gdead.berkeley.edu/gdead.berkeley.edu.tar/gdead.berkeley.edu/pub/gdead/interviews/Planet-Drum_Fall-1998

Text File | 1998-11-10 | 8KB | 190 lines

 the following is an interview from CPR:  Chicago Percussion and Rhythm.

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 this was reprinted with permission from the author and publisher.

 chicago Percussion and Rhythm
 916 West Carmen
 Chicago, IL  60640
 email:  [e-mail]

 Please include the above in all copies of this interview.


 Planet Drum Introduction
 Terry Reimer

 Four musicians from completely different backgrounds bring their rhythms
 to the mix with Mickey Hart for Planet Drum.  Giovanni Hidalgo,
 recognized world leader on congas, also plays bongos, timbales, cowbells
 and cymbals. Zakir Hussain is the master on tablas and also plays small
 Indian drums, clay pots and metal percussion.  Sikiru Adepoju brings the
 African dundun (a variable pitched talking drum) to life, along with the
 gudugudu, a high-pitched, double membrane frame drum.  David Garibaldi
 drives the backbeat on his Yamaha kit. Combining old rhythms and
 instruments with new, they bring a whole new rhythmic voice to our
 planet.

 Planet Drum Interview
 Terry Reimer and Fred Leavitt
 Giovanni Hidalgo, Zakir Hussain, David Garibaldi and Sikiru Adepoju
 Interviewed by Terry Reimer and Fred Leavitt

 CPR: So, what's it like for the four of you traveling together on the
 same bus?

 Hussain: It's a source of immense joy to hang out with these guys! It's
 a meaningful learning experience and great fun. Some moments on the bus
 have  been more incredible than what happens on stage.

 Hidalgo: This is the new Planet Drum, a new group. We've developed
 different patterns. There are so many ideas and great musicians around
 me, including  RAMU. RAMU is a great guy. (RAMU is Mickey Harts
 sampler, the Random Access Musical Universe.)

 Hussain: RAMU has so many things inside. It can be many people,
 traditions and roots at the same time. We build stuff around RAMU. We
 have an outline of what pieces might be like, but we're all open to
 input on stage.

 Garibaldi: Yes, I agree. Even though we're limited to one hour sets. I
 remember in San Francisco, we did two, two-hour shows at the Philmore.
 There was  lots of improvisation. This is slightly less expansive, but
 it does happen.

 Hidalgo: The great thing is that whoever comes to Planet Drum for the
 first  time feels a good vibration. We're like family, brothers, joking
 in all the ways.

 Adepoju: I am enjoying the ride!

 CPR: You each come from a different tradition. Do you find that you
 learn  about each other's culture as you spend time together?

 Hussain: What we're doing musically and rhythmically together, that is
 the  yoga, that is the meditation. It's the connection. You find out a
 lot about  someone when they express themselves as unabashedly as
 possible. For a  drummer, there is no other way to express oneself so
 clearly as through  rhythms. You get to know the whole human being.

 Adepoju: The amazing thing about being here is that you leave yourself
 open. I  listen to Zakir, David, Giovanni, and don't remember what I
 played, and I  don't want to.

 Hussain: The eyes tell you what's coming. We see each other when we
 play. When  Giovanni looks at me like this, I know what he means. It
 comes from working  and living together and understanding each other.

 Hidalgo: If everything is good for David, he just has to look around
 and  smile.

 CPR: How do the different kinds of drums affect you spiritually?

 Hidalgo: We work with all the elements; air, fire, water. We deal with
 different skins. For example, we have a 6" by 3" Kanjira from India, of
 snake skin. Each sound is so different, so beautiful.

 Hussain: Every drum, its thickness, weight and origin affect your mind.
 Instruments are entities. We're taught to respect them. They are a live
 energy and they respond to you. They are going to affect you. You will
 be in a very high  state of mind. Spirituality is not separate from what
 you're doing as a drummer.

 Hidalgo: The way you transport to it, it's a trance. You may have a
 great  idea, but do we really know what is our spirit? Do we know what
 is God? We  have to respect the skins. The drum goes
 beyond. The first place I'm going to  go is spirituality, the
 ultra-dimension, 'cause that's- "boom ka chi ka chi"-You move that and
 you got it.

 CPR: You said that music comes up behind you, you look around and it's
 there.

 Hidalgo: It's happened to me. I'm in the house alone, I look and no
 body's there.  Sometimes you feel the hair on your neck. You have to
 deal with the energies.

 Hussain: The concept of "this is spiritual drumming. We're going to get
 into a trance." I don't think one conditions oneself for that. I think
 it's  something totally built-in. When it's coming from the heart, it's
 totally  spiritual. The Gods all over the Universe have chosen you at a
 particular  moment to be the carrier. That's all there is. You're not
 chosen every day.

 CPR: And you work for it. How do you practice here?

 Hussain: Yes, you put in the effort.

 Hidalgo: You can be the best in the world, but if you don't practice, it
 goes  away.

 Garibaldi: Every day we play together, on the table, anywhere. It's
 very  valuable.

 Hidalgo: We say, Kunjani! (How're you doing?) Yebo! (Good!)

 Adepoju: Again, of spirit...There are too many spirits. You can't
 separate all  of it. We talk of the skin, the drum, playing; the stick
 has its own spirit.  If it's a new spirit in the tree, it's not going to
 be silent. There is  spirituality in the skin, the drum, the person
 playing it and the person who  made too many spirits. But when you
 get here, there's only one spirit.

 Hussain: My teacher, when he came from the dressing room or green room,
 before  he went on stage, he said, "Let's see what the drum will say
 today."

 CPR: Do you feel it's the same with electronic equipment?

 Hidalgo: No, no, no...

 Hussain: Whatever's coming through is still the human being.

 Hidalgo: No way.

 Adepoju: The real drum, you have to go by the weather. The electronic
 instrument you play any time.

 Hidalgo: If you say it's good, but electronics are not the same as with
 acoustic or the natural thing, but on the other side, you can be
 playing  tablas for example, program other sounds, and you can be like
 ten guys, boom, boom, boom.

 Hussain: My point is that it's still ten GUYS, still human beings who
 communicate, whatever the medium.

 CPR: Does spirituality feed you, through whatever medium you use?

 Hussain: The response of the medium feeds you. When playing an
 instrument in a  concert setting, the drum and the whole environment
 responds to you. Everything around you is the sacred space.

 Hidalgo: The tabla says, "Give me some more."

 Hussain: If the drum is hit right, the audience will say, "Yea!" That's
 a  different response. It all feeds you.

 Hidalgo: We are messengers. We have to complete our mission in this life
 and  then three more lives are going to come.

 Adepoju: We are messengers, but we are also students of the world.

 Garibaldi: I feel like a student more. (All agree.)

 Hussain: I've learned more in the last four or five weeks about
 traditions and  roots than I would have learned sitting at home reading
 ten books. It's just  amazing.

 CPR: Are there any books or videos of Planet Drum in the making?

 Hidalgo: Eventually we are going to make them. If we don't do it, how
 are others going to learn? It's our love.

 Garibaldi: What we're going to be is yet to be. We're new. This is our
 first  time playing together. Last summer, it was in a different
 context. Now we'll  continue beyond, explore the depths of what this is.

 All together: Kunjani! Yebo!