Toronto-based world music ensemble Drumhand is venturing west of Ontario for the first time this week — but as a group built on geographic explorations, it should feel right at home.
Founding member Larry Graves said that before forming Drumhand in 2008, he travelled to Ghana for some music education. He wanted to reach the source of music, from jazz and rock to Motown.
“I’d always been told that this music had roots in African culture,” Graves said from the road between Russell, Man., and Saskatoon. “I thought, well, if I really want to understand this, I should just go there and experience it first hand.”
It set him on a 15-year voyage exploring different sounds and cultures, which he now incorporates into his own songwriting with Drumhand alongside bandmates David Chan, Marcus Ali, Steve Mancuso and Rebecca Hennessy.
Today, the percussive-heavy Drumhand fuses the rhythms of West Africa, Cuba, India and Brazil with American roots music and jazz. While bandmates began playing regional folk songs, they’ve since moved on to create original compositions.
But Graves says it’s not about borrowing a sound or song from another culture — instead, the members of Drumhand just take inspiration to write their own songs.
“When I write a lot of the music, I’m not consciously thinking about the influences,” he said. “We sort of adapt existing forms to fit our own compositions.”
The resulting fusion seems to sound familiar to many audience members, even if the instruments are ones they’ve never heard before (woodwind player Ali brings five or six instruments on the road, while the percussionists each play three or four). One song on their latest album, Cheering on the Sun, called Our Native Lands has had that effect more than any other.
“This is a song that very often, people come up to us and say afterward: This reminds me of this part of the world. Or one woman came up and said, ‘This reminds me of music from my home,’ ” Graves said.
But Drumhand also ventured into less-familiar territory on the group’s third album, released in May. While bandmates used their voices as instruments on past albums, this is the first one where they’ve actually emphasized lyrics — including a song called The Long Road, written in tribute to the late NDP leader Jack Layton.
“It gives audiences a different access point. When you hear words being spoken that you recognize, there’s yet another thread for you to grasp onto as a point of interest,” Graves said.
And that’s what it seems to come down to for the group. While bandmates are united in their interest to educate about music (Graves teaches at York University and Mancuso is completing a PhD in ethnomusicology), they’re ultimately concerned with just engaging people in a positive way.
“I guess the thread that binds is that we’re trying to make music that is uplifting to people, that will draw people in, that might grab their ear or make them want to move.”
What: Drumhand (with Masala)
When: Wednesday, 8 p.m.
Where: Hermann’s Jazz Club
Tickets: $10/$12 at Lyle’s Place and Ditch Records and brownpapertickets.com.
Additional shows: Duncan: Duncan Garage Showroom, July 18; Quadra Island: Heriot Bay Inn, July 19; Port Alberni: Char’s Landing, July 20; Sointula: Whale’s Rub Pub, July 21.
