The Growth Of Drumcultures

There is so much drumming and drumming related stuff going on in Toronto these days. Recently I was at Firedance down at The Blue Moon and had a blast time just free drummin'. Also, a few weeks ago, I did a little drummin' at The Wreck Room - the place is remodeled so that there is more room to move. Then there are drumming courses with in the authentic Guinea style with Mohamed Diaby at Bavia Arts. Drum Visionary Muhtadi Thomas runs his Saturday classes down at the Wellesley Community Center. African Drums and Arts Crafts is always a happening place, there Saikou can get you hooked up with a fine djembe or some wonderful craft objects, like masks or unities. In terms of performance groups we have Ijo Vudu, Coba, and Ngoma. At York there is Patrick Parsons and Anna Melnikoff. Further we have groups such as Samba Squad and Samba Elegua. For large events that promote drumming there is the Muhtadi International Drumming Center and Afrofest. Then there is the whole corporate scene where companies pull in drummers from the city to help animate their events and do things like team building. You got tassa drummers, Taiko Drummers and kung fu dragon drummers! Coming up we find Uma Nota has migrated from a one-off party to a festival taking place at several venues. And coming in the summer of 2012 the first Drumcultures International Film Festival (DIFF)! Alpha Rhythm Roots, got you in check! Of course there are a number of significant drumming scenes and mirco scenes that I did not mention here. I'll get to you next time. But  Toronto has become a really hot place for drumming. There is so much to choose from! You want free style? You got it. You want authentic? You got it! Whatever you want or need rhythm-wise you can get it in this city. We're drumming our way towards becoming a rhythm Mecca. Stuff is just cookin' up in here! This beautiful thing is just getting stronger and deeper as time goes on. Its exciting to see the whole scene stepping up a notch or two or more! Go Drumcultures!

Notes on Drumculture

I haven't been in these parts since late September, that just tells you what a busy busy busy month October was. My birthday and that of several other wonderful Librans drew away all my blog power. :-)

Out free drummin' with Cavan Young and Rick Monaco last night at the Blue Moon down on Queen East. That was a good turnout of folks and a lotta fun. Nice bass with Paul H. Bigs to the easy flowing dancers. Everybody was nice and easy. I think it had to do with that little table with candles at the center of the proceedings. Ya gotta watch that thing! >:-l - It was a full moon too. As we entered the Blue Moon this tall rocker guy commented, "Oh yeah, Keith Richards and The Stones!" Well, we did rock in our own way.

Yesterday a friend dropped over and I screened BRILLIANT MOON a lovely documentary about the life of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, a great Tibetan holy man. Its narrated by Richard Gere - that Hollywood Guy - and Lou Reed - his froggy croak was in there somewhere. My friend, who is a Western Tibetan Buddhist, was, of course, transported into Bliss Consciousness for a bit there. She took out her camera and started to take pictures of the screen. Where I almost lost it was where Khyentse Rinpoche blessed an elderly limping man. Compassion. That got me a bit  verklempt. This was my second viewing. Its a film worth watching several times, not so much for form, but for content. Another section that got me was where Khyentse Rinpoche gives a long speech on the importance of a calm mind, then mugs with a smile for the camera. Truly, East meets West.

I've been doing a fair amount of zazen lately influenced by my reading of the works of Roshi Shunryu Suzuki. Chill Out.

Leone Stars Win!

Check out Leone Stars here ... http://leonestars.blogspot.com/

I'm going to be interviewing Alan Tong and Ngarey Conteh co-directors of Leone Stars for Drumcultures. A week ago I was just talking to my friend Kobe Aquaa-Harrison when he mentioned in passing a film he was involved with. I didn't pay it much mind, but through a series of chance occurrences I ended up sitting directly behind  Alan Tong at an event at Cine Cycle this past Saturday night. Alan got up and showed a clip from Leone Stars. It was amazing. Suddenly I've found myself plunged into the world of Leone Stars. They won the pitch competition at this year's TIFF and they're gearing up for another visit to Africa to get the material that will bring this film to completion. There is a real feeling of excitement with this project. They ask the question, Can a victim be a champion? Of course the answer to that is HELL YES!!! I hope you contribute to this plucky documentary!

Quick Review WHITE ON RICE - Reel Asian Film Festival

Lets me be perfectly clear. Up until last night I was not a big fan of comedies! I have unconsciously held comedies on a lower rung than serious movies -- like anything by Bergman, or Tarkovski, or Kubrick. You get the idea. The Canon. Even where I have seen excellent comedy, say, the classic works of Monty Python, I've never felt that they were as great as stuff that deals with - insert deep music here - "The Soul". This is to say my view was conventional. But things have changed. They changed last night most emphatically. I serendipitously happened to upon Dave Boyle's 2009 film White On Rice as a freebee at the Toronto Underground Cinema. It stars the amazing Hiroshi Watanabe in a fast pace comedy of errors that had me in stitches from start to finish. Some of the gags were so poignant and hilarious that I was still in whole body spasms even as the film plunged into the next explosion of absurdity. Okay, so we have Watanabe with that wonderful soft clown face of his and the brilliant comic timing like the prow of the whole undertaking, but then there are the other actors who are also strong, then the bit players who appear in a scene or two - the geology professor is just insane with it -, who bring so much vitality to the film to take the whole thing over the top! Sitcom tropes and down right movie cliches - you will howl with the cadillac roaring across town to take the dad to the hospital - all seem to spring to life in this film. Also cross cultural critiques fly quick with deadly accuracy. Even down to the last minute of this film, the last scene, you can still get howlage out of Watanabe's Jimmy as he rides off into the sunset with his new girlfriend. He enthuses, "Thanks for the ride to Montana, I don't have my license any more!" None of the set ups are new - we know the old 'fish out of water' schtick - but what feels great or fresh is a level of comedic prana that jacks this movie up, way up! Does this sound like a rave? LOL. I don't know who this guy Dave Boyle is - any relation to Peter Boyle? - but he's killer funny! I think he has changed the way I see movies. Also, this film was my introduction to the Reel Asian Film Festival. What an introduction! Will I be a fan going forward? I think so! You could probably get White On Rice at your local video rental or on Netflix or something. Google White On Rice for the trailer. Later. 

John T Davis at the M-100 Organ

In the zone things shine forth in their keen presence and time reveals its mystery face...

The Entrance

Out of the non-descript subway entrance wavelets of people emerged onto the back street. It led to another part of town that you don't see on t.v. except, of course, when something unusual happens.

Pre Hispanic Dancers

Though they were part of the street fair and dressed colorfully and danced, their agenda was different. They were honoring the traditions of people who lived - and still live - in the "Americas" - i.e. Turtle Island - before they were "discovered"...