the blood drum spirit ensemble
performing in beijing, china
click here for our press kit
I perform in a number of musical groups in addition to my blood drum spirit ensemble. Among these are the Ancestors Community, David Bindman Ensemble, Hafez Modirzadeh’s Ensemble, Fred Ho's Afro-Asian Music Ensemble, Monkey Orchestra, Green Monster Big Band, and Afro-Asian Trio, Paul Austerlitz' Afro-Universal Jazz Merengue Ensemble, the creative arts jazz ensemble, Chester Smith's Organ Trio, and Gerry Grosz' Jazz Kitchen.
blood drum spirit
philippines jazz festival in manila philippines august 28 2011
blood drum spirit, led by percussionist royal hartigan, and featuring bassist Wes Brown, saxophonist David Bindman, and pianist Art Hirahara, is dedicated to performing original compositions and improvisations connected to world music traditions. The ensemble draws from African American/jazz musical traditions, integrating rhythms, songs, and approaches from West Africa, Asia, Native America, West Asia, and Europe. Musical connections go beyond technique, offering a window into the world's cultures; blood drum spirit sees music as an essential force, an alternative to the homogenization of culture in the marketplace. The group has built an original, exploratory, ever-growing body of work over 25 years, while acknowledging the complexity of the music itself and the apprenticeship and study required to communicate meaningfully in any given form. In their performances, the ensemble members invite the audience to 'sit up close'; the performances exist not in a vacuum but in close contact with people listening. Compositions are explained, both for their musical aspects (often audience members are invited to participate through singing melodies and clapping rhythms) and for their context: the meaning behind the titles and themes, including such issues as the historical and ongoing exploitation of people for profit, genocide, the environment, building a just world, and the inspiration and interconnectedness that motivates the musicians, providing context for the music and performance.
In 1981 drummer, pianist, and tap dancer royal hartigan, bassist Wes Brown, and saxophonist David Bindman met at Wesleyan University. hartigan was a graduate student in world music, Brown was working as a freelance musician living in Connecticut, and Bindman was attending Wesleyan as an undergraduate. hartigan, Brown, and Bindman helped create the sound and material for Talking Drums, the Ghanaian-American group founded by master drummers Abraham Kobena Adzenyah and Freeman Kwadzo Donkor, heard on their albums Talking Drums and Some Day Catch Some Day Down (Shanachie 1987), and on tour throughout the United States. Along with trombonist Bill Lowe, the three also formed the collective group Juba.
blood drum spirit adapts elements of world cultures into its music, including South Indian solkattu rhythms and tala (time cycles); Javanese gamelan structures and drum rhythms; Philippine kulintang ensemble instruments and timbres, Turkish usul and hand drum techniques; Gaelic bodhran rhythms, Native American songs; West African instruments, melodies, forms, and rhythms; African American clapping plays, camp meeting shouts, and New Orleans rhythms.
Some of the ensemble’s pieces employ 5, 7, 11, 15, 23, and 24-pulse time cycles, such as hartigan's arrangements of A Night in Tunisia, featuring an adapted Afro-Cuban rumba guaguanco in 7/8, Caravan, set in a 15/8 meter, and Invitation in 11/8. Double Trouble is a fast 7/8 blues. royal’s compositions and arrangements Asante Adowa, Wadsworth Falls, Dagbamba, Eve, Adzohu, and Anlo Kete employ traditional elements from West African music and dance, while the arrangements Papago-Saguaro Song and Navajo Blood/Pontoosuc Waters/Springside Lands are based on traditional Native American music, adapted into 23 and 11 pulse cycles, respectively. South Indian solkattu rhythmic structures are the foundation for Tala Vadyam in an 11-pulse tala and Gati Shadows Within in a 7-pulse tala. The Pilipinas suite uses kulintang instruments from the Maguindanao people of the southern Philippines and involves a 5/8 section derived from traditional tidtu playing style.
The group’s use of time cycles is from a cultural feel and sound rather than a mathematical technique. David Bindman contributes the multi-movement compositions Threads, High Definition Truth, Crisis in (Now's the) Time, Shape 1, Song for Englewood, Robeson House Echoes, Shape 3, and the ballad Song for Your Return that explore many aspects of time, tonality, timbre, and form. Pianist Art Hirahara shares his reflective Peace, Unknown and Wes Brown his work, Form. Their recorded pieces are all extended performances, as experienced in a concert. The recent double CD blood drum spirit: the royal hartigan ensemble live in china was recorded on the group's third tour in China, and includes an arrangement of the Chinese traditional melody Flowing Stream joined with Charles Mingus’ Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. From festivals, concerts, and conservatory workshops in Beijing to concerts and club performances in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Shanghai, the band has received warm and enthusiastic welcomes on each trip to China. In June 2008, the ensemble toured in China for the fourth time.
Our music is a vehicle to express the spirit of the African American heritage and the musics of the world, who we are, and what we have been given from our ancestors.
Education
In the spirit of hartigan's U. S. Peace Corps service, numerous research and performance grants for work in Africa and Asia, a J. William Fulbright residency in the Philippines in 2006, and an Asian Cultural Council research grant for the Philippines in 2009, the ensemble members feel a responsibility to live and share our music with people over a period of time, learning from others as well as giving. We offer residencies that include master classes, ensemble rehearsals, lecture-demonstrations, individual lessons, workshops, and concerts. Part of blood drum spirit's mission is educational, as Dr. royal hartigan is a professor in world music at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and we all bring our collective teaching, musical, and life experiences to residencies and performances. The ensemble offers workshops for music and non-music students alike in West African drumming, song, and dance, Indian time cycles, original rhythmic concepts and practice, African American music, and jazz history and styles. World music workshops often include master artists from global cultures. For music students topics include the details of performance, improvisation, and composition, fostering growth and insight, and encouraging people to make music that is connected to and expresses their realities.
Colleagues
In addition to David, Wes, and Art, I am honored to know many creative artists who inspire my life and music. These are some of the musicians and dancers who are part of our musical family.
