The Big Percussion Concert 2
Keith Gallasch
This concert included the same artists as the first but with an additional feature—the world premiere of Gerard Brophy’s Brisbane Drumming. The players and young people from the Caboolture Shire Council region near Brisbane—grouped as the Tonga Bell Players and Djembe Players—combined under the direction of workshop teachers, percussionist Elliot Orr and instrument-maker Steve Langton, to present the work. It’s a dynamic, riff-driven work, beautifully textured (the bells providing the upper notes and a melodic sweetness), the young players appearing totally at ease with it, responding to cues from Orr and the professionals scattered amongst them. The rousing free-for-all finale of the concert incorporated the gift of traditional African clothing from Senegalese master drummer Aly N’Diaye Rose to Terracini and Brophy who had to don them on the spot. Surely one of the festival’s biggest drawcards in Brisbane, The Big Percussion Concert again proved itself a complex and rich cultural meeting point.
The Big Percussion Concert 2, Brisbane City Hall, July 22
RealTime issue #58 Dec-Jan 2003 pg. 42
