Seattle World Rhythm Festival 2003
A charismatic conductor takes the stage. He scans the audience with his arms uplifted. But rather than becoming quiet, the audience starts to bustle, they start making noise. The conductor isn't leading a symphony, he's leading the audience. And like some bizarre role reversal, it is the audience who has come donned with sundry instruments expecting to be more than passive spectators. The conductor is Arthur Hull, author, speaker and drum circle facilitator who travels the country sharing his love of the communal drumming experience. Arthur leads the group through a sort of ritual of coordinated drumming, triggered by his gestures, attuning the audience to be synchronized and attentive to subtleties within the group dynamic and the varied timbres of instruments present in the audience.

This is the start of the eleventh annual World Rhythm Festival in Seattle. Arthur comments that it is the largest free annual rhythm festival in the country. Drummers of a variety of world percussion styles gather in Seattle to give free performances and workshops for the public. For those interested in learning an unfamiliar drum style for the first time, the three-day festival offers a smorgasboard of variety with demonstrations from nearly all continents. (There were no delegates from Antarctica or Australia.)

The first night's performance was dedicated to the beloved pioneer of African drumming Babatunde Olatunji who passed away this year. The concert featured a medley of Olatunji songs followed by performance of Cuban Conga by Carolyn Brandy, Senegalese Djembe and Sabar by Ibrahima Camara, Brazilian Samba by Eduardo Menonca, Senegalese Bougarabou trance drumming by Niles Urry, and even body drumming by the human drum Keith Terry.

The second and third day of the festival were packed with workshops in the Center House facility of the Seattle Center focused on techniques of the different world drumming styles, philosophy of rhythm and group leading techniques and even workshops on body rhythm and rhythmic chanting. After the workshops hundreds of drummers gathered on the lawn by the international fountain creating hours-long mosaics of rhythm under the towering presence of the Seattle Space Needle.

Keep abreast of plans for next year's festival by visiting www.swps.org and support the festival by becoming a member.

Sponsors include: Remo, John's Music - Exotic Drums Winds & Strings, Mountain Rhythm - Handcrafted Percussion Instruments, Pearl, TOCA Percussion and LP.

Seattle World Percussion Society

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