Drummers raise the roof at Music Festival

ONE minute guests were enjoying a lovely concert at Queen's Hall, but the next minute were spirited away to a different realm by an overwhelmingness erupting from vigorous drumming by a Tobago group. On March 20, the Music Festival championship heard the larger-than-life sounds of the Y'Aim African Drumming Ensemble, followed by the Fatima College Rhythms of Blue and Gold Drumming Ensemble.

They created a sound that was mammoth yet comforting, ancient yet dominating, and novel yet strangely familiar like an ancestral heartbeat.

For Y'Aim, it kicked off when the lead drummer hit a note to have all 12 drummers and three percussionists bow their heads to the audience.

They played their drums in a frenzy, interspersed with chanting and rhythmic handclapping, aided by three percussionists, one dancing vigourously centre-stage.

Fatima in turn kept up a flambouyant showmanship throughout.

At one point, five drummers took their drums front-stage, all to be beaten by the lead drummer, while four drummers clapped hands in time.

Fatima College Music teacher Leon Grey later told Newsday, "It was a long journey the boys embarked on. They showed a lot of discipline, sacrifice, commitment, and love for the art of drumming." Glad the boys had advanced from regionals to championship, he hoped they would keeping drumming into the future.

"Half of the group started to learn drumming in September 2023. The other half would have learnt from primary school at Sacred Heart Boys and they transitioned into Fatima College and we started the group last year September.

"They won the San Fest competition the first time they entered, and this is the first time the school has entered the drumming ensemble in the Music Festival and thank God we have come out victorious."

Newsday asked about the mood among boys drumming together.

Grey said, "I think it builds a sort of togetherness amongst them. There are some rhythms that will evoke different types of emotions within you. The boys, over the years I have realized not only in Fatima but in other primary school groups which I also assist, it helps them gel and support each other.

"In the school environment you will see them come together, and they encourage others to come and be a part of this and they try to keep boys on the straight and narrow path. That support they have amongst each other, I think is important at this point."

Fatima drama teacher Kizzie Phillips, who has been a part of the Music Festival for years, agreed. "I endorse everything he said. I think the drumming has glued the boys together in a way I've not really seen otherwise. The only other thing – maybe I'm being biased as the theatre teacher – is drama.

"The drumming really done something among the boys. There is a brotherhood, a togetherness.

"This is where we need on a national level to endorse the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education as a united force to come together to have drumming on the syllabus. We have the teachers on board, coming in." She said drumming can help shape a sense of identity, across the nation.

"That is what we have seen with our boys – tremendous transformation, love for the instrument, coming together.

"Even when you don't have practice, they are coming together, they are doing their thing.

"It has done something. It has done something. It can be like an archetype for a programme, even with our youth that have gone astray. It can be used in that way, and that is very positive. It can really go places."

He said a drum cost could start at $1,200, with the big bass drums reaching up to $6,000, if made by an individual, but if made by a company can be twice that price."

Grey hailed the late Peter Telfer of the drumming group, the Mawasi Experience, for crafting a beat known as the Creator Rhythm.

He thanked the college's admin and teachers for their support including helping the group buy drums.

Grey said a key ingredient to the boys' success was "the support and encouragement of the parents."