[Randy] The first time I REALLY heard the didge was when I was given a copy of the Tjapukai Dancers album, "Proud to be Aborigine." I was in high school, and a friend of my mother who had just come back from Australia basically said, "your son likes weird music, have him listen to this!" It's an interesting tape... one side of traditional stuff, songs with and without didge, and some great didge solos and duos. Very nice contemporary Aboriginal stuff. The other side is basically pop that they do with the didge. It was actually about as good an intro to the didge as I could possibly have gotten. Hearing really good Aboriginal players, both in a traditional and modern setting. This is the history... and this is one of the possibilities for integrating the didge in the modern day, all on one tape. For those who don't know, Tjapukai Dancers is the troupe started by David Hudson, so it's a well known Aboriginal player, and others he chooses to play with. And I must say, the didge playing is more interesting than anything on his solo albums on Celestial Harmonies.
But what that album didn't provide for me was a sense that this was something I could be doing. It left me with, "maybe someday I'll meet somebody who can play one of those." I was doing a lot of MIDI stuff, and actually made my first didge piece with a sample of a riff from that tape. Kind of a progressive rock sort of thing with synth, piano, electric guitar, drum machine. I actually still think it's pretty good, to this day. But very few will ever hear it, if I get my way.
I was getting more and more into "world music" (as opposed to music that isn't from this world), largely thanks to the music of Peter Gabriel and his new (at the time) Real World label. I was into 70's prog rock like the early Yes and Genesis, and King Crimson. I sort of followed Gabriel into his interest in world music, while I was also gaining interest in "new music" as they call it, modern academic composition for traditional western instruments and electronics.
So I went off and studied composition at the University of California at San Diego, which has a well known modern academic music program. But the world music interest was still strong. I took a seminar called "the unusual in world music" with a genius trumpet player/composer/madman named Ed Harkins. Here was where I first learned a good deal about many things which are huge influences, like break singing, harmonic singing, kechak, etc etc. And when it came to the didgeridoo portion, he brought out a piece of pvc. It was the first time I had heard that drone coming from right in front of me. And the first time the didge went from something people did on the other side of the world to something I could do. Ed also played some Outback as an example of modern usage, and I rushed out to buy that. It says in the liner notes to the "Dance the Devil Away" cd that Graham Wiggins learned on plastic and cardboard tubes. The moment I read that, I wandered around the house, and ended up with some wrapping paper tubes, and started making nasty noises. An hour later I settled on the vacuum cleaner tube that would become my main instrument for 3 months. I was of course instantly hooked.
[Ed] I don't know if you find this interesting or not, but my first exposure to didj music was also Proud to be Aborigine by the Tjapukai Dancers and I also was started making my first sounds on vacuum cleaner wands.
[Randy] That is interesting. That's a pretty rare tape, and great to learn from, as I said. And I definitely recommend vacuum cleaner didging. Especially the flex tubes, which you can whirl around your head as you play.
[Ed] Tell me about the formation of Didginus, how did it start?
[Randy] I had been playing for a couple of years mostly in isolation. As I was coming from a musical background, studying music at a university, I wasn't one of those people who decided to start performing with the thing as soon as I got circular breathing. I wanted to attain a basic level of mastery before going public, to give the didge proper respect as an instrument, and to not encourage the public's ignorance of the instrument. I had started to do a little bit of playing around UCSD, demo-ing in classes, playing with people here and there, but never really working to start a group and get out much.
When I finally did feel ready to start playing out, and call myself a didgeridoo player rather than a musician who was playing around with the didge, I started looking for others interested in so-called "ethnic music." Greg Callahan was the first person I knew I wanted to work with. He was a fellow music student at UCSD, studying voice. He had approached me after seeing me play didge, as he was interested in the instrument and Aboriginal culture. It turned out that he was also interested in harmonic chant, as practiced by David Hykes, so we started haunting the echoey hallways of UCSD doing overtone singing and didging. Little did I know until months later that Greg was also going to turn out to be a great djembe player. I brought him along to some jam sessions mainly as a vocalist, and he said he'd bring his drum too. So I got more than I bargained for there. Greg and I performed at a UCSD Graduate Student improvisation concert, using harmonic chant, didge, and djembe, and then a few weeks later headed off to Allan Shockley's 1996 birthday party/concert in Tucson, where we performed a very well-received set and started getting connected with the US didge community.
The summer before I had started the search for other musicians with an ad in the local weekly. I said something like, "didgeridoo/koto/guitar player/overtone vocalist seeking other musicians who know what these instruments are, particularly wind players and percussionists." I got about a dozen calls, and had a few jam sessions with various groups of people. One of the most interesting was Larry Cammarata, as he had been collecting wind and percussion instruments for something like 20 years. He played native American flute, suling, khaen, kalimba, djembe, asheko, etc. We had a fun little jam, but he was busy with another group and not ready to start something new yet.
Meanwhile, I started another group that included Greg and also percussionist Ray Conseur, who had been a jazz and rock kit player for 20+ years and had recently begun collecting hand percussion and all sorts of bells and whistles from the world over. He and Greg enjoyed playing together a great deal.
But that group didn't seem to be heading anywhere. Larry and I got together a few more times, and his other group started to fizzle. He mentioned to me that his wife, Linda Stutting, was a singer and songwriter interested in ethnic music, so we decided to try that combo out. I was really interested in adding a female voice, and Linda also provides most of the lyrics- and a tremendous amount of energy. I brought Greg along to that first jam, we tried another percussionist or two, and then we had the beginnings of Didginus. When I finally let the other new group fizzle, I brought Ray along to complete the group. This was all pretty settled by December 1995, and Didginus was formed.
Then we had our first gig in late January 1996. In the audience was Tony Karasek, who had played sitar, tablas, and other instruments of India and the Middle East, for about 30 years, and had recently begun studying with Ravi Shankar. He loved the potential he saw in the group, and soon became a part time member. His life got pretty busy when he became a full disciple of Ravi Shankar, and a member of his touring ensemble. Tony announced that he'd be heading off for a year long tour with Shankar, so we went ahead and did our first cd, "Into the Soul," without him.
But Tony's back around now, and was fortunately available for our show out
at Dave Crowder's Boulder Didgeridoo Solstice Celebration, which we recorded
and will be releasing by early December as our second cd, "More Than Alive."
[Ed] Yes, you sent me two cuts from that performance and I'm really looking forward to getting the CD. The first cut, which I found incredibly powerful, had some spoken word which cut right through to me as if I was being spoken to in the first person. Can you tell me a little about the source for the spoken word?
[Randy] The text is from Jellaludin Rumi, the 13th century Sufi poet, via American translator Coleman Barks. Larry has a few books of Coleman's translations of Rumi, and has used the poems in music projects for years. In addition to that text which has gotten great response from a lot of people, we use another poem on a track called "Feel This Love," which appears both on our first cd and the new live one. Coleman Barks has been very generous with us, allowing us to use his translations. There's a chance we'll get to meet up with him in the not too distant future, by playing at a conference he's speaking at. We're hoping the deal goes through, and we'll be able to perform the two songs with Coleman himself speaking the text.
[Ed] Tell me about your involvement with the "US didge community". Who have you connected with and how do you see the community presently? Is it a "community" or a dysfunctional family or all of the above?
[Randy] Interesting that you should ask. Suggests to me that you have something to say on the subject. Hmmm.
As far as my involvement and who I'm connected with, it really all started with Allan Shockley. When he first brought me out for his show, I got to meet Karl Sacksteder and Dave Rentz, who are amazing guys. And we all had such a grand time together that we can't wait for the yearly gathering. I also got to meet everyone out there in the Tucson scene. That's a really warm community out there based around Allan. It's such a pleasure to be a part of his show every year, and I've also headed out there to do shows and workshops at other times.
The second year in Tucson, I met Dave Crowder, who then connected me to the list. I had known about it before and looked at the archives once in a while, but never was interested in getting much email. Well, everyone out there in Tucson that year got mad at me for not knowing about Didj Planet, so I had to get on the list. And more friendships have developed since. Mostly with California folk and whoever has decided to make the voyage out to Allan's party. Last year in Tucson, I had the pleasure of meeting Alana Cini, whom I'd heard about for years, and a lot more listers came out, like Joanne Busse, Bill Hudson, Ron Sill, and Brandi Chase, whom I'd already had the pleasure of meeting the week before in San Diego. Dave's Solstice gathering in Boulder also was a great opportunity to meet list members. It was a pleasure meeting everyone out there, and seeing old friends like Dave, and of course Brandi, who had since moved out to California, so we were in touch quite a bit.
So the moral of the story is GO TO THESE EVENTS IF IT'S AT ALL POSSIBLE. Heck, the last Boulder gathering was pretty much life changing for me.
I guess that in talking about the US didge scene, I would be remiss not to mention Peter Spoecker's Didge USA Project. The fact that that actually came together is a good sign. I'm glad I'm going to be included on that cd. And I was connected with Peter through the same old circles... I think it was either Allan or Dave Crowder who told Peter to get in touch with me.
As far as making a judgment on the State of the Didge Community goes, it's a human community, which means it has its ups and downs, and members of drastically different opinions. It's also mostly divided between two types of communities. An online community which gives you that cushion of virtual communication, and a network of one or two key people in a few cities, which gives you isolation from the community almost to the point where you feel you're the only one doing this sort of music.
There is a bit of trouble sometimes in professional circles, because of how spread out we all are. Some didgers feel the need to be THE didger in their city or state or whatever. There's always nasty competition in the music industry, but it's somewhat different for the didge. Perhaps it's the nature of the instrument... people pick up the didge, and get known as "the didge guy" around town, and like being known as this unique figure. So they feel threatened when another "didge guy" shows up. I know I've had trouble when I ask people for even the simplest of help in coming to other towns for shows or workshops... some get defensive of their territory. The way I see it is that we need to build a scene together. What if there was only one guitar player in every city of the country, and each guitar player tried to keep all the others away? It's a ridiculous limitation. Everybody would get bored of that one guitar player, and lose interest in the instrument as a whole, saying, "oh yeah, I've already heard the guitar, I know what it sounds like, I don't need to hear it again."
That's why shows like Allan's and cd's like Peter's are great. Here are a bunch of people working with this instrument in the US. Willing to share the spotlight for everyone's good. Expose people to the different possibilities of the instrument as expressed by different people, and then it becomes interesting to more of the public.
[Ed] This might be a tough question. You and I swapped a couple of DATs recently just to get to know each other a bit musically. Our only prior connection was through the "Famous Didjeridu List" server. I know that for me, your DAT inspired me in some technical areas, but most of all I felt a human to human connection which is somewhat elusive in just email conversations. Can you talk a bit about the experience of communicating with other didj players through the Internet? Has it been useful? Insightful? Trying?
[Randy] For me, the didj list is mostly about making the connections and beginnings of friendships to be further explored in real life. There's only so much you can just "chat" about the didgeridoo, so the list alone without the possibilities for real community is unattractive to me. It's sort of a filter on society to first find people with a common interest, and then you can go from there. And then you maintain these long distance friendships via the net.
So that's the way it has been most useful to me. Even with people like Dave Crowder who I met in person first, the connection would never have continued as it did without email. Thanks to that, I've been out to Boulder twice in the past year for very productive trips- to meet up with David Hykes, whom I'd been corresponding with for a while, and for the Boulder Solstice Celebration. In Boulder I was able to meet for the first time with list members like John Madill, John Arntz, Lee Parker, Julia Wilmerding, etc, and not have to start from scratch figuring out who these people are. And of course there's the possibility that I'm going to get to come up there and get to work with you in Oregon, along with some other trips in the works thanks to listmembers around the country. So for me, the list mainly boils down to "networking," both professionally and casually. I've gotten gigs and made friends thanks to it.
Then there's the biggest event of recent months for me... bringing Janawirri Yiparrka and Mark Atkins to San Diego, for a taste of Aboriginal playing in Southern California. This was all taken care of via email while they were on tour in Germany, which people here found surprising. People in the U.S. still have romantic notions of Aboriginals all living out bush. Here I was arranging a show with two Aboriginal people via email! And it worked out great... once again, email creating a fantastic "real world" experience. By the way, you can see pictures of this event and a review at my website.
Yes, there have also been trying times, but heck, it's email. Miscommunication or lack of communication will happen. We've all seen the troubles... the departure of Sean Borman, the arguments about the "excess funds" from DP01, etc. I've had a couple of nasty encounters, most of which ended up as the starts of friendships. But I don't worry about it. It'll happen, then people will get over it. With honesty and a little bit of "agreeing to disagree" here and there, things work out.
[Ed] What's in the future for Randy Graves musically? I know you've been busy working on the Didginus Live CD, but where do you want to take your career from here?
[Randy] Hopefully I'll take my career lots of places. Didginus is something I care a lot about and intend to stick with for quite a while, but I don't want it to be the only thing I do. I need to diversify. Let's see... projects in the works...
I've started doing some duet work with Tony Karasek, which debuted a while back as the opener for one of the shows with Janawirri. We each bring a heap of instruments so that we have a constantly changing arrangement throughout our show. Let's see, we featured didge, koto, guitar, voice, frame drum, dumbek, sitar, tabla, sarangi, and ghatam, and a guest on djembe in that hour long set. I like having the smaller, more intimate setup and interaction now and then. Didginus performances are BIG, with a really celebratory atmosphere, while this is more subtle and focused. It also helps cut down the expenses of course, to travel with only two people. And we can also both do lessons in a new town. It's pretty typical for me to do a show and workshop in a town. What I see as a possibility for me and Tony is that he teaches tabla or sitar while I teach didgeridoo, and then we do the show.
Didgeridoo teaching of course is another thing. I've had a great time with that, and feel I have something to offer there, particularly to people interested in the didge seriously as a musical instrument. Not many didge players or teachers come from a university music background like I do. So for people who want to study the didge the way you might study an instrument from the western tradition, I can help. Though I do at times prefer sticking with teaching it as an instrument from an oral culture. That's how I learned... listening and imitation. But for people who are interested, I can teach the didge in terms of technique, phrasing and musicality, breaking down the details, and even write music for the few who want that. I'm also thinking of working with one of the universities to develop some didge classes. The success of Stuart Dempster to do so will hopefully convince academia that this is worthwhile.
I'm also doing more solo performing and recording work. I've been saying all year that I'm going to do a new solo album, but have been pretty busy and also moving around a lot, so I'm lagging on that front. I am working on remixing material from some cassettes I released a few years back, and releasing that on cd. Meanwhile, I am performing solo more, and doing some session work. Just last night I played a party solo, and ended up making a potentially outstanding connection with a pretty famous African-American writer who's working on a spoken word cd for Mercury.
Live performance with theatre and dance is also an interest of mine. This usually involves collaboration with new musicians, which is also a plus. A year back, I became involved with a performance art group called Lynx Performance that does shows incorporating theatre, dance, and music, mostly "ethnic music." Jason Hann, a fantastic LA drummer, is in charge of the music and plays some great djembe and juns. The last show also involved capoeira, so I got to play didge with some good berimbau players. I've done two shows with Lynx, and gotten great reviews in the paper. So I'll probably be doing more of those.
Jason also represents some good prospects for future musical projects. He does a lot of studio work and is well-connected with lots of African musicians... in fact, he's on a soon to be released cd with the musicians from "Les Balletes Africains," a great dance and music show that has toured the US several times in the past few years.
There's a group in San Diego called Damaru that is mostly African drumming. They call me and Jason up to sit in on the big gigs. Thanks to them, in the past year I was able to play at Street Scene, San Diego's largest music festival, where I also got to meet Graham Wiggins, and have played at the Belly Up, San Diego's best club for live music, opening up for and meeting Baaba Maal and his 12 piece band from Senegal, and, just this evening, Jimmy Cliff. Each of these shows means new possibilities and contacts, and who knows where they will lead.
Along with Greg from Didginus and two other musicians, I played live music (more koto than didge) on stage with a martial arts show. That was great fun, and I produced a tape of that, which I'll hopefully be re-releasing on cd soon. It's a fantastic album, I think. Very few copies are out there, but it has gotten nothing but great response from the few who have heard it.
Which brings me to a big project, Ginger Root Records. A friend and I
started this record label earlier this year to promote our own music and
that of our friends. Once we start getting more recordings out there or
have some funding thrown our way, maybe we'll be able to represent other
people in the states doing world music, particularly didge players. We're
also setting up a studio, which will greatly increase our productivity and
allow us to offer inexpensive recording services to our friends and
associates.
You can contact Randy Graves by email at randy@didginus.com. And you can visit
the Didginus website at
www.didginus.com and Ginger Root Records at www.gingerroot.com.
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