Pre-order of (D)ruminations. You get 1 track now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
Purchasable with gift card
releases June 16, 2024
$10USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Comes in a gatefold digipack with photos from forests of Cascadia--Seabeck, South Fork Snoqualmie River, and Chuckanut Mountain in Washington State.
Includes digital pre-order of (D)ruminations.
You get 1 track now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
(D)RUMINATIONS is the debut recording by The Forest, a five member cooperative percussion ensemble featuring Gustavo Aguilar, Leah Bowden, Andrew Drury, Lesley Mok, and Michael Wimberly.
The album consists of an extended suite that Andrew Drury wrote for The Forest in homage to his mentor, Ed Blackwell, and a composition that percussion great Warren Smith wrote for, and recorded with, M’Boom. Warren Smith and J. D. Parran (bass flute, contra-alto clarinet, bamboo saxophone, and wood flutes) are guest performers on (D)RUMINATIONS.
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Grammy Award winning producer/engineer, Jon Rosenberg, (D)ruminations leads the listener through lush sonic landscapes created by instruments originating from a variety of traditions. The recording highlights the legacy of the legendary drummer, Ed Blackwell, and advances the tradition (largely neglected) of the composing, improvising, multi-cultural percussion ensemble.
The composition, “(D)ruminations for Edward Blackwell,” is a four-part, 44 minute suite that uses material culled from the Don Cherry/Ed Blackwell duo recordings “Mu First Part” and “Mu Second Part” from 1969. Blackwell was one of the most melodic drummers ever to play a drum set making his work ideal for compositional exploration.
Andrew Drury mentored with Blackwell from 1983 until 1992 and recently began the (D)ruminations series to explore specific drum melodies, patterns, sonic images, memories, and other ideas that emerged from his time listening to and studying with Blackwell, memories that have lovingly haunted Drury’s musical imagination for over 40 years.
Warren Smith’s composition “Elements of a Storm,” was composed for the percussion ensemble Smith co-founded with Max Roach and others, M’Boom, in 1969. It can be heard on M’Boom’s records Re:percussion (Strata East, 1973) and Collage (Soul Note, 1984). On this version members of The Forest play body percussion and five timpanis while Smith guides the way, also playing gongs, bass drums, and triangle.
recorded June 10 & 11, 2022 and March 7, 2023 at The Bunker, Brooklyn, NY
engineer: Jon Rosenberg
assistant engineers: Nolan Thies and Alex Conroy
mastering: Jon Rosenberg
producer: Andrew Drury
photographs: Andrew Drury
design: Cheryl Richards/Oh Yeah Love It
Special Thanks: Sara Donnelly, Jess Porter, Bonnie Whiting, James Falzone, Brian Chin, Steve Rowland, Phillip Chance, Vinny Golia, Tim Feeney, Cristian Amigo, David Borgo, Stephanie Richards, Jordana Leigh, Anton Reid, Yale Lewis, Sheri Cohen, Dave Knott, Holly Michelle Eckert, Aine Pearson, Chai Smith, Ash Drury, Kevin Gaul, Becca Paisley, Phil Skaller, and Alissa Schwartz.
(D)ruminations for Edward Blackwell, c Andrew Drury, Andrumo Music, BMI, 2023
Elements of a Storm, c Warren Smith, Miff Music, BMI 1970
This recording was made possible with the support of Continuum Culture & Arts, Inc. a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, and Jazz Road, a national initiative of South Arts, which was funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The Forest is a cooperative percussion group comprised of Gustavo Aguilar, Leah Bowden, Andrew Drury, Lesley Mok, and
Michael Wimberly.
The Forest is dedicated to improvisation and composition, performing new and existing works by its members and selected works by other composer/percussionists....more
The prolific drummer and producer, a veteran of the Philadelphia and Antwerp club scenes, proves his rhythmic mastery once again. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 21, 2024
The mallet percussionist and improviser's solo debut is flush with nostalgic melodies and stirring dissonances—a rich, experimental universe well worth exploring. Bandcamp Album of the Day Jan 15, 2021
