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diversions
Percussion Group
brings world beats
By Sarah Langford
On-line Forty-Niner
The World Percussion
Group at Cal State Long Beach gave a high-energy performance
Tuesday unlike any other.
Directed by Dr.
Michael Carney, the evening's performance featured music from
all over the world, including the Caribbean, Brazil, Cuba
and West Africa.
The CSULB Steel
Drum Orchestra started off the concert, which put the audience
in a tropical mood when they opened the concert dressed in
Hawaiian shirts. The beginning-level orchestra played "Kiss
the Girl" from Disney's The Little Mermaid as well as
a steel-drum rendition of Carlos Santana's "Oye Como
Va," both of which received loud praise from the audience.
Next the audience
was transported to Brazil, beginning with an original piece
called "Ep!" by CSULB percussion student Brad Colton.
Performing with
five other students, each on a different percussion instrument,
Colton sat on a wooden box drum and played fast, intricate
rhythms with his hands. Several times during the performance
the players shouted "Ep!" in time with the music,
giving the piece a very alive and personal feel.
"Voce Quer
Voce Pode" was the last of the Brazillian pieces and
definitely the most fun for the audience. In Portuguese, the
song translates "if you want to, you can." Before
the song began, Carney taught the audience to answer his questions
in Portuguese which asked, "Do you want to play?"
and later, "Can you play?" Throughout the song he
shouted out the questions and the audience shouted back its
answers of "I want to play!" and "I can play!"
in Portuguese.
While the entire
concert was enjoyable and energetic, the highlight of the
evening came during "Gota," a traditional African
dance. Some percussion students played, while others danced
in brightly colored African garb to this traditional rite-of-passage
song. Crouching low, bending sideways and shaking their hands,
the dancers kept their movements in strict time with the rhythm
of the drums.
At the end of the
song, the performers ran out into the audience and pulled
audience members onto the stage, where they were taught the
same dance. At least one-fourth of the audience was onstage
dancing together with the World Percussion Group to "Gota,"
while other percussionists played the rhythmic song on their
instruments behind the dancers. Raising their hands in time
to the pulsing beat, the people on stage became one for a
moment as they celebrated the cultural expression of music.
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