James Asher Tour of the USA 2001

Seattle World Rhythm Festival

It has been my usual pattern during the past few years to make my American expeditions by myself, so it made for a pleasant change on this occasion to be joined by my wife Celia. She was also a great supportive companion both for the trip generally and in helping me set up both the DVCAM and minidisc with the two microphones and their stands for each of the various sessions that we saw and recorded.

Our first port of call was Seattle - to attend the World Rhythm Festival. Here we met up with Arthur Hull, who was the guide and focal point of our entire tour. There was much diverse activity in Seattle, spread out through about seven different locations within a kind of municipal complex.

Workshops, demonstrations, outdoor free-range drumming/ drumcircles abounded along with a universal percussion fever! 2001 marks the ninth year for this festival, and it's clearly built up quite a momentum and strong following by the local community. There were many varied performances from a wide range of cultural styles, instrument combinations and age groups. The high points of Saturday and Sunday's events were the Great Northwest Drumcircles, led by Arthur Hull. About 300 people came to the Saturday event, and there was a hugely infectious buzz emanating from the participants.

Arthur was on his best most exuberant and playful form, and I began on my mission of filming and recording the circle. On the Saturday I positioned myself fairly discreetly towards the edge of the circle facing inward. This gave me a reasonable vantage point, and prevented a sense of being too intrusive, though it was not as effective from both a vision and sound perspective as the next day, when I stationed myself in the centre of the circle, allowing a much clearer view from the hub of the circle.

My communication abilities were severely curtailed at this point having contracted laryngitis. Here I was, surrounded by a bunch of great people, unable to persuade my voice to come out with anything more than some bizarre random whispery squeaks! A very strange predicament in which to find yourself!

Christine Stevens (center) playing saxophone

There was a variety of action at the centre of the circle beyond Arthur's congenial conducting as master of ceremonies, including dancing and some saxophone playing by Christine Stevens (from Remo). Somehow the alarm system got triggered so this brought a curious end to the jubilant antics of the Saturday circle. On the Sunday, the circle was not quite as full as the day before, but driven by just as much enthusiasm. There was honouring of several people made, including John of 'John's Music' who has obviously been central to organising the festival for quite some years.

Travelling to and from the festival we used the city's monorail, which offers a highly impressive spectacular view of the towering 'scrapers' of Seattle. For the two days after the weekend we had fun just being tourists, and especially enjoyed a visit to the harbour area, where 'low-flying fish' are thrown from and to sellers on fish stalls, and there's also a profusion of very intriguing craft goods and art available, amongst a glorious array of fresh fruit and vegetables.