Join an Interactive Djembe Drumming Show Featuring Renowned Percussionist Chazz Ross

Pasadena Public Library’s La Pintoresca Branch will be hosting renowned percussionist Clarence “Chazz” Ross, as he leads a djembe drumming show at the “Heart-beat Of All Music” on February 21 at 1 p.m.

The show is among the many programs in the city, aimed to commemorate the Black History Month.

A djembe is a rope-tuned skin-covered goblet drum played with bare hands. The instrument has been an integral part of spiritual and ritualistic life in West Africa for many generations.

Ross said djembe is unique in the sense that the skin is extremely tight.

“African drums are played to the heavens — meaning you get your hands off of them immediately. Whereas the Latin drums are played to the ground, to the earth.”

People who will come to watch the upcoming show, he said, will be part of it.

“I bring 26 drums and I have them sit in chairs right beside each other in a semi-circle, facing the audience,” said Ross. “They are the show. So it’s extremely interactive. It’s like an orchestra and I’m the conductor.”

The performance will run from 45 minutes to an hour, as per Ross.

Ross, who has been playing drums for over 30 years expressed the importance of learning about djembe.

“It’s important to understand the nature of the drums and how the communications across the continent were used. Because if you just think about it, talking is just vibrations that we’ve learned to understand. Drums just create vibrations that we can feel, and we get the message from the feeling.”

“And then there are also certain rhythms that actually are known to mean things. So there were a lot of times there, just like any other encryption drummers got to, they can know what rhythm to play to communicate that. And the djembes are extremely loud. And you can hear them from almost miles away when they’re played.”

Ross is the founder of The RHYTHMICS Institute in Los Angeles, whose performance teaching reflects 40 years of achievements in African music and dance, Latin percussion, martial arts, stand-up comedy and acting.

“He plays amazing African and Latin instrument combos with wondrous bursts of excitement,” a bio description on his website says. “His mastery of exotic stick and hand and wind instruments includes didgeridoo, djembe, congos, cajongos, cajon, bongos, kalimba, udo, timbales, whistles, flutes, temple blocks, singing-bowls and harmonica.”

Ross regularly performs at the LA Opera, Aquarium of the Pacific, Skirball Cultural Center, Riverside Drum, Mask and Dance Festival, Juneteenth Celebration-Santa Monica, Honor Thy Father Awards, Burbank City Council, San Bernardino County Fair, Forest Lawn, Survivor TV Show, Wooli-Me Expo and The NAACP Awards.

He has shared stages with Al Jarreau, Chaka Khan, Phil Perry, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, Malcolm Jamal-Warner, Eddie Griffin, Ray Brooks, DangerMan, Liz Lomax, Tommie Davidson, Annie McKnight, Rashad Muhammad, George Makinto, McTate Stroman, Shafeeq, HB Barnum, Marcus Johnson, Mykal Ali, Ella Joyce, Richard Gant, Peggi Blu, Mekeel Rueben, Louis Gossett Jr., Low Riders (War) and the Oba-Oba Brazilian Dance Troupe.

Click here to cancel reply.