Review of the Global Drum Project at UCLA
It was a percussion aficionado’s dream when the stage of UCLA’s Royce Hall filled with the Global Drum Project. Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart and tabla master Zakir Hussain were joined by Puerto Rican percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo and Nigerian drummer Sikiru Adepoju. Knowing the experience and historical significance of these musicians, the audience sat at the edge of their seats anticipating a steller performance. If anything, our expectations were exceeded.
The two icons, Mickey Hart and Zakir Hussain, share a 33-year musical history through their passion for world percussion and bringing together masters from around the world. Hart founded the Global Drum Project to collect a percussion dream team of musicians, who Hart called “deities in their own cultures.”
The dream team approached an endless sea of instruments on stage that waited patiently to be played. Hussain, Hidalgo and Adepoju unleashed practices, rhythms and classical traditions that have been part of their cultures for centuries. Their organic melodies blended harmoniously with sophisticated digital processors which they used to overdub and create layers of psychedelic sounds in real time, providing additional texture.
On a personal note, I was immersed in delight. I had witnessed Hart’s stellar “Drumz” performances at Dead shows (which were long breaks for Jerry Garcia) and I was also familiar with Hussain. But it wasn’t long before the show expanded beyond my conditioned expectations to provide new definitions for what the human body can do with an instrument. Hart provided the backbeat to the others, who feverishly beat on the instruments with hands, wrists, elbows…whatever they could to diversify and mutate the sound. They gave the instruments voice, in particularly powerful moments, Hidalgo and Adepoju mimicked Hussain’s vocals with their congas and an African talking drum. The interplay of musicians continued with uninterrupted sync and precision to wild extravagant crescendo.
Lost in time and space, there was nowhere to go but inside the drumbeats where the sounds rose and fell, pushing faster and dropping slower, before falling into minimalism, all the while drawing us in so we felt the music vibrate in our bones. The standing ovations did not do the performance justice, nor do these words. Global Drum is all about the living percussive beat.
When not sitting at her computer writing, jamming in the SoCal music scene, or practicing Yoga, Lori Denman is frequently seen on a surfboard, inhaling the salt air, and riding the waves.