Drum Major

                             

Rick Kramer, leader of Joia, seen many times before on these pages. They describe themselves as a world rhythm ensemble and turn up at all sorts of public celebrations. Rick certainly has a lot of flair.

It's hard to appreciate what they do without hearing them. Here's an audio clip from their performance at Earth Day. Crank up the volume.

Concert For Kathmandu Kids- Joia

The other main act at the Mitrata Nepal Foundation's fundraiser was Joia. I can only describe it as a percussion orchestra. Their performances aren't just jam sessions, although they can be at times. The group has set pieces of incredible rhythmic complexity and drive. It's impossible to sit still in their presence.

Click any of the videos on their home page for a sample. It's good for what ails you.            

Concert For Kathmandu Kids

Long-time readers know that my wife and I support the Mitrata Nepal Foundation (see bottom of right sidebar), which provides a loving home, education, health care and nutrition in Kathmandu. We've visited there and met the young woman we sponsor. Contributions are very, very well spent.

Last night was the Concert For Kathmandu Kids, an annual event. I was the house photographer. The headliners were the amazing Dawn Weber, above, and The Lou's supercharged percussion ensemble, Joia. I got a ton of good pix but it's really late as I write this. More to come.

Joia

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Joia is the free-form percussion band nonpareil. We saw a bit of them on Sunday They lead the parade at every Earth Day and every Cinco de Mayo - People's Joy Parade. (I was invited to shoot this year's edition but I'll be in New York. Damn.) Click the link to their web site and you can hear some of their amazing stuff.

Got home from work really late last night. I think there's an Arch pic somewhere for tomorrow. More comments when life takes off the thumbscrews. But there are things to look forward to: a conference in Philadelphia next week and then a weekend in my home town.

Earth Day

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Yesterday brought our town's annual Earth Day celebration in Forest Park. Every tree hugger, organic farmer, herbalist, soul traveler, electric car driver, vegan, river cleaner, Thoreau reader, public transport manager, species preserver, meditator, recycler, chiropractor, banjo picker, tai chi dancer, fair trade importer, bicycle rider, yogi, faerie and moon howler within a tank of gas driving distance was there. So were a few people, like me, who just wished we'd stop fouling our own nest.

As usual, the festivities kicked off with the All Species Parade led by the mind-boggling percussion band, Joia.  I'll devote a post to them in the coming days. I tried to count the number of species in the parade and came up with, um, one (unless you count the bazillion bacteria in our digestive tracts). Fun for all.

TOMORROW: faeries.