blood drum spirit

blood drum spirit explores the art of jazz in its myriad branches, incorporating complex rhythmic, timbral, melodic, and harmonic structures into radical new works, arrangements of jazz classics, and songs and rhythms from West Africa, India, Native America, the Philippines, China, and around the globe. 

Since their founding in 1991, the ensemble has released three double CDs, blood drum spirit (2004), live in china (2008), and time changes (2019), as well as the award-winning film We Are One (2017). They have appeared at numerous international festivals, including the Midi Festival in Beijing, CCP Philippines Jazz Festival, Chale Wote festival in Ghana, and, closer to home, at such venues as Yoshi’s (Oakland, CA), New School University Jazz, World Music Institute, and the Stone (all in NYC), Hartford’s Real Art Ways, and Boston/Cambridge’s Multicultural Arts Center and River Festival. The quartet has performed and worked with students in numerous institutions and universities across the US and abroad, including St. Michael’s College, UMass, Middlebury College, the China Conservatory, the University of Ghana, the SALT Youth Camp in Trinidad, and the University of the Philippines. In 2017 the group toured Ghana for the second time, sponsored by the U. S. State Department.

Dr. hartigan appears on recordings by Fred Ho, Rudresh Mahanthappa, and many others. Wes Brown toured the world with Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines. Art Hirahara leads his trio and has recorded with Akira Tana and Don Braden. David Bindman co-founded the Brooklyn Sax Quartet, leads his sextet, and has performed with Wadada Leo Smith and Anthony Braxton.

blood drum spirit draws on the spirits of ancestors, on traditions passed along by teachers, and on members’ experiences across jazz’s eras and genres. The group’s name describes its mission: blood, the heart and connection humanity shares through the ancestors; drum, the metaphorical heartbeat/rhythm felt by all musicians, physical/psychological existence of the universe, and all people (‘if you can walk, you can dance…’ an African proverb); and spirit, transcendence toward something larger than ourselves.

To learn more about blood drum spirit, visit their website here.