(D)RUMINATIONS is the debut recording by The Forest, to be released on June 16, 2024 on the Different Track Recordings label and available on bandcamp.
The album consists of an extended suite that Andrew Drury wrote for The Forest in homage to his mentor, Ed Blackwell, and also features a composition Warren Smith wrote for, and recorded with, M’Boom. Warren Smith and J. D. Parran (bass flute, contra-alto clarinet, bamboo saxophone, and wood flutes) are guest performers on (D)RUMINATIONS.
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Grammy Award winning producer/engineer, Jon Rosenberg, (D)ruminations leads the listener into lush sonic landscapes created by instruments originating from a variety of traditions. The recording highlights the legacy of the legendary drummer, Ed Blackwell, and advances a largely neglected tradition of the composing, improvising, multi-cultural percussion ensemble.
The composition, “(D)ruminations for Edward Blackwell,” is a four-part, 44 minute suite that uses material culled from the Don Cherry/Ed Blackwell duo recordings “Mu First Part” and “Mu Second Part” from 1969. Blackwell was one of the most melodic drummers ever to play a drum set making his work ideal for compositional exploration. Andrew Drury mentored with Blackwell from 1983 until 1992 and recently began the (D)ruminations series to explore specific drum melodies, patterns, sonic images, memories, and other ideas that emerged from his time listening to and studying with Blackwell, memories that have lovingly haunted Drury’s musical imagination for over 40 years.
Warren Smith’s composition “Elements of a Storm,” was composed for the percussion ensemble Smith co-founded with Max Roach and others, M’Boom, in 1969. It can be heard on M’Boom’s records Re:percussion (Strata East, 1973) and Collage (Soul Note, 1984). On this version members of The Forest play body percussion and five timpanis while Smith guides it and also plays gongs, bass drums, and triangle.
UPCOMING PERFORMANCE
JUNE 16, 2024, 3PM
(D)RUMINATIONS CD RELEASE PERFORMANCE
+ WARREN SMITH AUTOBIOGRAPHY RELEASE
THE FOREST
with guests J. D. Parran & Warren Smith
The Andrew Freedman Home
1125 Grand Concourse
Bronx, NY
4 to 167th St (30 minutes from Grand Central)
B/D to 167th St (40 minutes from Times Square)
BAND BIOGRAPHIES
GUSTAVO AGUILAR is an interdisciplinary artist whose approach combines the archive (preconceived elements such as notation, texts, documents) and the repertoire (present-conceived elements such as gesture, orality, aurality). A Brownsville, Texas native, Gustavo has performed at major festivals throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. Gustavo is Co-Artistic Director of Tug an interdisciplinary arts collective that creates contact zones where people can generate insights about, and produce actions around, contemporary social issues. Gustavo is Associate Arts Professor at the Tisch School of the Arts/NYU and faculty in the MFA Art Practice at the School of Visual Arts, NYC.
LEAH BOWDEN (D.M.A.) is a drummer/percussionist, music scholar and educator. She has recorded and toured with The Forest, red fish blue fish, William Winant Percussion Group, Kid Millions, Secret Drum Band, International Contemporary Ensemble, Cosmo Gold, and Baby Bushka, among others. After completing an ethnographic dissertation study of Max Roach and M’Boom at UC San Diego, Leah became the official archivist for M’Boom co-founder, Warren Smith. She also arranged and recorded the music of M’Boom with El Otro Lado, a bi-national percussion ensemble (USA/ Mexico). Leah is an Adjunct Music Professor at Springfield College.
ANDREW DRURY grew up near Seattle and mentored with Ed Blackwell from 1983-92. Drury has pioneered extended wind and friction techniques for drums, performing in 30 countries and on 80 recordings with musicians including Wadada Leo Smith, Myra Melford, Frank Lacy, Tomeka Reid, Annea Lockwood, Jason Kao Hwang, Satoko Fujii, Michel Doneda, and James Brandon Lewis. Drury has led over 1,500 workshops with vulnerable populations in shelters, prisons, Nicaraguan villages, refugee communities, and in 20 universities on three continents. He has produced over 200 Soup & Sound concerts every where from his home to Lincoln Center. He directs the non-profit organization, Continuum Culture & Arts.
LESLEY MOK (percussionist, composer, bandleader, interdisciplinary artist) works in sound, installation, film, and theater. Interested in how social conditions shape being, Mok’s work draws from queer and feminist art practices, Chinese philosophy, Caribbean folkloric traditions, and more. Mok has toured internationally and recorded Myra Melford's Fire and Water featuring Ingrid Laubrock, Tomeka Reid, and Mary Halvorson, and recently completed a weeklong residency at SF Jazz with Kenny Barron featuring John Patitucci, Jen Shyu, and Kalia Vandever. Mok’s compositions have been performed by I.C.E., the JACK Quartet, and their own ten-piece improvising chamber ensemble, The Living Collection.
MICHAEL WIMBERLY (percussionist, composer, producer, educator) has performed with George Clinton and Parliament Funkedelic, Paul Winter Consort, Steve Coleman, Henry Rollins, D'Angelo, Dionne Warwick, Valerie Simpson, Charles Gayle, and David Murray. Wimberly has been featured with Vienna’s Rundfunk Symphony, Tonkuntsler Symphony, and Leipzig Symphony. His compositions for dance are in the repertory of Urban Bush Women, Joffrey II, Alvin Ailey, Philadanco, Complexions, and The National Song and Dance Company of Mozambique. Two of his film scores appear on HBO productions and his latest CD “Afrofuturism” is on Temple Mountain Records. Since 2012 he has been fulltime faculty at Bennington College.
J D PARRAN plays multiple clarinets, saxophones and flutes. His virtuosity and mastery over a number of extended techniques has made him a valued collaborator with Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill, Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, Amir Elsaffar, Anthony Davis and others. Parran has collaborated and appeared on recordings with leading musical practitioners (Andrew Hill, Marty Ehrlich, Hamiet Bluiett, Douglas Ewart, James Jabbo Ware, Robert Dick, Ned Rothenberg, Jimmy Owens, Andrew Drury, George E. Lewis, Don Byron, Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill, Wadada Leo Smith, Leroy Jenkins, Stevie Wonder, Lena Horne, John Lennon and Yoko Ono. His recordings as leader include J D Parran and Spirit Stage, Omegathorp: Living City, Kokopilau and Window Spirits: Solo. J D was at Harlem School of the Arts for 28 years and continues teaching at Borough of Manhattan Community College CUNY and Greenwich House Music School where he leads the definitive jazz orchestra, Dance Clarinets.
WARREN SMITH—Jazz drummer, conservatory trained percussionist, composer, arranger, bandleader, Loft Era proprietor of Studio WIS, and among the first generation of jazz educators at the university level, Warren Smith has performed on more than 3,000 record dates and countless performances with Aretha Franklin, Harry Partch, Miles Davis, Count Basie, Barbra Streisand, Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte, Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Nat King Cole, Anthony Braxton, The Last Poets, The Fugs, Gladys Knight and the Pips, John Cage, George Russell, Julius Hemphill, Lena Horne, Quincy Jones, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Judy Collins, Marvin Gaye, Roberta Flack, The Duke Ellington Orchestra under Mercer Ellington, and Joe Zawinul, to name a few. He was a member of Leonard Bernstein’s original West Side Story orchestra, was Janis Joplin’s Music Director at the height of her fame, and a member Tony Williams’ Lifetime, and a founding member with Max Roach and others of the seminal percussion ensemble, M’Boom.
THE FOREST (D)RUMINATIONS
releases June 16, 2024
GUSTAVO AGUILAR bass drum, gongs, vibraphone, sleigh bells, metal objects, wood flute, samba whistle, triangle, conga, slide flute, body percussion, timpani
LEAH BOWDEN Tibetan bells, marimba, snare drum, metal objects, drum set, metal objects, aux. percussion, body percussion, timpani
ANDREW DRURY drum set, piano, voice, floor tom played as wind instrument, shakers, hand claps
LESLEY MOK conga, drum set, timpani, bongos
MICHAEL WIMBERLY djembe, glockenspiel, marimba, sleigh bells, wood flute, metal objects, drum set, aux. percussion, piano
SPECIAL GUESTS
WARREN SMITH timpani, gongs, bass drums
J.D. PARRAN contra-alto clarinet, bass flute, soprano saxophone, bamboo saxophone, wood flutes
Recorded June 10 & 11, 2022 and March 7, 2023
The Bunker, Brooklyn, NY
Engineer: Jon Rosenberg
Assistant engineers: Nolan Thies and Alex Conroy
Mastering: Jon Rosenberg
Producer: Andrew Drury
Photographs: Andrew Drury
Design: Cheryl Richards
(D)ruminations for Edward Blackwell
© Andrew Drury, Andrumo Music, BMI, 2023
Elements of a Storm
© Warren Smith, Miff Music, BMI 1970
This recording was made possible with the support of Continuum Culture & Arts, Inc. a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, and Jazz Road, a national initiative of South Arts, which was funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Special Thanks: Sara Donnelly, Jess Porter, Jordana Leigh, Bonnie Whiting, James Falzone, Brian Chin, Steve Rowland, Phillip Chance, Vinny Golia, Tim Feeney, Cristian Amigo, David Borgo, Stephanie Richards, Anton Reid, Yale Lewis, Sheri Cohen, Dave Knott, Holly Michelle Eckert, Aine Pearson, Chai Smith, Ash Drury, Kevin Gaul, Becca Paisley, Phil Skaller, and Alissa Schwartz.
(D)ruminations was created with the support of Continuum Culture & Arts, a non-profit 501(C)(3) organization, and Jazz Road, a national initiative of South Arts, which is funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.