Linda Thomas Jones

After studying djembe for about ten years I began to hear the name Linda Thomas Jones  in traditional Lukumi Dance circles.  I thought this was a beautiful name!  It spoke of  beauty and grace.  I was told she was a master drummer and that I should meet her some day.  I began to put out a desire to meet this mysterious woman drummer.  The answer to prayer came in the early 2000’s  when I began my studies of  traditional Orisha Music.  I had an opportunity to travel to Texas to work with some powerful Orisha Women.  Amongst them was one Linda Thomas Jones.   Forget that by that time I had been playing for over 10 years.  She promptly handed me a bell and began teaching me as a first year student.  “Learn that,” she said “Then I will give you more.”  Thus began a new friendship and artistic alliance with one of the most talented female cultural artists  I have met.  She could sing, drum, dance and compose beautiful original music.  So who is this mysterious musician. Here is a portion of how she got started in her own original words. 

While in high school in Cleveland Ohio I was given the opportunity to attend college through the first Upward Bound Program. I enrolled in Case Western Reserve the summer of 1966.  Of course this was the time of the Hippie; and yes I was one.  It was also a time of free love, spiritual growth and freedom of expression.

As students we worked hard during the week and played hard on the weekends. One day that we all looked forward to was Sunday. This was the day when people would gather at the Art Museum’s lagoon area.  There were dancers, singers, magicians, people playing guitars and most fascinating of all drummers.  This was the first time that I heard conga drums played live and I was so excited I couldn’t keep still. I saw an African American man playing a set of bongos. When he noticed that I was watching him he offered to let me play them.  When my hands touched the drums I could feel the vibration of all the other instruments being played.  I really had no Idea what I was doing, I just knew it felt  wonderful.

I continued to go the Lagoon every Sunday for about year and every time I went I would play the bongos. I learned that  the owner of the drums  was Chuck Smart who later became a well known  percussionist  and  visual artist.  We became good friends, he even took me to my first live Jazz performance.

During this time period, I was a dance major and had classes everyday.  My dance teacher was a very petite Greek woman whose body was so thin you could see every bone, muscle and the tendons that held them together.  She used to play a large round dance teacher’s drum to accompany class. One day after I had been playing at the Lagoon for about a year, I asked if I could play for class. She said yes  and gave me her drum. I took it and started playing the same way that I played at the Lagoon. That meant that I was improvising and playing whatever I wanted. Of course I was not paying any attention to what the dancers were doing.  Right away, my dance teacher stopped me from playing and had a truly disgusted look on her face. The rest of the students were trying not to  crack up laughing.  I was completely embarrassed and confused because I thought I sounded good.  She told me that I had to watch the dancers and support them with my drumming.  She then made me play just a steady pulse on the drum without changing tempo or rhythm. It was the most boring thing that I had ever done. However, I must say that what my dance teacher put me through was one to the greatest gifts anyone could have given to me. She taught me discipline!

My story of  my first encounter with Edwina’s work  is a personal testimony of my experience of that manifestation.   It is important because this is the level of work that Edwina carries.  This is the story she wants you to know. 

Edwina Lee Tyler

Edwina Tyler has been drumming for over 40 years starting in New York. About this she says,
“What called me to the drum? God. It’s as simple as that. I really started when I was 3 years old. I was told I would play on any and every thing I could get my hands on. Having the parents that I had, they were artist themselves, so I had it made.

Edwina is a talented performing artist having credits in television, Broadway, recording, film, and commissions for other artists. Noted appearances include Alice Tully Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Dance Theatre Workshop, La Mama E.T.C. and The Michigan Women’s Music Festival. She has toured throughout Europe, Africa, and Korea. She was one of the first percussionists for Urban Bush Women.  In addition to supporting others, Edwina was director of her own company, A Piece of the World, which toured Europe, Canada and the United States. We will post her extensive biography in our final article on Edwina entitled:  The Impeccable Edwina  Lee Tyler

Notables at the International Conference of Women, Nairobi, Kenya

In 1985 a Young Edwina Tyler played her drum for African Women at the International Women’s Conference in Nairobi, Kenya.  This gathering of African and African American Women was sponsored by the United Nations to assess 10 years of progress in addressing cultural and social issues on the continent. The conference was attended by such notables as Coretta Scott King, Angela Davis and Donna Height, then head of the National Conference on Negro Woman.

The photographer took Edwina’s picture too!  Why was that?  He knew the significance of what he saw. He  captured  not only an artist displaying her talent but the breaking of  a cultural taboo well known to African Women:  Women do not play these drums!  Women in Africa have their wombs stripped of power and are beaten and killed for playing these drums!  Here sat a young Edwina, playing her drum with a man (hands in the foreground) entertaining African Women probably unaware of the risk to her life and the protection afforded her as a member of the American contingent to this conference.  Here sat Edwina sowing the seeds of reclamation and  personal empowerment!  We are ecstatic to post this photo so women know what it is that she did!  The world needs to know just  what  it is Edwina  Lee Tyler did!

Edwina Tyler is a Messenger of God and her ancestors and a testimony of what women can do when they connect with God, their heart and the power of the Womb.  She continues to teach and perform at women’s drum camps and seminars. 

Edwina Tyler  lives in Long Island  and continues her work of healing working with music ministries in the local churches.   For those in the area she facilitates a drum circle Saturday, every second Saturday of the month. 
Next circle is July 10, 2010
Time: 7:00pm – 10:00pm
Location: Community Baptist church 605 Granny Road Middle island, New York

Edwina Drumming

Edwina has recorded and produced two albums, Drum Drama and Things are Gonna Change.  Drum Drama is being transferred from cassette to CD and will be available in the coming weeks.  Copies of Things are Gonna Change are available through Amazon.com

International Conference on Women photos from Ebony Magazine October, 1985

The year was 1993.  I arrived in a small Central Michigan Town after driving two days in the rain.  I had caught a cold and was feeling quite sick.  After a long wait in line, I made it through the check-in process at the Michigan’s Women’s Music Festival.   This was my first Mich Fest experience.  A kindly soul hauled my gear and helped me set up my tent.  Fever and sniffles aside, I feel into a deep and seemingly dreamless sleep.  My mission to go to Michigan for the festival was clear.  There were black women drumming there and I wanted to meet them.

Two days later, I sat on a grassy knoll in front of the Acoustic Stage.  The sun had finally broken through the clouds and a mild breeze quaffed through the knoll.  A chocolate colored black woman dressed in white walked out onto the stage djembe attached to her side. She seemed small from where I sat but that was part of the illusion n. She began drumming and singing, and it seemed as though the white clouds drifting overhead stood still to listen.    At some point she left the stage, I don’t remember when.  My eyes were closed and I had lain back on the grass. The sound of her drum seemed to grow closer and my body responded.  Rhythm pounded through my veins. Cells long a sleep awakened, Memories of trees calmed my name in a language slightly familiar. I quickly opened my eyes and sat up straight.  She approached, not seeing me.  Her eyes were locked on heaven, voice calling ancient sounds, face shifting and changing.  I thought I saw my mother there and then gone. Her mouth never stopped moving.  What was it she was saying?  My mind could not remember.  Her hands …. A slap here, a boom there and lots of little tapping in between.  With steady measured pace she walked towards me then passed me by, weaving through the crowd, chanting, playing, walking, then was gone. My body vibrated with the soul of music.  This was not a performance, it was ritual!  Call it spiritual transformation.  This was the mother of the Women’s Drumming Movement:  Edwina Lee Tyler.

Sorsonet Mask Dance

Sonsonet, also Sorsonet , is my favorite djembe rhythm.  It is a  mask dance of the Baga People of Guinea . One aspect  of the Spirit of Sonrsonet is a lover and protector of children.  He comes to the village maybe 2-3 times per year then returns to the bush.  The chants  which speak of  honoring the mother  and the releasing of the female child from the domain of her parents are haunting; piercing the soul.  The rhythm is a driven 3/4 cadence  and becomes ecstatic at faster tempos.  When I learned that the dance was used as  part of the circumcision ritual for young girls I was horrified and  went through an intense moral crisis.  I refused to play the rhythm for a couple of years.  This incident  did teach me a lesson about  knowing the meaning and purpose of music from another culture.

In the meantime, I began to learn as much as I could about female circumcision. This proved to be a challenge as many of the African women who were teaching dance classes were unwilling to discuss the topic.  Female circumcision became a heated topic  among the African American women at one of the dance camps I attended. The dance teacher soundly told us to not judge and make assessments on their culture or things we did not understand. She told us she had the hood of the clitoris removed and she found that she had heightened sensitivity to sexual activity.  She would not comment on infibulation other than to state that it was not us, American women, that would decide the fate of women in Africa.  Not one of us could provide food, clothing, or sanctuary to these women. Women’s lives were on the line in Africa and our opinions counted as nothing

Over the years, I have  had the blessing of meeting and talking to various women who had undergone the procedure. This included  ones who were pierced or had the clitoris exposed to ones who had experienced full infibulation.  In the case of infibulation one woman, well in her thirty’s, looked all of 15 years old.  She had been granted asylum in America and a surgeon had taken on her case to provide the reconstructive surgery and hormonal therapy she required to save her life. My feeling sorry for her was not acceptable.  Blessing her journey to create awareness and change was everything.

The National Ballet of Guinea made a surprise stop in Denver in 2000-2001.  Their final piece was Sorsonet.  The magnificence of the performance was stunning and I was again thrown into moral turmoil. How could something so beautiful and powerful have such a darker meaning?  Then, at the end of the performance ,where it was being depicted that the girls were being taken into  “The Bush”, women came out in white gowns with  a large red cross on the front depicting the International Red Cross Society.  These women danced their hearts out, then took then women away from the trail heading to “ The Bush” and out another exit.  I cried like a baby for days.   

  The piece brought me a deep spiritual healing although I did not fully understand  until the last few years why I cried so.  It was the ballet’s way of letting the world know that, at least for this group of performers, other options than female circumcision were being explored and implemented.  Blessings to these brave men and women.

Sorsonet with traditional choreography