James Owen Sullivan, drummer for Avenged Sevenfold, dead

James Owen Sullivan, the drummer for the Huntington Beach rock band Avenged Sevenfold, died Monday, Orange County authorities said.

Sullivan, 28, of Huntington Beach, also performed as a backup vocalist for the group of trained multi-instrumental musicians with classical influences, which formed in 1999.“The cause of death is still under investigation,” said Deputy Coroner Mitchell Sigal. “An autopsy has been scheduled.”

Sullivan was discovered "unresponsive" in his Huntington Beach home at 11 a.m., authorities said.

News of the musician's death prompted many messages of condolence on the band’s Internet fan sites.

The group, which blended melodic hard rock with the emotional drive of hard-core punk, was named Best New Artist at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2006. Sullivan was its hard-driving drum master.

"It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that we tell you of the passing today of Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan," read a statement on the group’s website late Monday night.

"Jimmy was not only one of the world’s best drummers, but more importantly he was our best friend and brother,” it said. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jimmy’s family and we hope that you will respect their privacy during this difficult time. Jimmy you are forever in our hearts. We love you."

-- Louis Sahagun

*Note- The band's name, "Avenged Sevenfold," is a reference to a biblical text in Genesis of Lamech's reference to the killing of Cain by Abel, whose death would be avenged sevenfold, though God had marked him with a sign to protect him from vengeance. The band's name is just another instance of the glorification of vengeance and violence in Rock and Roll.

Little Drummer Boy: Stomp Style

In Memoriam: Bob Keane (January 5, 1922 – November 28, 2009)

Tonight I was watching on TV the old movie "La Bamba" about the 50's singer Ritchie Valens. I have seen it a number of times and everytime I watch it I think about an old friend, Bob Keane, who produced Ritchie Valens and the group I played drums for in the late 60's, Beauregard Ajax. After the movie I went to my computer and googled "Ritchie Valens" and then "Bob Keane." I soon discovered that Bob Keane died recently on November 28, 2009 at the age of 87.

Our group connected with Bob Keane through a high school friend of mine from my Home town, Oxnard California, Patrick Landreville. Bob Keane listened to our demos and invited us to LA to consider a recording contract with Del-Fi Records. Our group moved into an apartment in LA in 1968 and started recording with Bob at Del-Fi recording studios a block south of Hollywood and Vine Streets. The recording sessions were long and often tedious, but we completed most of the recordings. All was left was some fine tuning, addition of strings and other concluding work when Bob lost his studio. That was the end of our recordings. Bob kept the masters. Years later copies of those master ended up floating around in Europe. Beaurgeard Ajax split up in early 1969 and went different directions. Clint Williams, the bass player, and myself joined an 18 year old amazing guitarist Bill Conners, who later joined with Chick Corea's Return to Forever. I stayed with "Middle Earth" until I was drafted into the Army late 1969, where I ended up playing drums in the Third Army Soldier Show.

Many years later, 36 years to be exact, I googled the name "Beauregard Ajax" and to my surprise discovered that our album, first recorded with Bob Keane at Del-Fi, had been released on a vinyl record by Shadoks Records in Germany and later on a CD. None of the original band members has made any royalties off those recordings that we made as young men so long ago, but I am blessed to have known Bob Keane, to have recorded at Del-Fi, to have been able to see others from another generation enjoy our music today. Thanks, Bob, for your life story and for connecting to my life story. Rest in peace, Bob.

LA Times story on Bob Keane: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-bob-keane1-2009dec01,0,2711217.story

Partygoer recalls terrifying moment drummer Gerhardt Fuchs died falling down elevator shaft

Partygoer recalls terrifying moment drummer Gerhardt Fuchs died falling down elevator shaft: "RSS"

Sufi Mystic Jalaluddin Rumi

Today, like every other day,
we wake up empty and frightened.
Don't open the door to the study and begin reading.
Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Jalaluddin Rumi, Sufi Mystic

Dürer's Therapeutic Drummer

I just finished reading a biography of the German master painter and engraver, Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). I noticed a drummer in one of his altarpieces. The drummer is on one of the four surviving panels of the Jabach Altar, which was commissioned by Frederick the Wise for the chapel of a bathhouse above a mineral spring.

The Jabach altarpiece was originally parts of two wings that were later sawn apart. One panel depicts Job sitting in a dung-heap, a man afflicted with boils through a test devised by Satan in a challenge to God. The painting may have marked the end of the plague in 1503. His wife is depicted in the panel as pouring slop on him as a form of castigation or water as a form of healing. The "healing waters" of the painting may be a more appropriate interpretation of Job's wife's action in that the image connects to the therapeutic springs of the bathhouse where the painting resided.

This interpretation would also be reinforced by the adjacent panel with the pipe player and drummer. They appear to be seeking to comfort Job in his suffering with their own "music therapy." Dürer paints a drummer as providing "therapeutic" music to a suffering Job. A "therapeutic" drummer for Job? Drums for healing?

Drumming has been part of the healing rituals and practices of various religions and cultures of the world. In his book The Healing Drum: African Healing Teaching, Yaya Diallo tells stories of drummers in the Manianka culture of West Africa who use their music in healing psychological, spiritual, and physical sickness. Shamanic drumming has been used as a healing practice for centuries. In more recent years drumming has found a place within music therapy. Christine Stevens, a Director of Music Therapy and Wellness Programs for Remo, Inc., co-created HealthRHYTHMS, a drum circle facilitation for integrative medicine. Psychotherapist Robert Lawrence Friedman has written extensively about the use of drumming in spiritual, emotional, and physical therapy in his book The Healing Power of the Drum.

So, I guess Dürer's image of a drummer beating rhythms with a pipe player to bring healing to a suffering Job is not so far fetched after all.

Images of Sacred Drumming Workshop on Lancaster Theological Seminary Continuing Education website

I taught a 6 week credited course on Sacred Drumming at Lancaster Theological Seminary for two years and a couple of drum workshops for 3 years at the Summer Academy when I lived in Lancaster, PA. Images from those workshops can be found on the new Lancaster Theological Seminary Continuing Education website at:

http://www.livingtheadventure.org/

Keith Moon, drummer for The Who

I told people I was a drummer before I even had a set, I was a mental drummer.

Buddy Rich, lengendary jazz drummer

Almost everything I've done, I've done through my own creativity. I don't think I ever had to listen to anyone else to learn how to play drums. I wish I could say that for about ten thousand other drummers.

To the Spirit of the Drum: a poem by Beth Dyer

Infuse me with the secrets of old
Of pulse and rhythm, crisp and bold.
Patterns flowing out and in
Tip to skin, then back again.

Lightning hands, a-blazing spirit
Fill me up, don’t let me fear it.
That I may live in your embrace
On the beat, and full of grace.
Ashe.

James Asher, multi-unstrumentalist

Groove has a relationship to the whole area of trance, repetition, meditation and hypnosis. One view is that by repeating things beyond a certain point, the listener`s mind is forced to jump off to a new place. But rhythm goes very deep at instinctive level too, and has become increasingly an antidote for me to excess infomation. Losing myself in playing a hand drum gives me a route to shedding all the clutterings and clammerings of a world over-rich with media, and finding a more wholesome space.

John Bergamo, percussionist

Percussion is like walking through the forest. You can't possibly see it all, there are endless possibilities of what you can do.

Starting the Journey in Portland with a Beat

I am getting settled in my new home in Portland, Oregon. I have my own room for my drums and artwork (see photos above). It will take me some time before I begin to re-establish Drumming for Peace on the West Coast. I have ordered enough drumsticks and have started looking for 5 gallon plastic buckets for my Joyful Noise and Found Sounds programs. The work of connecting to schools, churches, and other institutions will take some time.

I am near Rhythm Traders, a premier drum store here in Portland. I already bought a new djembe from Guinea and had a lesson from actor and percussionist Caton Lyles (above photo-www.catonlyles.com). I have the opportunity to teach some drum classes at Rhythm Traders in the near future. I am looking forward to many new avenues to explore in music and drumming on the West Coast.

Layne Redmond, frame drummer

Sound is power and the first sound we hear is the pulse of our mother's blood. No sound has a more powerful effect on our consciousness. Drumming is the musical expression of this primal power. Rhythm is a means of organizing sound into specific energy formulas to harmonize the mind and body. Chanting, rhythmic breathing and drumming form an ancient technology for directly synchronizing the mind/body complex, creating conditions for psychological and physical healing.

Arthur Hull, leader of the drum circle movement

My mission in life is to help people rediscover and explore the deep relationship with the rhythmical universe that permeates every aspect of our lives.

Animusic

I came across a dvd of Animusic 2 at the computer store today. New to me. As the cover says, "Animusic fuses cutting edge computer animation with digitally created music to produce an entirely new genre of music entertainment! Virtual bands and inaginary instruments put on a spectacular show that you'll enjoy over and over again."

Here are two percussion clips and a multi-instrument piece from Animusic and Animusic 2.

Drumming for Peace program at Mennonite Church USA assembly, Columbus, Ohio, July 2009

In one video is the Peace Train exercise, part of the first one hour seminar "Joyful Noise" I presented at MC USA Assembly in Columbus, Ohio on July 1 & 2, 2009. This presentation involved about 40 drummers and a crowd of more than 100. The second video (on top)is from a session for youth that drew over 200 young people to the seminar. It was moved inside the convention cafeteria because it was so loud! And I guess also because the mob of youth would have blocked the hallway.

In the photos are some impromptu drumming sessions I engaged in at the convention with preschoolers and youth. The dark photo is an unrehearsed drumming performance with volunteer youth playing before an audience of 6-8,000 youth at the Columbus arena before we gave Laura Bowman our first Different Drummer Award (see http://blog.goshen.edu/mpress/2009/07/04/bowman-awarded-for-marching-to-peace-beat/)

In Memory of Michael Jackson, a man with rhythm in his body and soul (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009)

Babatunde Olatunji

The Creator wants us to Drum. (God) wants us to corrupt the world with drums, dance, and chants. We've already corrupted the world with power and greed, which has gotten us nowhere. Now's the time to corrupt the world with drum, dance, and chants.

Evelyn Glennie

“Hearing is a form of touch. I hear it through the body, by opening myself up. Sometimes it almost hits you in the face.”

Mark Taylor on polyrhythmic sensibility in the churches

A polyrhythmic sensibility in the churches honors the drum. Honoring the drum will often mean bringing the drum back into those worship settings from which it has been excluded…If we are ever to discover the fully effective Word where Spirit enlivens a Rhythm Word, then we need to begin with the drum’s re-entry into our places of worship.----Mark Taylor, professor of theology and culture, Princeton Theological Seminary.

Cherokee on drumming

Drums are a dream arisen,
Weaving the tapestry of life.
Drums bear seekers of vision,
Embracing the rainbow of light.
---Cherokee

Lionel Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002)

Seemed to me that drumming was the best way to get close to God.---Lionel Leo Hampton, jazz vibraphonist, drummer, pianist, bandleader

Mickey Hart

For almost as long as I can remember, playing the drum has stimulated certain changes in my consciousness---my body awareness starts to fade, time disappears, instead of blood it feels like some other juice is pumping through my veins.---Mickey Hart, drummer of Grateful Dead.

A song for my Monday mood

Music Connects the World

Drumming for Peace is based on a philosophy of peacemaking and a belief that music and rhythm can bring people together. These videos, produced by Playing for Change demonstrate how music can be an "instrument" of peace that connects people around the world. This is a project based on the idea that music can bring the world together. It all began in Santa Monica, California with a street musician and went around the world adding street artists, singers, and musicians. Playing for Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. Check out the website at: http://www.playingforchange.com/

Performance at Frazer Mennonite Peace Festival

On Saturday, May 30 I performed my Drumming for Peace program at the Frazer Mennonite Church Peace Festival, 57 Maple Linden Lane, Frazer, PA. The festival included a photography contest and exhibits, music, storytelling, children's activities, and a World Peace Cafe. The church website is: http://www.frazermennonite.org/home.htm.

I shared my own story as "A Life Journey in Peacemaking and the Arts." Here is the text of the story I shared:


I’m pleased to see Frazer Mennonite connecting peacemaking and the arts. It is important to connect peacemaking with the arts in order that peacemaking not be viewed simply as a political endeavor or something that only activists can be engaged in. In an article I once wrote in the e-zine PeaceSigns on peacemaking in the arts I said:

Peacemaking is not just the work of diplomats, political activists, cultural critics, philosophers and educators. It requires the diverse expressions of human gifts, including those involved in the aesthetic dimension of life: visual artists, poets, musicians, singers, dancers. Peacemaking requires more than addressing pragmatic issues in seeking an end to violence. It calls upon the full expression of our humanity to cultivate a culture permeated with forgiveness, reconciliation and justice. The arts are a powerful medium for communicating a vision of peace for our world.

The tapestry of my personal and spiritual life has been woven together with threads from art, music, ministry, and peacemaking. I was an artist and musician before I ever thought of Christian ministry or ever got involved in peacemaking. Since the age of 10 years old I have cultivated a passion for art and music. My interest in art was sparked when I was in the fifth grade. For an anatomy class we had to draw pictures of the human body, so I drew guts. My teacher praised my drawings. She even let me be in charge of "Herman," the human model with the removable guts! Geee, that was keen! From 5th grade on I played drums in the school band and was the illustrator for our 8th grade class yearbook. In high school I was into hot rods and drag racing, so I used to paint hot rods on t-shirts, like my idol Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. It was during high school I decided I wanted to go to art school and become an illustrator. I also played drums in high school band and was a member of several local rock bands.

Music became more than a hobby. In 1968, at the age of 19 I packed my bags and moved to L.A. with my rock group, Beauregard Ajax, to record an album for Del-Fi Records with Bob Keane, producer for artists like Ritchie Valens, Bobby Fuller Four, and early Frank Zappa and Barry White. When our album was almost finished Keane lost his studio and the album was never released. But, oddly enough, while Googling on the internet in 2006 I came across the album released by Shadoks Records in Germany 38 years after we first recorded it!

While recording our album and playing at places like Gazzari’s on the Sunset Strip, the Troubadour, and other concerts in LA, I was also attending Los Angeles City College with a major in art. I used to go to art galleries around Los Angeles dreaming of being a professional illusttrator. Often I would visit the Art Center College of Design in L.A., a world renowned art school, and dream of studying illustration there. I even got a small scholarship for my artwork.

In the late 60’s I was into the countercultural movement, grew my hair and beard long (Nothing’s changed, right?). I embraced the hippie ideas of peace, love, and anti-establishment, but without the free love, drugs and political activism. I was more of a Jesus Freak. I had an older college friend who used to take me around L.A. to see the wild diversity of religious experiences; Jesus Freaks, Pentecostal and Charismatic churches, Catholic cloisters and monasteries, while at the same time my band was playing for the Hell’s Angels or on the same bill as the Birds and the Doors. One weekend I went to the Shrine Auditorium to see the famous healer Kathryn Kuhlman and another to see psychedelic rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix. There was no incongruity for me between music, art, and spirituality.

The Vietnam War and the draft put my dreams of art school on hold. I received my notice in the mail to show up for my physical exam to be inducted into the US Army. What a moment of shock. I was being forced to go into the army, be trained as a foot soldier and most likely be sent over to Vietnam to kill people I didn’t even know or didn’t have anything against. Either go into the Army and be forced to kill people or be killed, refuse to be drafted and end up in prison, or leave your home, friends, and family and run off to Canada. Those were the tough choices young 18 and 19 year olds had to face in the 60’s during the Vietnam War.

Faced with what being drafted would mean for me, I came to the realization that I couldn’t in good conscience kill another human being. So, I decided to apply for a conscientious objector status. I scrambled and got my friends, family, and pastor to write letters to the draft board explaining my convictions about not wanting to kill in any and not just this particular war. Unlike young men from Mennonite background, the option of doing alternative service to the military was for me too much to ask for and I didn’t want to end up as a gun-toting, foot soldier. Luckily I was able to secure a A-1-O status as a conscientious objector, which meant would go into the military but I didn’t have to bear arms. I would serve my time in the Army as a medic.

My basic and advanced training as a medic was in San Antonio, Texas. My company included a number of young men from Pentecostal, Seventh Day Adventist, and Jehovah’s Witness church traditions, which all have pacifist roots. To be honest, the Christian church itself has pacifist roots because it sought to follow in the way of Jesus, that is until Roman emperor Constantine co-opted the church and Christians took up the sword that Jesus forbad to the apostle Peter! No one in graduating company of medics immediately went to Vietnam, though I suspect that there are some listed on the Vietnam War Memorial Wall in DC.

Art and music continued to be sewn into the patchwork of my life, along with the cloth of a nonviolent perspective. I did a lot of drawing in my free time when I was in the Army. I also got involved in music in an unexpected way. I was working as a pharmacy assistant in Augusta, Georgia when a trumpet player from the Third Army Soldier Show just happened to come in the back of the pharmacy where I was working and requested some cough syrup for his throat before a show that evening. My ears perked up. Soldier show?! Playing pop tunes and themes from musicals and touring the South? That sounded better than being sent to Vietnam with my red Medic cross becoming a target.

So, that evening after the performance I auditioned for the show. Not only did I serve in the Third Army Soldier Show, like the others who auditioned for this temporary 3 month assignment, but I was permanently assigned as their drummer and finished the last 16 months of my time in the Army touring the South with an interracial musical company!

When I got out of the Army in 1971 I started attending my home church again, a Southern Baptist congregation, and went back to school studying art in college. I played drums in several youth musicals, met and married my wife of 36 years, Iris, and then … had an experience of call to ministry. One thing that kept me from immediately going into Christian ministry was my passionate desire to become an illustrator. My wife suggested that I go ahead and get my degree in art and then go on to seminary. I would have something to "fall back on" if somehow ministry didn't work out. At the time I felt that if I were to go on studying art, my strong passion for art would take over and keep me from going on to seminary. I might drop Christian ministry as a vocation. The idea that I needed to leave behind everything to do with art and singlemindedly focus on studying the Bible, theology, and pastoral ministry didn't last long.

I went to seminary in the Bay area (1973-78) and attended a church in the mission district of San Francisco. In seminary I ended up illustrating for the seminary newspaper, doing numerous paintings for friends and family, adding my drawings to church bulletins, and painting murals on the walls of a Christian coffeehouse Iris and I started in San Francisco. I also played drums in several musical groups at our church and coffeehouse. My wounded passion for the arts just kept bleeding into my ministry.

An ethics class in seminary got me to thinking more deeply about war and peace. My study of the prophets and Christian peace witness started adding substance to my unreflective feelings about violence that I faced during the time of the draft. I started reading Sojourners magazine, got involved in social ministry in the city, read my Bible with a new lens, and reflected more on peacemaking and justice. Art, music, and peacemaking were key ingredients getting mixed in the bowl of my personal and spiritual formation.

For almost 30 years as a youth minister and a pastor I have drawn my own church bulletins, painted murals for musical productions, illustrated sermons, designed worship spaces, and created Christian cartoons. Still, I never had enough time to do as much artwork as I would have liked. For 13 years my drumming fell to the wayside. A big part of the problem was not owning any drums. Then I once again got a drum set in 1996 and started playing for my church’s praise band. What a joy to be able once again use the rhythms in my bones for ministry.

As a pastor my appetite for peace and justice grew stronger over the years by reading books on liberation theology, starting a hunger education organization, forming a congregational peace group, participating in several ecumenical peace groups, getting involved with Baptist Peacemakers, working with an anti-nuclear minister’s group, participating weekly in prayer vigil’s at sites of violence, and serving on South Central and Eastern District Conference peace committees.

A key factor in my becoming a Mennonite in 1987 was my perception that as a “historic peace church” the Mennonites would strongly support my Christian desire to be involved more deeply in peace and justice. Strangely enough, the first conflict I had within my Mennonite church in Houston, Texas was over peace! My naivete about Mennonites being a denomination of peacemakers and a “historic peace church” had to be adjusted to the reality “on the ground.”

Preaching on peace and being involved in community peace and justice activities were part of my understanding of being a pastor, even though being clear about where I stood on these issues often got me in hot water with members of my Mennonite congregations, which I always thought was rather strange. I eventually ended up leaving pastoral ministry in 2002, a very eventful year for me. First, I left pastoral ministry after 30 years of work in local congregations. Second, I got my doctorate from a UCC seminary, focusing on a liberationist model of Anabaptist preaching. Second, I founded Drumming for Peace, an organization that teaches and witnesses for peace through drumming, rhythm and storytelling. And third, I accepted my current position as Minister of Peace and Justice for Mennonite Mission Network.

Here I was, a former fundamentalist, Southern Baptist, now in a leading position a “historic peace church” teaching the denomination about peace and justice! My responsibilities were to teach, preach, provide resources, conferences, and networking around peace and justice.

My Drumming for Peace organization grew out of trying to bring together my passions for drumming and peacemaking. After I moved to Lancaster in 1996 I bought an African djembe at Ten Thousand Villages and started playing in a drumming group called Commit No Violence. It was based on a philosophy of nonviolence and played for community events that promoted peace and justice. After taking leadership of the group in 2002 I, along with my friends Heidi Beth Wert, we developed the Drumming for Peace organization. We created a program called “Joyful Noise” that taught peace principles from a Christian perspective. In several afterschool programs we did “Found Sounds” a secular version of “Joyful Noise.” I was invited by a drum student, the dean of my seminary, to create a drumming course, so I started teaching a credited course on “Sacred Drumming” that introduced drumming in various cultures, drumming for meditation, inner peace, worship, and to learn West African rhythms. I integrated my drumming into my church work and over the past 7 years have performed my programs in churches, conferences, public schools, seminaries, colleges, universities in various denominations across the U.S. Commit No violence performed for Novel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, got a write up in Sojourner’s magazine, and I was even invited to do the Staley lecture at Bethel College in Kansas on Drumming for Peace.

During one period after leaving pastoral ministry in 2002 I was dealing with regrets about not pursuing a vocation in art or music. Where could I have been in my life and abilities as an artist or musician after the 36 years I had spent in Christian ministry? Life is too short, especially after you turn 60, to spend regretting what you could or should have done with your life. Rather than wallow in regrets I decided to use my occasional spare time in the evening to do artwork, after putting to bed my 4 year old grandson, who is in our care and us whole other story.

This burst of creative energy resulted in two series of drawings. First, a series entitled Artisans of Social Change, of 20 drawings of leaders in peace and justice with one of their quotes. Second, I drew a series entitled M.U.S.I.C.: Musicians Undermining Social Injustice Creatively, which is a set of drawings of musicians with a social conscience, including a quote or song lyrics about peace and justice. I offered these drawings to the public for free on the PJSN website. I have found them being used by various peace and justice organizations. My drawing of Oscar Romero, martyred bishop of El Salvador, has been used on a Catholic website on Romero, a peace and justice Lenten prayer book, and on the cover of a book about a children’s village in El Salvador named after Romero. My drawing of a poor Campesino Christ was used on an MCC book on immigration. Recently one of my cartoons was used on a NGO report on the UN General Assembly on disarmament. Awaiting publication is Readings for Radicals: a peace and justice lectionary guide, which I illustrated with peace and justice drawings, like an electric chair to symbolize the cross.

My hope is to continue to use all my creative gifts for engendering a culture of peace. I have started two blogs that connect art, poetry, music, drumming, culture, preaching, theology, and peace and justice. See me if you are interested in how to access them on the internet. In 60 days I end 36 years of church ministry and will be moving to Portland, Oregon to find a job and pursue my creative gifts more intentionally. Through art, music, drumming, speaking, teaching, writing, and poetry I hope to continue to point to that day when peace will reign on earth as in heaven. As one who has been a crafter of words for many years, I leave you with these words of hope from one of my poems:

a day is coming

when wars will cease
nations will rejoice
hope will spring forth

a day is coming

when death will be no more
pain will be healed
tears will be dried

a day is coming

when love will reign supreme
joy will overflow
peace will fill the earth

a day is coming

when the old will feel young
the young will be wise
and the wise will be heard

a day is coming

when guns will become shovels
tanks become merry-go-rounds
and the soldier and peacemaker will ride together

a day is coming…

A New Journey in Life: Moving to Portland, Oregon

On July 31, 2009 I will be ending my employment as Minister of Peace and Justice with Mennonite Mission Network due to $3.5 million in budget cuts. Around the same time my wife, Iris, accepted a position as Executive Conference Minister for Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference starting in September. So, we will be moving to Portland, Oregon in August. I grew up and lived in California most of my life, so at least I will be back on the West Coast.

Once I am settled in Portland I will work on re-establishing a Drumming for Peace network and channels for offering my DFP programs in that part of the country. A new network of drumming friends and partners will be great, since I have done my Drumming for Peace programs from the East Coast for 7 years now. I will also be looking for employment, so if anyone is reading this from Portland: I AM LOOKING FOR A JOB, RELATED TO DRUMMING WOULD BE NICE! I will be maintaining this blog through the move. Check back as I share some of my transition to a new place. My hope is that during my newly acquired free time i can write a book on Drumming for Peace with a DVD demonstrating the learning exercises, so others can use the program I have offered in so many places across the U.S. for the last 7 years.

Peace,

Leo Hartshorn
Co-director, Drumming for Peace

Listen to the rhythms of life.

So now you want to know some things. Where do you start? That's a good question for you to ask. Maybe just listen. Listen to the drum. Listen to the air. Listen to the breathing...to the earth breathing, Listen to the stars go across the sky.---Masanea, Kickapoo, northern Mexico, from Simply Living: The Spirit of the Indigenous People


Listening. It is how one learns to play drums. Listening. Listening to music on the radio, CDs, movie soundtracks. Listen to live music, whenever you have the chance. It injects itself like hot liquid into your blood. Listen to the rhythms created by others. Feel them in your bones. It is more than counting beats in a measure. Even more than the necessary beginnings of listening to copy and repeat. Listening has to move from the outer ear to the ears of the heart. Until one masters the basics and then listens more than plays, the sounds produced will be only honking and squawking. Only by listening with inner ear can a person be their own musician, playing from within and marching to their own inner drummer.

Listening. It is how one encounters life and the sacred. Listening. Listening to the whirling wind, the dancing droplets of rain, the distant cry of a bird. Feeling creation in your bones. The vibrating energy that is you resonating with the vibrating energy in nature. Listening has to become more than the common awareness of noise and sound. There must be a listening with the heart to the sound which is not a sound, the music within nature. Only by listening with the inner ear can a person be an ordinary mystic, in touch with the sacred in creation.

Listen....hear the beat of a hummingbird's wings. Listen...hear the rhythm of life's drum.

Drumming for Peace performances in PA

Recently I had the opportunity to perform my interactive Drumming for Peace program at two places. The first place (bottom two photos) I performed was at the Lancaster Mennonite Elementary School in New Danville, PA. I have done the school assembly there before. Both times I work with 150-200 children. In an hour program everyone present gets to participate by switching players in the program. Everyone gets to learn basic peace principles through various drumming exercises.

The second place I performed was at the Ten Thousand Villages warehouse (top two photos) in Brownsville, PA for the staff. Ten Thousand Villages is a self-help craft organization that markets crafts of people around the world to provide them with a means of support for themselves, their families, and villages (http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/). My interactive performance coincided with the kick off of their World Fair Trade Day on May 9 with the theme of "Bang your drum for a fair trade solution." As a gift they gave me a bunch of small pencil drums made in Nairobi, Kenya (http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/home.php).

Drumming at Tha Myx, Denver, Colorado

From Last Friday to last Sunday I was in Denver, Colorado at a church conference on urban ministry. I brought along my djembe in case there might be opportunity to play. I had two opportunities for public performance. The first chance I had to play was during an "urban plunge" last Saturday. The idea was for a group of us to walk a predetermined route through the city of Denver and observe the sights, sounds, smells and texture of the portion of the city we had been assigned. Our route took us downtown. I brought along my Toca fiberglass djembe, hoping to play and create a spontaneous musical encounter. When we got downtown we took a side route to an open mall area near 16th street. There weren't many people around on on a Sunday afternoon, but I broke out my djembe and began playing downtown. A few people stopped to listen. Some waiting for a horse drawn carriage moved to the beat. Others on the benches nearby listened as I played for about 20 minutes.

The second opportunity to play was at a congregation called "Tha Myx" billed as a hip hop church. I brought my djembe to church, which I've done if I suspect the church is spontaneous and rhythmic. Tha Myx was that kind of church. The pastor, "Age" is a hip hop recording artist. His congregation ministers in a tough part of Denver. The members were predominantly Latino/a. Like the pastor, a number of the members are former gang members and felons. During the week they have a hip hop service.The service I played at was only the 5th service they have held on a Sunday morning. Some of the members belong to the Holy Rollerz Christian Car Club: http://www.myspace.com/464874255

When I came in I asked "Age" if the church would welcome a guest drummer. He said, "Sure" and introduced me to the music director, who led the contemporary praise band. He set a seat for me on stage and I joined in the music during the service. The musicians appreciated what I added to the "mix." I loved playing along with the contemporary Christian praise music, but didn't care much for the conservative theology. I have yet to find a church that has funky, rockin' music and at the same time progressive, prophetic theology. Maybe someday I will find that mythic church.

Links to the articles on Denver experience: http://www.mennoniteusa.org/Home/News/tabid/65/EntryID/132/Default.aspx; http://www.mennoweekly.org/byline/brian-yoder-schlabach/

Rhythm at the Heart of the Universe: A Drummer's Cosmology

Rhythm is at the heart of the universe. Hebrew Scriptures (Genesis 1) say the universe began as a primal sound, a word, a divine vibration. Christian Scriptures (John 1) identify the Primal Word with Jesus. In Hindu mythology it is out of the element of ether, or nada, the original sound, that the universe came into being. The god Shiva is depicted playing the hourglass drum in one of his right hands while dancing, thus creating and sustaining the universe through rhythm and dance. It is believed that existence would cease if Shiva stopped drumming and dancing. Within Native American stories of the Sacred Wheel (Medicine Wheel) imply that if the people stop dancing and singing the tribe, and even time, may cease to exist.

Drums play a role in the creation stories of many cultures. These stories indicate that drumming and rhythm are understood to be integral to human life. In a creation myth of China a being called P’an-ju, who was an architect, went to the cliffs of Chaos with his chisels. He began drumming out a beat with his tools. Pieces of the cliffs flew into the sky and became the stars and planets. Rhythm and percussion find themselves in our stories of creation’s origin.

Not only is rhythm featured in world mythologies, but also in Western science. Scientists advocate the big bang theory of the universe’s origin. Subatomic physics teaches us that there is rhythm at the heart of the universe. Over 2,500 years ago Pythagoras told his followers that stone was “frozen music.” His intuition has been confirmed by modern molecular physic. All matter is made up of energy vibrating at about 10 (to the 22 power) times per second. A drummer’s cosmology recognizes that there is a Primal Rhythm at the heart of the universe.

The Easter Drums of Aragon

Dear Friends of La Tienda:

Two years ago I was at a friend's house in Spain leafing through a European issue of Time Magazine. The cover story trumpeted 'Spain Rocks!' Shaking off its benighted past, the author bragged, Spain was rising like a phoenix. This vibrant 'new' nation was setting an innovative, dazzling standard for all of Europe. Her chefs were the talk of the world of cuisine; her people were dominating the worlds of fashion, music and the fine arts. Spain was at the vanguard.

But then I looked up from my magazine, and saw images flashing on the television screen - the train station in Madrid had just been bombed by terrorists. March 11 in Madrid was a painful echo of September 11 in Washington and New York 31 months earlier.

Since that terrorist bombing two years ago Spain has exploded with radical social and political changes - discounting traditional values as 'old hat', and in many ways mimicking the values of contemporary Europe. The shift is quite astonishing, and in some ways disturbing. Yet I find comfort knowing that over the ages Spain has been able to absorb many passing influences while remaining anchored in her identity.

Some Spaniards, who are less intoxicated with modernity, are beginning to explore long-ignored cultural sites. By revisiting traditions and rituals they are seeking to understand their roots. It is this fresh appreciation of the lasting traditions which will continue to anchor and define Spain for the next generation.

The central ritual of Spain focuses on Holy Week. Throughout this diverse nation, every one - young and old, believer and skeptic - is drawn into the observance.

There is one Holy Week ritual that I hope to experience in the next few years. It takes place among a cluster of small villages deep in the mountains of Aragon. Once every year, all the inhabitants gather around their parish churches, take up their drums, form bands and spontaneously start drumming. For about twenty four hours without pauses, bands of drummers, largely young men, but also young women and a few children process through the streets of their towns.

On Good Friday as the clock of the parish church in each village strikes at High Noon, an enormous roar resounds throughout the town as all the drums roll simultaneously. There are all kinds - traditional bass drums stretched with skin, modern snare drums, and many other types in between. The drummers dress in blue, violet or black gowns and hoods, the color depending upon the custom of the village. They remain together for two hours, generating among their neighbors an indefinable emotion, which some describe as ecstasy. The drumming makes the ground tremble under their feet. When people put their hands on the wall of their houses they feel the vibration in their bones.

Then the townspeople begin to form a procession, intermingling between the bands of drummers. They leave the Plaza Mayor and weave through their villages, finally returning to where they began. There are so many people who join the procession that the last have not begun before the first reach their goal.

In the procession are men and boys dressed as Roman soldiers, others (including little children) are centurions. There is a Roman general accompanied by men called Longinos,- the ones who guarded the sealed tomb of Jesus. The drum rolls have five or six different rhythms. When two groups of drummers with differing rhythms encounter each other at a street corner, they meet frente y frente - face to face -- and embark on a duel of rhythms. The contest can go on for an hour or more until finally one group acquiesces and assumes the rhythm of the stronger.

At about 5 o'clock the procession through the village is complete and the faithful pause in silence at the church, mourning the Crucifixion. Then the rolls of the drums sound in unison once more, and continue their distinct rhythm until the afternoon of the following day.


All night long the people of the town are engulfed by the prolonged rhythm of the drums. By sunrise, some of the drummers have bleeding hands, but they continue all Saturday morning until they hear the sound of a trumpet as the church bell tolls the appointed hour. At that moment all of the drummers silence their drums. They will not play again until the next year. But for weeks after, some say the rhythm of the drums is reflected in the conversational pattern of the villagers.

Romans, Goths, Arians, Moors, Jews, Christians, and pagans before them - they have all contributed to the consciousness of these isolated towns. These various civilizations are woven into the rich fabric of Spain - and that fabric is lasting. I am confident that no terrorists of any stripe are going to change the traditions of Spain. Neither will the latest trends of Europe. Spain will continue to absorb the contributions of others. Her traditional values are not static, but they will endure.

Your Friend,

Don

*article from- http://www.tienda.com/reference/updates.html?update=7085

Hans Bohm: The Drummer of Niklashausen (1476 C.E)- a poem by Leo Hartshorn

Hans Bohm
played on his drum
to entertain the peasants
it was more pleasant
than shepherding sheep
which caused him to sleep
under the stars
until arousin'
from the sun coming up
over Niklashausen

it was a Saturday night in Lent
his energies spent
on the herd
then suddenly he heard
a voice in the night
from a light in the sky
wondering why
the Mother of God
would come to a drummer

She spoke of vanities
of the people under the steeple
and in the street
the heat in his heart
led Bohm to start a fire
a bonfire of the vanities
for all the insanities
of inequity and injustice
and the unpleasantness
of peasantness
he would soon preach against

upon the flame he tossed
his drum, a shame
and dumb, if you ask me
because, you see,
he could have beaten that skin
against the sin and inequality
and frivolity of pimping priests
and the naughtiness of nobles
before his drum fell silent
and peasants revolted
and heaven was jolted
by his execution
which is never a solution
for drummers who seek justice

Christian Huygens and the law of entrainment

In my Drumming for Peace programs I tell the story of the Dutch scientist Christian Huygens. The story illustrates a principle of peacemaking. The story illuminates for me a conviction not only that rhythm is at the heart of the universe, but that the rhythms of creation tip toward synchronization.

In 1665, Christian Huygens, a Dutch scientist, who was also a clock maker and inventor of the pendulum clock, had placed two of his pendulum clocks next to each other on the wall. After several days he noticed that the pendulums, which had started off randomly, were swinging in synchronization. He observed that there was nothing material that connected one clock to the other.

From his observation he explored what happened when oscillators or things that pulsed were placed in close proximity. He discovered that the pulses tended to “entrain” or synchronize. The law of entrainment says that when pulses are placed close together they tend to come into a common rhythm, rather than work at odds with one another.

Scientists have observed this law of entrainment in heart cells placed near each other and have observed it in speech and body patterns in human dialogue. This tells me that the divine mystery has drummed out a rhythmic principle within the universe that communicates this truth: It is easier and more natural for our life rhythms to entrain and harmonize, than to clash and work against each other.

Congo Square, New Orleans

This past weekend I made a trip to New Orleans for my work in peace and justice. One place that I have written about in my blog (http://drummingforpeace.blogspot.com/2009/02/african-drumming-in-early-colonial.html) and wanted to make sure I visited was Congo Square in Louis Armstrong Park.

Since hurricane Katrina the gates to the park have been locked except for special occasions. I was lucky to find the gates open in preparation for an event the next day. There is not much to see but a historical marker, trees, and bricked open space. But, the place is sacred ground for African Americans, as it was for Houma Indians who used the space for their annual corn harvest. By 1803 the space was used by enslaved Africans and free people of color to drum, dance, sing, and trade on Sunday afternoons, a day slaves had off from labor. By 1819 500-600 people gathered in Congo Square. Drumming, dancing, and other African traditions found a place to be expressed. This sacred space was, in some ways, the seed bed of mardi gras traditions, rhythm and blues, jazz, and the 2nd line (upbeat dixieland jazz played on return from the cemetery). It can only be ignorance of the historical and sacred significance of this place or pure greed that caused some city officials to once propose that Congo Square be turned into an amusement park!

*Wynton Marsalis, jazz trumpet player from New Orleans, wrote a tribute to New Orleans entitled Congo Square, in collaboration with the Lincoln Jazz orchestra and African master drummer Yacub Addy (http://www.amazon.com/Congo-Square-Wynton-Marsalis-Orchestra/dp/B0010S6EUG)and was performed in Congo Square April 23, 2006. I have seen this concert on PBS and highly recommend it.

Drums Beat Deep: a poem by Leo Hartshorn

Lovers O lovers, lovers it is time to set out from the world. I hear a drum in my soul's ear coming from the depths of the stars.

The drum of the realization of the promise is beating, we are sweeping the road to the sky. Your joy is here today, what remains for tomorrow?---Sufi mystic Jalaluddin Rumi


Drums beat deep
in the dance of the cosmos
the rhythm of the universe
in the gyration of the galaxies
in the pulse of the planets
in the staccato of the stars

Drums beat deep
in the dance of the soul
the salsa of the spirit
in the the hammering of hope
in the playfulness of promise
in the flourishing of faith

Drums beat deep
in the spinning of the planet
the samba of the seasons
in the splash of sunrise
in the shout of spring
in the whisper of winter

Drums beat deep
in the ears of the soul
dancing spirits skyward