Teasley-The Drum: Ancient Traditions Today (VHS) - Product Information
"Percussionist-keyboardist-composer Tom Teasley is a native of Washington DC whose career has ranged from solo percussion forays to his ongoing collaboration with vocalist-wordist Charles Williams (Check out their video "Poetry, Prose, Percussion and Song" from this series) to a variety of jazz ensembles, to teaching percussion at American University, University of the District of Columbia and the Levine School of Music. His two CD releases, Time Travel, and Balancing Act have both met with widespread acclaim.
For this session Teasley employs a wide array of pan cultural percussion tools ancient to the future, from the simplicity of his various shakers, frame and clay hand drums to the modern technology of the Malletkat. Throughout this extremely user friendly demonstration of cross-cultural rhythmic landscapes, Teasley takes the viewer/listener on a journey that ranges from ancient Africa to the Indian sub-continent to the Orient to the West: one piece even humorously engages a marriage of electric bass guitarist Bootsy Collins and Igor Stravinsky, a matrimony which neatly intersects at Eddie Harris' classic "Freedom Jazz Dance"!
Teasley, the percussionist-storyteller, integrates these seemingly disparate rhythmic traditions with an engaging aplomb and loose-limbed technique that is both instructive, informative and entertaining. Case in point is the sequence wherein he illustrates his use of a shaker in his left hand, trap drums with his right, demonstrating the naturally integrated aural landscapes of the shaker and the hi-hat cymbal. He further depicts how this dual action brings a natural fluidity, the hand engaging the shaker lending a logical sense of gravity to his expression, with the digitally-triggered, melodic underpinning of Thelonious Monk's "Well You Needn't" as a source material. Teasley does it all with a palpable joy, all the while conveying valuable and often innovative musical information." - (Willard Jenkins)
For this session Teasley employs a wide array of pan cultural percussion tools ancient to the future, from the simplicity of his various shakers, frame and clay hand drums to the modern technology of the Malletkat. Throughout this extremely user friendly demonstration of cross-cultural rhythmic landscapes, Teasley takes the viewer/listener on a journey that ranges from ancient Africa to the Indian sub-continent to the Orient to the West: one piece even humorously engages a marriage of electric bass guitarist Bootsy Collins and Igor Stravinsky, a matrimony which neatly intersects at Eddie Harris' classic "Freedom Jazz Dance"!
Teasley, the percussionist-storyteller, integrates these seemingly disparate rhythmic traditions with an engaging aplomb and loose-limbed technique that is both instructive, informative and entertaining. Case in point is the sequence wherein he illustrates his use of a shaker in his left hand, trap drums with his right, demonstrating the naturally integrated aural landscapes of the shaker and the hi-hat cymbal. He further depicts how this dual action brings a natural fluidity, the hand engaging the shaker lending a logical sense of gravity to his expression, with the digitally-triggered, melodic underpinning of Thelonious Monk's "Well You Needn't" as a source material. Teasley does it all with a palpable joy, all the while conveying valuable and often innovative musical information." - (Willard Jenkins)
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