seattle was the scene of the World Rhythm Festival, sponsored by the Seattle World Percussion Society (SWPS or ‘swoops’). And what a scene it was, too, with the sound of drumming absolutely taking over Seattle Center, home of the famous Space Needle, in case you didn’t know. On the surface Seattle might be the last place you’d expect to see a percussion festival. I mean, it’s hardly a great center of salsa or Afro-beat. But that’s not the most important thing when you’re talking about drum circles and such. The most important thing is hipness, and Seattle is nothing if not hip, perhaps rivaled only by its little brother and little sister cities Portland and Vancouver. This is an area after all where local public radio still has a Grateful Dead hour (what year is this? 14AD?) and RatDog is heavy on the marquees with ‘The Dead’ not far behind. Apparently this is Ground Zero for drum circles and while I’m not sure what the connection is between hipness and drumming, Mickey Hart maybe, but most likely ‘the late great’ Babatunde Olatunje, I DO remember them at least as far back as the one Oregon Country Fair that I went to back in 1983 or so, and this is the sixteenth year for the SWPS event.

I don’t pretend to know all the ins and outs of the world of drum circles, but I do know they’re a lot of fun, and probably quite therapeutic for those of you stuck behind your desks all day every day, bless your hearts. Mine goes out to you, when I’m not jealous of you with your ‘real’ jobs and your kids and your lives. Arthur Hull is apparently the godfather of the official ‘movement’, complete with facilitator/practitioners, and he was there in full force, cutting up and hamming it up when he wasn’t actually mustering the troops into rhythm with drums and shakers and whatever instruments happened to be at hand. It seemed like everyone was carrying a drum, typically swathed in African cloth and slung over the shoulder for toting. Of course there were real live Africans there, too, in addition to other ethnicities, and this was the true value of the event, at least for me. These included Manimou Camara, Mapathe Diop and Modibo Traore (and that’s just the ‘M’ listings) representing most of the countries of Western Africa, which just so happens to be the most populous region of Africa and the mustering yard for the diaspora, of both forced slavery and Bantu expansion.

After Africa and African-style drumming, the other ethnicities and drumming styles represented included Latino (including Brazilian), Arab, Asian and good ol’ American. The levels of professionalism varied but in general were good, though in an open field like this there will always be some pretenders to thrones who do more invoking (of various spirits and gods) than evoking (of rhythm and movement), and some dancers more than willing to seize the opportunity to show off some pecs and ‘ceps just in case the moon is right and the mood is willing. But in general it was all good and fun, with highlights including didgeridoo playing, Japanese Taiko, and possibly my favorite, Egyptian dumbek featuring Raquy (pronounced ‘Rockie’) Danziger and her Cavemen. They get my Golden Finger award for sheer talent AND mixed origins. That lady has got some fingernails that mean business, and I don’t mean retail, and a no–nonsense approach that put some other flashier performers to shame.

Though broad swathes of the globe were represented, there was at least one glaring ethnic omission and a surprising one at that considering the Northwest’s political correctness- Native American, with some very respectable drumming of its own and chanting that not only carries a message with its medium but highlights the voice as a percussion instrument in a way rarely matched. In fact Native American drumming may be THE origin of the drum circle concept and is actually the first one I saw way back when in Portland, though I don’t think it was called that. There were also some gaps in the musical spectrum at both ends, percussive art and the most popular percussion instrument of all, the trap set used by every rock band from Seattle to Shanghai. As I found out last year in Buenos Aires and Montevideo respectively, not only can the traditional drum trap set can be a lead instrument in the right hands and the right jazz band, but there is a category of percussion that could hardly be considered drumming at all, and is best described as art. Marimba music falls somewhere between the two, music but not drumming, and was well represented by a group of kids known as the Shumba Youth Marimba Ensemble. You haven’t heard marimba until you’ve heard a half dozen of them together.

Yes, the festival was heavy on drum circle enthusiasm and enthusiasts and another side of that world was eventually revealed to me, drumming as a motivational technique. Arthur Hill himself doubles as a motivational speaker and others radiate the same self-centered glow. Maybe if everybody played drums, TOGETHER, then there would be no more war? It’s worth a try.