Taylor

• Check out the interview I did with World Percussion and Rhythm Magazine, Nov '07
• See some of my videos on YouTube
• WBEZ (the Chicago NPR affiliate; 91.5 FM) had previously aired a spoken word and music piece entitled “Drumming and Community.” Click for a broadcast recording from Sept 4th, 2002.
• WBEZ featured the track "Stalker" from Silence on the “Local Music Corner”. Click for a broadcast recording from Sept 27th, 2002. WBEZ featured the track "Stalker" from Silence on the “Local Music Corner”. Click for a broadcast recording from Sept 27th, 2002.
• Here is a podcast created for the "Passport to Africa" series, sponsored by the Art Institute of Chicago in Summer '08 - Morikeba Kouyate and I did a gig for this series.  There's lot's of good info in the whole thing - I have a short interview near the middle.

Photo by Lee Ann Perry

Michael J. Taylor, more commonly known simply as 'Taylor', has been teaching, performing, and recording West African percussion since 1994. Also the owner and driving force behind Holy Goat Percussion, he imports, sells and repairs West African drums, teaches, is a Tam Tam Mandingue Certified Professor of djembe (holding a certificate *and* diploma) and is the director of the Tam Tam Mandingue - Chicago, School of Percussion.

His main instruments are the djembe, dounun and Malinke flute, but he plays a wide assortment of other drums including bugaraboo, congas, frame drum, bongos, and doumbek.

Taylor has studied in Africa and America with a number of expert djembe and dunun players, among them: Grand Master Drummer Mamady Keita,(click here for some live Mamady!) Grand Master Drummer Famoudou Konate, Master Dancer Moustapha Bangoura, Michael Markus, Master Drummer M'Bemba Bangoura, Yaya Kabo, Master Drummer Gbanworo Keita, Master Drummer Laurent Camara, Master Drummer Abdoul Doumbia, Master Drummer Madou Dembele, Minto Camara, Arthur Hull, Yaya Diallo, and Jahamen Mobley.

He graduated from Illinois State University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications, majoring in public relations with a minor in philosophy.  He went on to work as a computer consultant for corporations including Transamerica and Gateway while pursuing an acting career.

So how did he end up playing djembe and teaching West African percussion? Good question. The short answer: Divine serendipity.  For the long answer and some other stuff, read his article "Light" on his Writings page.

From the horse's mouth, "What I have done and do now as a percussionist includes a whole range of things. I have performed and/or recorded with artists and organizations from West Africa, North America, and Europe, including members of Les Ballets Africains, Ballets Djoliba, Les Merveilles d'Afrique and Les Ballets Africains de Silimbo.

I am founder and artistic director of the West African drum ensemble Holy Goat Ensemble , performing djembe and dounun rhythms and songs primarily; currently our instrumentation is djembe, dunun, balafon, malinke flute, tama, bolon. Secondarily, they branch out into other forms of ethnic drumming.  I also create and perform in original performance art pieces with the HGE and other artists, combining drums, spoken word, and theater. 

The djembe is known in some areas of the world as the "healing drum".  Based on my own out-of-body experiences had while drumming on the shores of lake Michigan by myself, I created the DruMeditation sessions. 

I have created 2 ground-breaking instructional dvds; one focused on traditional djembe technique entitled Remembering How To Drum and the other focused on the essential repetition that come with mastery of the djembe entitled Akaran Iko Iko.  I have recorded three cds of original West African djembe-based music: A Touch of Chaos in the Rhythmic Soup has been in stores since 1996; Silence has been out since late 2001; and Silence in the Rhythmic Soup - Rhythmic Environments for Yoga and meditation was released Spring 2003.

WBEZ (the Chicago NPR affiliate) featured the track "Stalker" from Silence on the “Local Music Corner”. Click for a broadcast recording from Sept 27th, 2002.

WBEZ had previously aired a spoken word and music piece entitled “Drumming and Community.” Click for a broadcast recording from Sept 4th, 2002.

I teach djembe and dounun both privately and in classes at locations throughout the city of Chicago.  Check the schedule for a class near you. As a teacher, I combine a broad range of experience in theater, music, communications, and philosophy with knowledge and respect for the traditions of West Africa and the cognitive effects of rhythm.  I encourage my students to explore both the traditional rhythms and their individual expression on the drum.

In addition to my adult classes, I have taught drumming successfully to children, high school students, and the behaviorally and mentally delayed youth through the Chicago Park District, Gallery 37, and the Evanston YMCA.

It has been fascinating to watch young students begin to understand what it is to "understand" on a deeper level as they learn to drum.  The potential for drumming to improve education overall is clearly very high.  I look forward to incorporating more djembe/dounun classes in the schools in years to come."

You know what they say about drummers and computer geek's: drummers have more fun. But seriously, my mission as a drummer is to serve two things:  the self and the community. As I take advantage of all that the drum has to offer in my journey as an individual, I seek to help others do the same. 

I believe that drumming provides a conduit to the primal self that can free individuals from constraints on their bodies, minds, and spirits.  My goal here is to facilitate freedom on and through the drum— freedom to express the whole self.

At the same time, the drum is really a community instrument.  For all the separate reasons that drummers drum, when we play together and everyone is in sync, time, space, and individual differences disappear. In today's world, I see a deficit of community because people are so focused on their differences that they don't know they can feel anything other than separate and divided. But I believe drumming wakes people up to the reality of our all being connected. I seek to exploit this aspect of the drum as a "magic carpet" that can show us the way to a better, more harmonious existence.

Well, if you've read this far, then some cool quotes would probably be right up your alley!  Go here....