Two days later, a disc by frame drummer Layne Redmond appeared in my mailbox, Invoking The Muse. I put it on and immediately felt a connection. I dropped everything and began to dance. Over the next few days, the dancing had become an obsession and part of a daily ritual involving a flowing white dress. There was no question I needed to write about Redmond. I took her book, When The Drummers Were Women, on a hike and sat under my favorite waterfall reading about the history of the frame drum in women's spirituality. When I got home, I played my own frame drum a while.
That night I received an email from my friend, painter Melissa Harris. "Do you have a frame drum?" she wrote. "If so, can I photograph you wearing a flowing dress, running through my back meadow with your drum? Preferably in morning or late afternoon light. I had a vision in my shamanic journey group the other night that I want to paint."
I rushed to contact Redmond. I knew she'd love the story.
"Sharon, this is fantastic!" she exclaims. "You know, our consciousness is a continuum, and we're all just a minute fraction of that whole vast continuum of consciousness. There's something really powerful happening."
Though Redmond isn't overly optimistic about the state of the world and doesn't believe in harmonic convergences and that sort of thing, she does believe in the power of the web of inspiration, our creative interconnectedness. "The only way we'll survive these times is by becoming extremely creative," she says. The cultural creative is being ignored, the people who have a spiritual view of where they want everything to go. I think even the Democratic party is terrified to address us. We have to step outside the box they're trying to keep our minds in."
Redmond has quite an impressive trail of creations behind her already; so many, in fact, that it would be impossible to mention them all here. To scratch the surface, this one-time leader of the drumming troupe Mob of Angels was voted Percussionist of the Year two years in a row by Drum magazine; her CD, Trance Union, was voted best percussion recording; and her instructional video, Rhythmic Wisdom, was voted Percussion Video of the Year. In 2000, that same publication listed her as one of the 53 Heavyweight Drummers Who Made A Difference in the '90s - she was the only woman on the list and one of the few listed who hasn't been in a commercial pop, rock, or jazz band. While performing and recording on European and American labels for over a decade with master drummer/scholar Glen Velez (of Paul Winter Consort fame), she researched the history of the frame drum in religious and cultural rituals for the book When The Drummers Were Women, which recounts the lost history of female percussionists in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Redmond was the first woman to have a signature series of world percussion instruments with Remo, Inc., has lectured at numerous colleges and conventions, and has performed at festivals all over the world. And all because of the small, hand-held frame drum.
As for her explosive creativity, she explains that drumming is one of the oldest techniques for accessing the deepest part of consciousness. Her own creative well is very deep, so full all the time, in fact, that she couldn't possibly bring all her ideas to fruition. Her latest CD is just one of those ideas that materialized, and it's nothing short of perfection.
Invoking The Muse consists of nine tracks, each one dedicated to a different muse, each one completely miraculous in technique, each one a flaming expression of Redmond's tribal heart. This recording is exciting, gorgeous, weaving the rhythm of the frame drum with melodious strings, wind instruments, and female chant. Lengthy liner notes explain Redmond's thoughts in detail, and she brings Hudson Valley favorites aboard on this gem of a journey: vocalists Ruth Cunningham and Laurel Massé, flutist Steve Gorn, and percussionist and producer Tommy Brunjes, plus violinist Vicki Richards of Florida. Redmond plays several sizes of Remo frame drums on the recording, as well as Remo Tar, Bullroarer, Tar-Rine Tambourine, Mbira, Tibetan bowl, and India string bells. The CD is starting to get some serious attention - it was the August featured album on John Dilberto's syndicated radio show, "Echoes," which plays on over 150 NPR stations. Redmond has her fingers crossed that it'll be featured on the Grammy website. She explains how the CD came into being.
"Ever since I started playing frame drums, I could hear voices singing while I played. These voices are generated by overtones. The shell of the drum is shallow, and the frame is very thin. It's easy to hear melodies in the rhythms, as well as voices. Great Nubian musician Hamsa El Din once told me that the traditional melodies for Nubian songs come from the overtone sequence of the specific rhythm that goes with that song. Sometimes the voices are so loud that I stop playing because I think someone is actually speaking to me. As soon as I stop playing, of course, the voices cease. When you play the same rhythm over and over, you hear those melodies in the overtones, you can actually see them. For this CD, I would hum along with these melodies, get the sequence of overtones. Some of the pieces were minimal phrases, and the players would improvise over it many times. The drum I use to hear the melody in each song is the core drum of that song. Over the years I've come to feel that the drum is the voice of the muses."
Redmond also gives credit to water in her creative process. Once a Hudson Valley resident, she now resides in Florida, where she's actively involved in the preservation of the springs. She tells me that the spring nearest her house is first magnitude, spewing 80,000 gallons per minute. She hears melodies in the springs, and it was there that Redmond finally made the decision to record Muses. And so began her research. Imagine her surprise when she discovered that the muses were traditionally associated with sacred springs, and that is where their voices were heard.
I ask Redmond what she thinks the muses are. "They're really the structure of the mind. And many of the goddesses that are associated with the frame drum are goddesses of language. They are the function of communication. When you research Greek mythology, there are many versions and groupings of muses."
She likens the concept of the muses to that of the chakras, explaining the connecting principal between heaven and earth, our minds and bodies. "The muses are prana, they're chi, the energy that makes consciousness possible. And the techniques for accumulating more chi are breathing practices. The root of the word inspiration means 'to breathe.' So, whether the muses are real or not, the power of inspiration, and how to approach that within ourselves, is real, and there are ancient techniques for doing that." She mentions yoga, visualization, and meditation as a few. She also mentions a new book she's written, Chakra Meditations. "It doesn't matter to me if the chakras really exist either, but it's an incredible system for understanding the different dimensions of our consciousness. I see many correlations between this traditional way of looking at consciousness and the way the Greeks looked at the muses as the structure of the mind."
One of the most important roles Redmond plays is that of instructor. "I teach people to be creative and to access another part of themselves. It's an archetypal stream of information. I don't know if it's inherent in our brains, or if through rhythmic sound we tune into a more ancient stream of information. But I go to Egypt and I see it on the walls in the ancient temples, people moving through rows of drummers. Is it in our minds to do these powerful things? Or does the drum access the ancient remembrance of how the drum was used? I don't know."
Redmond will teach an advanced workshop October 17 through 19 at a retreat in Wyndham. Entitled "Tools of the Ancient Bee Priestesses," the class will focus on the Melissae, ancient women who went into an oracular state while playing the drum and other instruments, accessing the continuum of consciousness. She may also give a slide presentation in the New Paltz/Kingston area in October, but it's not set in stone just yet.
And so Redmond goes right on inspiring, helping others weave the wondrous web of creativity with sumptuous threads. She says Invoking The Muse is the most exciting project she's ever worked on. So far. And she hears many more songs in the drums that are dying to get out. To order the CD, call Sounds True at (800) 333-9185, or visit www.layneredmond.com for the latest
