Keith Terry going out on a limb with body music events
When Keith Terry says “I play my body,” he’s not kidding.
Trained as a percussionist, Terry claps his hands, rubs his palms, stamps his feet, slaps his knees and belly, skips, sings and generally uses most parts of his body in the service of his art, which blurs the lines between music and dance.
“I’m a drummer, it came out of my drums,” he explained by phone from his San Francisco Bay-area home base. “About 30 years ago I was playing drums with tap dancers — I was in a rehearsal one day and had this thought that I could displace everything I was playing on a trap set onto my body. I stood up and started moving.”
“I call it body music. I think of it as music and dance that is created by clapping, slapping, snapping, stepping, vocalizing — the sounds the body can produce.”
Terry will participate in a variety of educational activities starting Nov. 1 with the Body Music Mini-Festival on the University of Michigan campus and culminating in aHill Auditorium concert on Nov. 6 for which he’ll be joined by his Slammin’ All-Body Band.
Keith Terry and the Slammin’ All-Body Band perform "I Like The Way You Move":
Terry’s influences range from Japanese Taiko and Balinese Gamelan to North American rhythm tap and Ethiopian “armpit” music.
“There were a couple of guys — Charles ‘Honi’ Coles and Charles ‘Cookie’ Cook, a couple of the old-timers — who saw what I was doing and said it was similar to the hambone that they had done in vaudeville. But it moved differently and the rhythmic material I was drawing from was different. They both encouraged me to pursue it. I took their advice and I am still pursuing it.
“I’ve long been attracted to those forms of dance that create its own soundtrack. You’ve got the visual and the sonic simultaneously, and I just love that stuff,” he said.
So do others. “Terry lifts you to a philosophical plane of exquisite lucidity usually reached only by means of controlled substances,” wrote the Village Voice.
“This guy is a one-man band machine. I expected flames to come out of his head by the time he was through,” added the New York Press.Terry said the human body is the oldest musical instrument in the world.
“Before people were making instruments, they were probably clapping and stomping and using their voices to express their musical ideas. And there are a lot of traditional styles from all over the world as well as a lot of contemporary styles,” he said.
Terry is probably best known for his solo works, which have toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Asia — from the Serious Fun Festival at Lincoln Center, the Bumbershoot Festival at the Seattle Opera House, the Colorado Dance Festival, New York’s Dance Theater Workshop and Wolftrap to the American Center in Paris and more.
But he is also recognized for his collaborations with other artists, including the Pickle Family Circus, Robin Williams, Tex Williams, Bobby McFerrin, the Turtle Island String Quartet and Alex De Grassi.
Terry’s ability to bring performers together to perform and create new work is evidenced in his two most recent projects. Professor Terry’s Circus Band Extraordináire is a collaboration with Linda Tillery and a variety of jazz players, on bassoon, violin, accordion, banjo, bass, drums and voice. Slammin’ is a new all-body band with four a capella singers, body music and beat boxing.
One of those collaborations is the second International Body Music Festival in California, a smaller version of which will be offered in Ann Arbor.
The Body Music Mini-Festival on Nov. 1 will celebrate body music traditions from around the world by bringing together national, regional, and campus groups to perform and teach diverse body music traditions. Terry will perform and host an afternoon of performances and workshops that will culminate with an open mic.
Also, Terry will present “Making a Business of Body Music” on Nov. 2 from 12-2 p.m. in the Kuenzel Room, Michigan Union. The program will explore how the tenets of body music are applicable to everyday tasks encountered in the home and in the boardroom, including teamwork and leading, public presentations, relationship management and confidence building. Both events are free and open to the public.
Terry’s Ann Arbor appearance is a collaboration with Arts on Earth and the U-M Center for Educational Outreach.
PREVIEW Keith Terry and the Slammin’ All-Body Band Who: Percussionist/dancer’s work encompasses music, dance, theater and performance art. Presented by the University Musical Society. What: Terry extends the art of drumming to his body, clapping his hands, stamping his feet, slapping his knees and more. His Slammin’ All-Body Band extends the concept, mixing a cappella singing, beat boxing and body music. Where: Hill Auditorium, 825 N. University Ave. When: Friday, Nov. 6, 7 p.m. How much: $10 (children, $5). Info: UMS web site; 734-764-2538. Tickets may also be purchased in person at the League Ticket Office, 911 N. University Ave. Related activities: Body Music Mini-Festival, Nov. 1 from 1-5 p.m. in the Michigan Union, Pendleton Room, 530 S. State St. Free event celebrates body music traditions from around the world. Also, Terry will present “Making a Business of Body Music” on Nov. 2 from 12-2 p.m. in the Kuenzel Room, Michigan Union. Free and open to the public.
Roger LeLievre is a free-lance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com.