BOOM! International Festival Of Percussion was a week-long homage to drumming, tapping and pounding – the first ever international percussion festival in Sydney. Congratulations to the organisers, Percussion Australia. The Festival opened at the Town Hall October 1 with performances by Synergy Percussion and Taikoz. The closing October 8 concert at the Seymour Centre opened with Circle of Rhythm’s Greg Sheehan’s marvellous solo on an Ozark-type harp. The group then swung into magical Indian vibes with a percussion string instrument made especially for Ben Walsh. Sadly, the rain prevented the third member of the trio, Bobby Singh, from being there.
Caribé performed next. This group melds musicians and a dancer from Sydney’s Cuban, jazz and Latin communities. Titled ‘Havana Return’, projections of archival footage of Cuban musicians immersed the audience in dancing and chanting. Saxophonist Gai Bryant’s compositions blend traditional and classic Cuban forms into a contemporary sound. The percussion and rhythm section was Giorgio Rojas, Julio Candela, Cesar Marin, and Daniel Pliner. The dancer was Cruz Vazquez Borges. The enthusiasm and spontaneity of Lee McIver, James Greening, Gai Bryant, Tim Clarkson and Nick Barnard punching out melodies to move to and producing fiery solos is impossible to resist.
In between the opening and closing concerts there were workshops, jamming sessions, a dozen public concerts, masterclasses, international live streams and more! There was Afro-Peruvian Jazz, new percussion solos by Australian women composers, Afro-Cuban, the Waldo Fabian sextet, the Circle of Rhythm, the World of Tabla, and plenty of Australian talent including Taikoz and Synergy Percussion.
As the Artistic Director Ian Cleworth says “I am very proud of the program that our Percussion Australia team has put together. While by no means exhaustive – the world of percussion is as big as the world itself! – we have endeavoured to capture something of the breadth and depth of percussive practice, and our wish is to share it with as many of you as we can. Rhythm is common to us all …the movements of the day, breath in-out, beat, sound, rhythm.”
The BOOM! Festival played the Seymour Centre between October 1 and October 8, 2022. The BOOM! Festival will be back again in 2024.
To keep up with the news of drumming, tapping, jazzing, jingling and striking almost anything to create a rhythm, go to: https://percussionaustralia.com.au/
“Percussion Australia is the centre of a thriving community of artists, educators, students, supporters, and collaborators. Home to two globally recognised music ensembles Synergy Percussion and Taikoz, leading taiko training facility the Australian Taiko Academy, and music festival ‘Boom! International Festival of Percussion’. We enable, encourage and produce collaborative projects, new compositions, public performances, workshops, classes, festivals, pre-professional training and ensembles plus more.”
Review by Carol Dance
