Lemony Webbles

day of drums

Today seemed like a local holiday to celebrate the drum and all of it's iterations around the world. Georgia, Maya and I enjoyed the powerful and really loud Chi-town Boys, a Native American drumming group that came down from Chicago for the day. They are in the midst of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Native American Center in Chicago, the oldest urban Center in the U.S. It was a very special event and I was really honored to be there. We liked it so much that we went to another performance they had later that afternoon at Krannert Performing Arts Center. They had a bunch of people up dancing at this one. It was really fun to watch, and Maya and I got up and danced with them a little before she got too shy in front of the big crowd that was there. When they were finished, we turned around, and there was another drumming performance that started immediately. This was a percussion professor, Rodrigo Florez (I think) and his World Percussion Ensemble (all of his students). He explained all the instruments in Cuban percussion and then played a 'Rhumba groove' for us. It was amazing and wonderful. The kids were clinging to me from the intensity of it all, so I had to sit still, but I was itching to get up and dance, dance, dance. It was such a great celebration of life and joy. Then the REST of his students got up there, and there were about twenty or thirty of them standing in a line, with all these Brazilian percussion instruments. He introduced them all and played a Samba for us, which he described as an 'infectious dance groove', and it was. It was also really loud. Georgia listened to the whole thing with her hands over her ears. It was SO impressive, and funny and playful, with so many different sounds, it was a whole orchestra of percussion. I enjoyed the feeling of being swept away in the huge waves of sound blasting away all thought, good or bad, from my head. And as if that weren't enough drum happenings for the day, next came Vinx, an eclectic drummer and singer (among other things) who is here for the weekend. He led a drum circle open to local drummers, so we had a little C-U action going there. It was very homey and comfortable, with the middle of the circle filled with little children dancing and running in circles to the beat. Or to their own beat. Georgia and Maya got in on the action this time, with Georgia leading Maya out to the dance floor and holding hands dancing around. I was so sorry not to have my camera!

(sigh) What a great day.