Colorado-based multi-instrumentalist, Bones, has discovered a way to bring his vast knowledge of world music and his drumming talents to hundreds of schoolchildren of all ages throughout the Rocky Mountain region.

First introduced at the Ken Caryl Middle School in Denver in 2005, his music program involves a wide variety of drumming demonstrations, video accompaniment and advanced looping technology that allows him to multi-track and dub in real time while he is performing. Discussions of musical and cultural history and the roots of the various instruments are also part of the presentation with one goal being getting kids interested in music of other cultures. He enlisted his wife and schoolteacher, Jill Davis, to assist him in developing a fully rounded classroom program involving music, foreign language, reading/writing, geography and dance to meet state standards.

The early school shows were shorter and less technical, “more of a training ground for the development of the program with no real lesson plans,” he said.

Since then, he has fine-tuned the program and brought it to dozens of schools from kindergartners in Paonia to students at Colorado Mountain College in Leadville. Bones is now forming a non-profit to help procure funding for the education program and is currently seeking sponsorship to expand the program to a wider area.

A native of Santa Fe, N.M., he was exposed to a variety of arts and culture as a child. His father, an opera singer, inspired him to explore his own musical capabilities, but a Santana concert in Albuquerque at the age of 12 helped cement his interest in music. Two years later, he got his first drum set.

The nickname Bones was given to him during a sea-bound stint with the Coast Guard. In the service, he spent much of his off-time banging on various percussive devices aboard the ship.

The next 25 years were spent studying percussion and performing in a variety of rock bands from England to Los Angeles. After a lengthy run with an indie band in the United Kingdom called Slap in the Face, Bones decided to attend a specialized drum institute in London called Drum-Tech. There, he focused his studies on world beats, especially Latin and African drumming. Bones has also studied in Cuba, Belize and Guatemala as well.

In 1996, he returned to the United States and soon joined the bands Cloud City Fatties and Two Miles High in Leadville. In 1999, he joined the Afro-beat band Jaka and performed with them for the next several years. After Jaka disbanded in 2002, Bones teamed up with some old friends in the band Shakedown Street, a Grateful Dead tribute band, which allowed him to explore the idiosyncratic, abstract jams the original band was known for.

Bones moved to Salida in 2001 where he began exploring the possibilities of a solo show for schools and public performance venues using loop technology. Those early school shows became a proving ground for his unique one-man performance, Bones Solo Ensemble, which has toured the Rocky Mountain region earning high praise and accolades.

Arriving at a Bones solo performance, audience members witness a stage filled with percussive instruments from steel drums to marimbas. The artist soon appears, and, one instrument at a time, he begins creating an original symphony using loop technology. His layered arrangements grow more complex, with syncopated tribal beats derived from Latin, African and Caribbean traditions.

With help from videographer Jeff Shook of Villa Grove, Bones also incorporates live video projection where audience members can see real-time footage of the instruments being played from a series of cameras mounted in key locations throughout the set. Maps are also projected, coinciding with the particular style of music being performed. The intensity builds as Bones tosses in some unexpected whimsy such as cowbells or a didgeridoo, the Australian aboriginal wind instrument. The room shudders and vibrates as the ancient rhythms mesh and soar.

His priority now, though, is education—reaching out to kids to instill a sense of cultural diversity and world history but most of all, a sense of rhythm.

More information of his school programs and solo performances can be found at the website, www.bonesdrums.com. The website also features downloadable research on various world percussion instruments as well as a coloring book, word search and a crossword puzzle for students.

Photos Courtesy of Mike Rosso  and Keri Smith

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