Community day of drumming starts a groove

The rhythm is gonna get you.

By Steve Siegel - Special to The Morning Call

January 31, 2008

The rhythm of the drum, like the pulse of a communal heart, draws us together. Its beat entices us to play, to dance, to let loose or just to let go. It heals us by its spirituality and bonds us with its mesmerizing spell.

Lehigh Valley drummer and percussionist Moe Jerant, founder and artistic director of the Lehigh Valley Drum Circle, has recognized the drum's ability to both entertain and heal since she was an eighth-grader. On Saturday, Jerant and multi-platinum recording artist Jim Donovan -- founder of the band Rusted Root -- will celebrate the voice of the drum by presenting the first-ever Lehigh Valley Day of Drumming.

The event features a day of drumming workshops presented by Jerant and Donovan, followed by an evening concert highlighting African rhythms, song and dance. The concert will feature the Jamani drummers, a local women's world percussion ensemble; ''Gathering Soul,'' a dance piece choreographed by Sarah Carlson, associate professor of dance at Muhlenberg College, and performed by Muhlenberg dance students, and a performance featuring Jamani, Donovan and Jerant.

Drum circles are a growing phenomenon in the Lehigh Valley. There are stress-buster classes, impromptu street performances, and appearances in music festivals such as Mayfair and Musikfest. Jerant conducts drumming classes at Dave Phillips Music and Sound in Allentown, a weekly drumming class at the Lehigh County Senior Center and classes for the therapeutic recreation department at the Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Center in Allentown.

The Lehigh Valley Drum Circle has its roots in a drumming class Jerant started while she was the manager of the drum department at Dave Phillips in 2001.

''More and more people kept coming in asking for hand drums and djembes,'' says Jerant, referring to the goblet-shaped hand drums with goatskin heads that originated in Western Africa. ''I got tired of sending them somewhere else to buy drums, so I suggested we start carrying them in the store, and I started a djembe class.''

Jerant was no stranger to drums, having played drum sets and snare drums for local singer/songwriters and rock groups, including the newly reunited 1960s psychedelic band The Large Flowerheads and the Celtic fusion group Emerald City. But the djembe was something new to her.

''I really started to take to it; now I hardly ever play drum sets anymore. The djembe is so accessible, and has a strong community effect, creating the desire for people to gather and play together. It's amazing how it works -- you just throw it out there and it does all the rest,'' she says.

Two years ago Jerant became endorsed as a health rhythm facilitator by the drum manufacturer Remo. She uses the training in her Stressbuster Drum Circle classes.

She uses the health rhythm format in just about everything she does, including the workshop she will conduct on Saturday called ''Rhythm is Everywhere,'' which will explore the relationship between creativity, listening skills, and how they relate to drumming.

Jerant also specializes in teaching women to drum, believing that women become empowered when they learn fundamental drumming skills. She formed the Jamani Drummers in 2007, named for a Swahili word for friend.

Jerant also will be the drum soloist in ''Gathering Soul,'' created by Muhlenberg College assistant professor of dance Sarah Carlson. The piece explores African and Christian spirituality and is being performed by eight Muhlenberg dancers and four a cappella singers.

Jerant hopes that the Day of Drumming will bring drumming awareness to a greater audience, and is convinced the Lehigh Valley is at the dawn of a huge drumming movement.

''We haven't even started yet,'' she says.

Steve Siegel is a freelance writer.

Go Guide Editor Jodi Duckett

jodi.duckett@mcall.com

610-820-6704

Rock drummer takes his love of rhythm on the road

January 31, 2008

At its explosive peak, the band Rusted Root could turn any crowd into a dancing mob, all driven by the mad beat of the drum. Drummer, percussionist and founding member Jim Donovan is a multi-platinum artist who has shared the stage with such legends as Santana, The Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers.

Donovan left Rusted Root in 2005 and now shares his love of rhythm by presenting drumming workshops throughout the U.S. and Europe. In the fall of 2006 he became a full-time instructor of world music and drumming at Saint Francis University in Loretto, Cambria County. Donovan has held workshops in the Lehigh Valley and will return Saturday to help lead the Day of Drumming.

''I met Moe at a workshop I did in Allentown a couple of years ago,'' says Donovan, a Pittsburgh native. ''We really hit it off.''