Tom Teasley - Percussionist

Greetings and Best Wishes in 2012! I'm really looking forward to an exciting year full of new projects and offerings. I have hit the New Year running! The past few weeks I have recorded music for a new CD, "All The World's A Stage". It features music inspired by the several collaborations with Constellation Theatre for which I won two Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Sound Design. In addition this music is also inspired by my work as a Cultural Envoy for the US State Dept. The collaborations with musicians and poets in Iraq, Jerusalem, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and recently New Zealand and Samoa have had such an impact on me and I'm delighted to share these influences with my American audience. This will be an enhanced CD with a few video offerings as well. You can sample a small teaser here 

Tom Teasley tracking his new CD, "The World is a Stage"

Also during that time, I recorded an educational and performance video, "An American Approach to World Percussion". This video documents my approach to a variety of world percussion instruments including djembe, doumbek, riq, cajon, shakers and many others. I'm using the Ted Reed, "Progressive Steps to Syncopation" as source material as it is the best selling drum book of all time and one most drummers have in their library. There are plenty of drum set inspired exercises and four-part coordination to challenge the most advanced of students. There is also a lot of basic sound production and technique to get one started. I'm very excited about documenting my educational work that has been field tested through my several trips abroad and collaborations with indigenous drummers!

I have also found time for some local touring and educational performances. On behalf of InterAct Story Theater I have been presenting several performances throughout Maryland. This past month I have travelled to Roanoke for a new educational offering recounting my experiences as a cultural envoy for the US State Dept. This exciting new multi-media presentation combining indigenous instruments from The Middle East, lecture and a collection of photographs from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jerusalem is a new addition and I'm delighted to have debut it in Roanoke. While in Roanoke I also performed at the Taubman Museum of Art interpreting contemporary art in my original music improvisations and compositions. This builds on my recent collaborations with visual artist Nick Cave at the Taubman this past September and more recently at The Fabric Museum and Workshop in Philadelphia.

Word-Beat, my project with Charles Williams is also booked for some regional concerts and educational programs in the VA Tidewater area. We will be performing our renditions of Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr. combined with my original music. Charles and I are very honored to celebrate Black History Month with your longtime collaboration!

I am also very excited about presenting my new world percussion clinic:  An American Approach to World Percussion at The University of Maryland on February 24. Jauvon Gulliam, the new timpanist with The National Symphony and chair of percussion studies is building a world class percussion department at UMD and I'm honored to present my work there!

Free Download this month "Balafon" from Word-Beat, "The Soul Dances"  

In honor of African-American History Month I am offering the free download "Balafon". This is my original composition that features this amazing instrument and also features Charles William narrating ancient African words of wisdom.

I hope you are able to catch a performance near you soon and I also invite you to visit my site and iTunes to sample and purchase some of my other music.

Tom Teasley's Website 

Tom Teasley"s Music on iTunes 

"Fusions between American and Eastern schools are old news, yet seldom has any percussionist drawn so deeply from both wells and come up with a blend as bewitching and original as this." -- Drum! Magazine

"The evening's dazzler..." -- The Washington Post

"No Instrument has a limitation for him" -- Modern Drummer Magazine

" ... a highly imaginative conceptualist... a colorful, intellectual musician, employing his talents in the orchestration of sound... ingeniously deploys unusual uses of unusual percussion... unlimited talents. " -- Allaboutjazz.com

"Washington D.C.-based percussion wizard Tom Teasley deserves his own slot in the CD bins. Maybe his own store." -- Jazz Improv Magazine

Please visit (and like) my  Facebook page to preview new works and more information on my activities. Also feel free to follow me on  Twitter for more up to the minute updates!

Until next time, Peace, Salam, Shalom,

Tom