St. Timothy's Chapel finishes the 2015 Summer Music Festival with a polyrhythmic bang. Drum Brothers, the Montana-based percussion ensemble, translates their decades-long immersion in West African and Hindustani rhythms and melodies into high-energy performances.
"Rhythmic patterns appear throughout the universe, from the very small to the very large. Atoms are patterns of probability waves, molecules are vibrating structures, and living organisms manifest multiple, interdependent patterns of fluctuations." - Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics
In a typical Drum Brothers show, you'll hear a mixture of African, Asian, and European musical elements, including African jembe and doun-doun drums; Middle Eastern and Persian udu and frame drums; Australian didgeridoo; Western flute; classical guitar; soprano saxophone; and plenty of sibling harmony vocals. "I highly recommend them to any community! But BEWARE! Their energy is contagious!" says Janice Torry of the Salmon Arts Council.
The four-member group gave its first formal performance at First Night Missoula in 1994. Since then, they've performed at festivals throughout the Northwest and have been a featured act at the Seattle World Rhythm Festival, sharing the stage with South Africa's Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Mali's Abdoul Doumbia. Members Matthew Marsolek, Lawrence Duncan, Michael Marsolek, Colin Ruggiero are all performers and educators, teaching classes and clinics around the U.S. and in Canada to enthusiastic groups of all ages.
You can hear Drum Brothers at St. Timothy's Memorial Chapel, which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this summer, in the old mining town of Southern Cross, high above Georgetown Lake, on Sunday, August 23 at 4:00 p.m.
