Martin Kent, multi-instrumentalist, spent a summer visiting his famous brother, didjeridu master Stephen Kent, and came to Clarion Music regularly to practice on the piano. Martin made two little friends that year—my two children, Lawrence and Julia, who came to work with me and took swimming lessons at the YMCA across the street.
When the children became too rowdy around Martin we decided that he should give us (children, me and another lady who worked at the shop) drumming lessons. We began with the African djembe, then the Middle Eastern doumbek and even tried our hands on the Indian tablas. It was with great fondness that we said goodbye to Martin at the end of the summer, when he went back to the UK.
This brief exposure of drumming planted a seed in me, so that many years later I began playing the hand drum when reciting poetry. I collected drums that worked well with the voice. In a dusty music shop in Essaouira, Morocco, I fell in love with a goat skin bendir (frame drum with a snare). From the internet I found the Drum People and spoke with the maker, Keith Little Badger, and auditioned his Native American drums over the phone. At Clarion I picked out an 18 inch beauty that was full of resonance no matter the weather condition. I play these three drums alternately. Only the fourth one sits in silence. It is a log drum from Taos, New Mexico. I bought it before I knew how to play, when I could only appreciate drums aesthetically and use it as a side table.
Photo by Bob Hsiang.
