Will Drum For Dancers Collective
(WD4D Collective)

If you've found this page, congratulations you are considered to be an exceptional drum circle drummer!

This is a project that many of us have been talking about for a while, and it’s finally to move from the theoretical into the practical.

As experienced drum circle drummers we have a very unique and valuable talent that often goes misunderstood or underappreciated by mainstream music fans. Drum circle music is commonly dismissed as chaotic, indistinguishable or "hippy" music, but we know, and dancers know, that great live drumming can transport a dance party to places that mainstream music can only dream of.

This collective is about celebrating the art of group freestyle percussion. 

The idea is to assemble a collective of experienced, like-minded percussionists to work in crews of 4-6 to compose, rehearse and perform semi-structured sets - showcasing cooperation, creativity and improvisation with dynamic variations in tempo, volume, rhythm and timbre - all with the prime objective of making dancers lose their minds on the dance floor.

If you’re serious about doing this, please fill out this survey so that we can gauge peoples’ interest level, our skills, availability, resources and preferences, and help match people for crews if they need help.

I’m suggesting that for our first round of crews (which can and should change from project to project) that we put together 3 minute, one-take YouTube videos of each crew playing a dynamic set. I am in favour of projects being as immediate as possible, with groups meeting only once or twice in the span of a week to discuss, rehearse, film and post their video.

Over the next couple months, we post as many fresh short sets as possible, like DJs would post tracks from a longer set. And just like DJ's we'd start promoting the WD4D Collective as a live alternative or compliment to DJs.

What would one of these 3 minute videos look like? Here’s a demo video 4 of us put together over the course of two meetings in on week. It was for a Jameson Whiskey gig at the Drake that ended up paying us several hundreds of dollars each.

The main features of this collective are that you can commit to these projects whenever you have the time and inclination, that you can choose who you want work with, and that you'll be playing and collaborating with other high level freestyle drummers.

Here are 19 drummers I've either spoke with already or will be approaching.  Dev Britto, Billy Sonier, Ordo, Dave Reid, Jean-Marc, Tomasz Ciesla, Steve, Yehuda, Rob Kittredge, Bohdan Turok, Pato Martinez, Andres Adsme, Igal, Rahul Bader, Rufus Glassco, Cavan Young, Kevin Howe, Andy Espresso and Tim Gentle.

This list will surely change. If there is anyone you think should be involved please email me your suggestions, along with their contact info. I don't want this collective too snobby, but to start off, I think it's fair to say we want the highest quality drummers who are dedicated to showing Toronto the very best of what drum circle drummers are capable of.

If you have any questions or comments please email me.

All the beats,

Tim
RippleRhythm@gmail.com
647 709 7437