Drum Circle welcomes all to join
By John Tredrea, Special Writer
Now in its fourth year, the Lambertville Drum Circle offers the chance to learn and play African rhythms on percussion instruments from that part of the world and elsewhere.
"The African rhythms that we use at the Circle are very old," said Jim Davidson, who started and runs the Circle with fellow Lambertville resident Anthony Flamio. "These rhythms have that rightness. They feel right, and it’s no wonder. They’ve been filtered into their current form by hundreds of years of use and refinement."
The Lambertville Drum Circle meets at 6:30 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month at Kline’s music store at 25 Bridge St. It’s free, all are welcome and you can bring your own percussion instruments, if you like. The Circle does provide drums for visitors to play.
"Anyone can join the circle," Mr. Davidson said. "Kids sometimes come with their parents, and some of these kids do fantastically well — they don’t have that fear of doing something wrong."
Mr. Davidson has been an avid student and practitioner of African drumming for 20 years. The two important drums, he said, are the djembe and the dunun.
"The djembe is goblet-shaped drum that has been around a very long time," he said. "The dunun is a large, double-headed bass drum."
Mr. Davidson has studied with Keith Mamady, who he calls "one of the premier djembe drummers and teachers in the world."
At the drum circle, Mr. Davidson will introduce a West African rhythm.
"The core people at the circle will keep the rhythm going," he said. "The others can improvise. It’s not a class. It’s a circle. People bring bongos, congas, tambourines and other percussion instruments. Whatever you want to bring is fine. The conga is the closest instrument to the West African instruments we provide at the circle for visitors to use."
He pointed out that the basic rhythms over which improvisations can be done "are multi-part rhythms. It takes several people to play them."
Mr. Davidson, who has about 50 drums in a "drum room" in his home, also plays Middle Eastern drum music and teaches a class in djembe at Bucks County Community College.
"A drum circle is community building," he said. "You’re building a community of people who are playing music together. While you do it, you’re learning right and left hand coordination in a dramatic way."

