Show Time

A crowd of about one hundred people pack the small venue, some sitting politely in seats, some loitering around a bar, others standing in back, arms folded. Before them, a large army of drums stand formidably as if awaiting their marching orders. Little known to the unsuspecting audience, an invasion is exactly what was about to take place.

Elie Kihonia & Jim Donovan

Huddled together off to the side is a small eclectic group of people, the band. With no set play list, or scripted performance, Jim Donovan discusses a plan of attack with his fellow musicians. More describing moods that he wants to create than songs that he wants to play, Jim sets a general foundation that his band will build from that night. Long before the invent of modern jazz, percussionists were the first to flow their streams of consciousness directly into music. Creating on the fly by developing complexity out of simple rhythms, this group of musicians would rely on true improvisation.

Far from the shock and awe tactics of modern warfare, Donovan’s invasion began softly. It was the type of soft that made you wonder if you were really hearing anything at all, or simply imagining the sounds in your head. Then slowly, almost indiscernibly, the sounds grew. Over the next several minutes the beats became gradually louder, and gradually faster, as the drums accelerated from a soft march into a hard charging run.

Jim Donovan literally touches you with his music, the rhythmic beats dive deep into your chest, forcibly moving even the most reluctant of the crowd. The audience was white and black, young and old, well off and working class, yet that night they traveled together back through the millennium to a land of our common ancestors; joining the communal ritual around a campfire on the savannas of Africa. It felt strangely familiar, as if reconnecting to memories long since forgotten, or awakening a deep rooted instinct long since drown out by the noise of our modern society.

Over the next 2 hours, the audience would dance, chant and sing together. They left that night feeling as if they were part of something larger, something connected. Donovan’s army proved to be one of liberation.

Into The Future

When asked, Jim Donovan says that there’s nothing in life that he still “hopes” to accomplish:

“I don’t hope, I just do. I know enough now about how to manifest conditions that if I want something to occur, or to be created, I just do it.”

To that end he’s about to add published author to his list of accomplishments, Serving the Groove is in its final stages of editing.

“Accomplishing is easy, it’s maintaining the balance that is the challenge. So my bigger goal beyond creating things is to maintain a healthy balance within myself and to pass that on to my kids” he says.

With former teachers and current students in tow, Jim Donovan will continue moving forward as a living preservation of our musical heritage; while creating unique gifts of his own to be passed down to future generations who may one day look back upon us as being part of their own primitive tribal past.

Jim Donovan On Drum Kit (Photo By Kaylyn Oshaben)