“Global Standards” is a world/jazz collective founded by Tom Teasley to explore the merging of jazz repertoire, world percussion, concepts and rhythms and jazz inspired improvisation. The initial launch at The Kennedy Center as part of the DC Jazz Festival series, “Dis is ‘DA Drum” was to a sold out and enthusiastic crowd. Look for new video to be added as well as performances featuring various incarnations of this concept.

"When I hatched the idea for DCJF to produce a drummer-bandleader series of performances on the Kennedy Center¹s Millennium Stage, I knew it was important to reflect at least one variance from the list of trap drummer-bandleaders in our community.  Having Tom Teasley, a skilled percussionist who is so deeply immersed in the rhythmic universe represented by so many rich cultural perspectives, was truly a no-brainer.  In addition to his vast expertise in global rhythms, Tom took this task quite seriously and put together a very special trio performance that also clearly displayed his skills as a bandleader.  Throughout the subsequent performance I was struck by Tom¹s teaching from the bandstand.  For every instrument he engaged that might have been unfamiliar to at least some segment of his large audience, he very succinctly summed up the cultural origins of his instrument and what
he was about to express with them - making connections along the way to his obvious multi-cultural audience in such a way that he never appeared to be lecturing or preaching, but instead demystifying his cornucopia of instruments in ways his audience truly seemed to appreciate."

Willard Jenkins, Artistic Director of the DC Jazz Festival, Downbeat Magazine, Jazz Times