Saturday, March 13, 1pm ET, noon Central USA (7pm Central Euro TIme)
ZOOM: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81099181121
Meeting ID: 810 9918 1121
There is archaeological evidence from the Paleolithic era of an animal skin stretched over a hollow log that suggests humans were using drums at least 35,000 years ago. However, the drum kit is a new invention, haphazardly coming together out of necessity around 1890. It’s a distinctly American instrument, a hodgepodge of a contraption (for most of its existence it has been called a “trap kit”, short for contraption), bringing together influences from the plethora of new immigrants that were flooding into America at the time. New Orleans was the epicenter of the new music of Ragtime, Blues and Jazz and the trap kit was the pulse of it all. Those early days drummers experimented heavily with different configurations of this new instrument, adding cymbals from Turkey, Tom Tom’s and Buddhist temple blocks from China, snares from Europe, bass drums from Western Asia and various rattles, shakers, etc. from Africa as well as pillaging through tool sheds and barns for whatever else would work like sandpaper, anvils, bike horns, alarm bells, cowbells and woodblocks. It’s a truly global mash-up! Drummers used all of these things to create new rhythms for new music, a succinct version of the percussion ensembles from West Africa.
I like to reflect on this history every time I scratch together a new contraption of my own from the mess that is laying about my studio. For this livestream I have created four pieces for my (current) version of a trap kit that in addition to percussion and found objects from around the world also includes homemade inventions by Matt Christensen and Tim Kaiser as well as "prepared" acoustic guitar and looping pedal.
This performance is hosted by Chad Grabner in Germany on the Zoom platform.
