The Didjeri News, Portland's Didjeridu Newletter

January 1999 - Perspectives on 1998 by Ed Drury

The past year has been filled with insights and re-occurring themes for those who are paying attention. And as one who has been trying to pay attention, I thought it might be appropriate to write about some of the events and insight gathered from meeting, and interviewing, many other didjeridu players. One issue which kept re-occuring for me was the differences between the roles the didjeridu plays in different cultures and hands. This issue is beautifully summed up in a book I read this past year. The book is "Afterlife Before Genesis" by David H Turner. He writes, "In the Aboriginal tradition the didjeridoo is an Egoless instrument - a force for Forming relationships - not a means of getting in touch with your 'inner self' or spirit." He goes on to say," The inner spirit is only contacted so that it can be expelled elsewhere." (p.245)

Issues surrounding this interpretation of the Aboriginal didjeridu tradition and the 'new age' would be brought to my attention again and again in the course of doing performances, working with the general public and interviewing players throughout the year. Time and again, I was confronted with various 'spins' or rationalizations for the way things "are". What will survive of the 'traditional' view long enough to be imparted to "those who are paying attention?"

One project, I had the good fortune to play a small part in this year was to contribute to Peter Spoecker's definitive compilation on didjeridu playing in the United States. "Didgeridoo USA" is a collection of 146 minutes of music from 19 artists. Fortune again blessed me when Peter consented to an interview. I decide to hit the issues of tradition verses newer innovations. His answers provided almost a Bach like countermelody to what I had read in Dr. Turner's excellent book. Consider the following exchange :

[Peter] I think you can reduce the whole issue very simply. What makes a buck will survive and the rest won't. This is the ultimate form of democracy in action. You vote for what you want with your wallet. I think in any case that the real excitement with didge is what us enthusiastic "newcomers" are doing with playing and didge making. The Aborigines have had their 50,000 years of it and are probably glad to let us have a go at it now while they discover the thrills of forming rock bands. Some of these are really great too. I love a rock act with Aboriginal lyrics in the songs and with a didge for rhythmic accents. Incidentally of all the Aboriginal rock bands I've heard, I'd put Yothu Yindi in the bottom third. They were just the first and carved out a big place for themselves commercially. Sort of similar to the American pop music scene isn't it? The guys making the biggest bucks aren't necessarily the most creative musicians, just the guys that were in the right place at the right time with the right marketing punch behind them.

It seems that when I've been seeking truth this past year, I've found the people who speak it! My example of the Western Arnhem Land style, was not arbitrary. I had already begun the incredible task of bringing the White Cockatoo Performing group to Portland for a concert and a workshop with the best known exponent of this style of didjeridu accompanyment, Mr. David Blanasi. This was a tremendous experience which featured one of my oldest friends: irony. As the dates drew near and the dream of bringing a real tradtional aboriginal musical group to Portland became a reality, I had delegated almost all the actual work away to everyone else. With it, I gave up the illusion of control. I did get to meet all the performers and had some meaningful private conversations with David Blanasi and David Yirindili of the Barunga and Maningrida communities respectively. I also got to observe many of my fellow Portland area didjeridu players interact with David Blanasi. It was at this time that I read an incredible passage from a book by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. "When we are joyful , we don't look for perfection ....Perfection hides; imperfection shows off." ("An Intimate Note to the Sincere Seeker", Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, p. 7)This was most evident at the workshop! Profoundly affected by the experience with Mr. Blanasi, my dearest friends made me very proud. Michael Stirling, Lisa Drury, Rick Dusek, Rainer Malinowski and John Burrows re-affirmed my belief in and commitment to chasing all ego from my musical path. There were many other examples of this commitment present and those who were willing to do so, grew tremendously. Those who were not, persisted to, as Sri Shankar put it so well, "show off."

It was during this time that I was interviewing the virtuoso didjeridu player, David Hudson. Again this theme around the use of the didjeridu outside the culture who owns the tradtition shows up. This time, around the instruments. First, another quote from "Genesis After Life". "New Age players favor curved bell-bottom didjeridoos to maximize the overtones and amplify the sound coming out the end. What they want is an 'out of control sound'. Aboriginal players by contrast want complete control over the overtones..." (p.245). Consider the following exchange from my interview with David Hudson :

[ Ed] With the popularity of the Didjeridu in western culture, there has been all kinds of "flash" added to the basic instrument to make it bigger, longer, big bells and extra. I noticed that most Aboriginal player have really pretty simple requirements which have little to do with big booming low tones. I imagine all this "opinions" of what a proper instrument is must at some point contradict what you've been taught and know is true. Can you describe the traditional didj as you know it? How it's harvested, prepared?

[David] The big belled didgeridoo has become a trend and for folks that really don't know much about it, it seems to be that to have a good didge it has to have a bell. (wrong)I could go on for another page on this question, but to cut to the chase, give me any day, a straight/curved, light didge that travels well and is easy to carry and nice to hold when playing.Most of the didge's That I travel with are very plain looking but have it's traditional markings to signify where it comes from.

For your interest--- In my personal collection I have 88, that I have made and kept because of its originality or been given to me as gifts.In my collection of logs I have didgeridoo's that are over forty years old and they are cut quite simple and not much work done to them at all. Actually all those ones that are over twenty years don't have a bell? We have certainly seen the changes in shapes,acrylic paint replaces ochres, people are cutting didge's which have three or four stems coming down into the one hole at the end. But hey for the times they are a changin.

During the time that the White Cockatoo Tour was here, I was blessed to share my home and the experience with John Burrows from Olympia Washington and Rick Dusek from Las Vegas Nevada. Their leaving created a lonely void in my life. I didn't have to wait long for that to be filled. In a few weeks, John returned with the "Wandering Didj". A project started earlier this year by Guan Lim, the wandering didj is an authentic instrument from the NE Arnhemland coastal region touring the world passing from signatory to signatory of a list of "hosts". Part of the joy of this project is to have people from around the world share playing an authentic traditional instrument, record a sample of their playing and document it's passage with a few comments in a Journal which is traveling with it. So, still trying to grasp the subtle, simple yet elusive Beswick playing style, into my hands comes an instrument which insists to be played with the pops and staccato tonguing style of the Yolgnu players. Information overload? Perhaps, but to digress and paraphrase, " Joy does not seek perfection". I was joyful, a one hell of a long ways from perfection. The jams which John and I shared during is brief stay were marked by laughter and absurd moments of "falling" out of rhythm. Our efforts to capture certain rhythms seemed to always lead into chaos. But it was the joyful chaos of fun and play. I gained a lot of insights in those two days. Together, we watched Charlie McMahon's excellent documentary on the Didjeridu which featured David Blanasi and watching it was like enjoying old friends. ("Didjeridu", Log Music, PO Box 212, Rozelle NSW 2039 Australia logmusic@fl.net.au)

With 1998 coming to a close, the fruit of another project is being shipped. Didjeridu Planet, Volume Two is completed and on it's way to contributors and Didjeridu Digest members from around the world. My friend Rainer Malinoski and I are featured playing together on a track called "Duet in D". Appropriate to the kind of year it's been, Rainer plays a didjeridu he bought in Germany made by David Blanasi and I play a didjeridu I bought from Alan Shockley. I also play with the band Jawihge, who is featured on another track which was excerpted from Jawighe's only tape release. The members of Jawighe are Michael Kennet, Andy Sterling, Padrice Stewart and myself.

In July of 1998, Jawighe was one of several acts to perform in the "Breathe Deep" concert in Portland Oregon. After the performance, my friend Michael Stirling and I resolved to work together in the future. Our first project will be a concert at Marylhurst University's E L Wieland Hall on January 22nd, 8 pm. It will feature the collaboration of our friendship and shared experience of learning, teaching and performing over the last decade. So the echoes of 1998 will continue at least into the first part of 1999.

All of the people I interviewed this past year have been very gracious and tolerant of my questions. Special thanks to Randy Graves and Brandi Chase who tolerated my intrusive questions and severe craziness. David Hudson, who gave generously of his time and compassionately supported my working out of several private issues above and beyond his honest, clear and thoughtful answers to my questions. Peter Spoecker for not only a great interview but several tips and leads, not the least of which was leading me to Allen Smith. Allen provided me with not only a very timely interview, but some powerful music in his CD "Clarion". Sean Borman who was a reluctant informant, but a great one and as author of the Dreamtime WWW Server, an important one. Karl Kalbaugh, who masterfully produced Didjeridu Planet One and with whom I currently working on a great project, but I'll leave writing about that for 1999.