park theatre gig

photo by e. comack

Here I am onstage playing my djembe. I love this drum and I play it a lot.
In order to play an authentic West African djembe, one needs to develop a relationship with it. It needs constant tuning and care. Over time, one becomes sensitive to how it behaves in certain types of weather and humidity.
My djembe came from Guinea. The shell is made from a hollowed-out tree trunk from a cashew tree. Someone in Guinea hollowed it out by hand. The wood is a beautiful deep reddish colour, and is very dense and resonant.

I became interested in African music in 1981 when I heard three albums... Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians", Talking Heads' "Remain in Light" and David Byrne and Brian Eno's "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts". I was instantly hooked. I began scouring libraries and ordering African records by mail from New York and California. (It was very hard to find back then.)
In 2002 I started studying West African Malinke drumming. And I haven't turned back since then. This music literally changed the direction of my life, and continues to bring me riches - beyond measure.