Neil Young The Fresh Prince Of Bellaire
November 24th, 2009 in Videos by Administration
[hulu w4EZaegvmesVfemAiKHObw]
Recent Posts
Jim Donovan
October 30th, 2009 in Inspirviews by Administration
Jim Donovan (Photo By Sean McLeod)
We’re immersed in a culture which mass consumes manufactured tunes created by assembly lines. Highly refined formulas devised by the major record labels use near scientific precision to create virtually guaranteed hits, the mega money makers. Musical talent has become more than secondary to physical appearance and memorable refrains trump valuable messages.
But forcing yourself to peer away from the glitz and glamor of the near blinding spotlight they have created, reveals a subcultural underpinning of musicians that dedicate their lives to preserving a primal beat.
Enter the world of Jim Donovan.
The Student
Born March 1968 in the rural town of Rockwood PA, Jim Donovan has been a student of music since the age of 7, when his grandmother handed him a crude drum crafted from a recycled coffee can. His first gig would come four years later — official crash cymbalist for a baton twirling group called the Spinnettes.
Perhaps a testament to music’s ability to lock moments of time into our memories, Donovan’s earliest recollections go back to the tender age of 3, when he would have his mother play hits by Sly and The Family Stone for him; a group he still calls one of his major influences.
Jim Donovan would spend his high school years grabbing every opportunity possible to make music, including the student marching band, symphony orchestra, concert choir, and jazz band.
He says that music gave him a reason to enjoy school, and calls it “the reward for having to do some of the other classes I wasn’t as interested in”.
Jim Donovan's 11th Grade Notebook
After graduating from Rockwood Area High School in 1986, Donovan applied to attend the University of Pittsburgh. An application that was summarily rejected. But as with other crucial times in his life, it would be his music that would see him through. He was granted an opportunity to audition in front of Dr. Robert Lord, the chairman of the university’s music department.
“He was a kind man and even though I was nervous, he made me feel at ease. I prepared several months for the audition, so I felt confident in my playing which ultimately helped me pass” said Donovan.
He would become a student at the University of Pittsburgh after all.
One of his most important influences while attending Pitt was master drummer Elie Kihonia. Originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kihonia helped introduced Donovan to African Drumming, and instilled in him the value of music as an experience, an important form of expression rather than simply a commodity to be mass marketed.
“At first I was very intimidated by him. He spoke little English and was an incredibly intense presence. Once I got to know him, he turned out to be a warm and wonderful soul. I’ve learned a great deal from him” said Donovan.
The friendship that he formed with Kihonia would prove to be one that would extend far beyond his years at the University of Pittsburgh.
It was also while attending Pitt that he would meet fellow students Patrick Norman and Liz Berlin, setting the stage for what would become the next major phase of Donovan’s life.
Rusted Root
An eighteen year old named Michael Glabicki had just returned from a trip to Nicaragua, when he decided to drop out of college after his freshman year to become a musician. He placed a call to a talented vocalist that he had gone to high school with, Liz Berlin. Berlin would introduce former classmate Glabicki to two of her current classmates, Patrick Norman and Jim Donovan. Rusted Root was born.
Donovan said the first time the four played together felt like magic “For one, it was just exciting hearing people who play and sing their own songs. I think we played Artificial Winter that day. Mike’s open tunings on the guitar were unlike anything I’d ever heard”.
A year later, the band would pose for photographers John Buynak and Jenn Wertz, who through a twist of fate also happened to be musicians; they would become Rusted Root members five and six.
After their self released album Cruel Sun in 1992, Rusted Root hit the big time when they signed with Mercury Records and released the 1994 platinum selling album When I Woke.
Rusted Root: The Original Four
Yes, Jim Donovan was himself now part of that highly polished music establishment, although not really.
Rusted Root would tour the world playing in front of massive audiences. They shared the stage with the likes of Santana, Dave Matthews Band, Allman Brothers Band, and Jimmy Page/Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin). They would perform as part of Woodstock ‘99, an event attended by a crowd of over 200,000 people, and would be the opening act for The Grateful Dead at their final show before Jerry Garcia’s death. Their music added a soul to hit movies like Ice Age.
But through it all, they were able to do something many successful bands couldn’t — they were able maintain their artistic integrity. The musicality of the members of Rusted Root became legendary to their fans, as together they would play nearly sixty different instruments during the course of a show.
“In any good creative relationship there are always disagreements and we had our share. The good thing was that for the most part, these disagreements didn’t revolve around being too commercial. Musically speaking we would sometimes argue about particular directions for songs, or the final mixes of what we created. In retrospect I remember agreeing more than disagreeing when it came to music” said Donovan.
On December 28 2004, his wife Tracey gave birth to Oliver, who would join their existing family of Tupelo and Ella. Just two days later, Jim Donovan would perform in Pittsburgh with Rusted Root for the very last time.
“The main reason for leaving was that I felt like I had been missing too many things with my young family. All of the little stuff was happening without me and it didn’t feel right. I also felt stagnant creatively and as a person — I knew that I wasn’t growing and that remaining in the band wasn’t helping this. So I took a leap and trusted that if I threw myself into the water, I would be able to swim” said Donovan.
It was the end of an era that had stretched over 15 years.
The Teacher
Jim Donovan Teaching
While still only in his 30s, Jim Donovan already had a lifetime of experiences behind him. He had studied under some of the most revered drummers in the world, been a creative force as part of a band that had developed a style of music all its own, and traveled the globe playing alongside some of the most recognized names in the industry.
Now a settled family man, he felt compelled to share with others all that he had learned and experienced.
He became a full time music instructor with the fine arts department of Saint Francis University, released a half dozen instructional DVDs on drumming, and was named Drum Circle Facilitator of the Year by Drum! Magazine.
But perhaps even more significant than actually teaching music, Jim Donovan also began developing unique ways of using music to teach.
“I know that my main work is to better myself and to help others better themselves, and so now I direct all that I create to that specific end. The more I work and live in this way, the more I grow as a result” he says.
Donovan joined forces with mentor Elie Kihonia to develop “Rhythm, Race, And The Transformation Of Fear“, an interactive diversity workshop that uses music and rhythm to spark dialogue about racial tensions and prejudice. Donovan and Kihonia provide their students with tools of empowerment, and to bestow upon them the skills they need to complete Donovan’s three pronged attack against prejudice: Confrontation, Engagement, and Education.
Another lecture series that he developed, “400,000 People, Carlos Santana & Me”, calls back to his experiences as a young musician that was thrust into the spotlight, with the aim of helping people overcome their own fears of failure and shortcoming.
Says Donovan in the lecture synopsis “You’re a young musician, and your band has been selected to go on tour with your all-time musical hero Carlos Santana. On the first day of the tour Carlos asks you to jam onstage with him in front of 30,000 people. You accept the invitation and then onstage you completely humiliate yourself… over and over again…”
While his various lectures, workshops, and seminars have him traveling again, it is not near the frenzied pace that he once endured while touring with Rusted Root. But still, he often finds himself in different surroundings, and it would be these opportunities Jim Donovan began using to drum the ecstatic.
Drum The Ecstatic International
Drum The Ecstatic International
Referring to Drum the Ecstatic International as a “band” may be something of a misnomer. Its definition, band: a group of musicians who perform together as an ensemble, is likely a better description than the word itself.
This group of musicians is the evolution of Donovan’s “hey wanna go play some music?” days of high school. A seemingly spontaneous jam session comprised of a varying cast of characters, this band is an informal gathering of people that have become along the way, a part of Jim Donovan’s life.
But a high school garage band it is not. Picking up where he left off with Rusted Root, Drum the Ecstatic International would become a unique cultural force of its own.
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)
Welcome To Inspirosity!
October 30th, 2009 in Articles by Administration
Welcome to Inspirosity, Where Curious Minds Come To Be Inspired!
We’re still busy getting the new site online, so keep checking back as we start rolling out all of our features and exclusive content!
Samuel Gagne
October 29th, 2009 in Photos by Administration
Artist’s Statement:
After a long battle with 60 million other versions of my gene pool and 9 months of incubation; ready and steady I came out in Montreal, December the 20Th 1977.
Fascinated by every thing that surrounded me especially objects that could be opened. Progressing toward my first discovery, there’s nothing inside the big yellow tonka; but inside my brother’s remote control there is! From small motor to still unidentified larger objects, curiousity sprung. Then I grew conscious of life and it’s representation, it’s mechanism. All these discoveries were pivoting around an ever so changing environment, one serious encounter with death, water and love. All this was very confronting for my 10 years.
By the time I turn 18 my life took a definitive direction: ART. Although it was always present in my life; at that peculiar time it became my journey. A full blown addiction. I found great support and incomprehension. Between fascination and fright I went head first in the deep untamed forest of life. Savage imageries were preponderant to this horizon that was foreseen by the great wheel of change….Miles and Miles of questions strobbing in a distant light….a long walk in the the silent snow made me realize the importance of reference and direction. I paint, sculpt, draw and write. All of the above are combined to merge my concept into life. If medium is the message then….let there be more then one dimension to my message. All this points towards life, it’s experience and the way it is interpreted.
Through a series of thematics a core formula arises; language (anything that is represented as a message) is essential to understanding, thus representing. {I am a filter….an interpret….a conceptor, but not a puppet}. There is so much information today…that even though directions are omnipresent they resemble a binary abstraction in which but a few are ready to share some form of interpretation. This is only the tip of an ongoing shift in perspective. Most of us have to face this if any authentic expression is to be attained. Why chase media related topics if they repeat themselves in the context of histories? The problems, if any…reoccur because of their nature; if you look for answers you might miss the solution. A few last words…Thanks to those who bring key visions… they are rare.
Thanks for broadening my mind, for this horizon would still be a goal…now it is a concept towards understanding.
Peace friendly stranger.
John Bramblitt
October 29th, 2009 in Photos by Administration
Artist’s Statement
I was born in 1971 in El Paso Texas, but have lived most of my life around the Dallas area. I am currently a student at the University of North Texas where I am pursuing a degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing.
My drawing and painting is self taught. Art to me is expression, and because of this there is no bad art. As a blind artist, I enjoy the way some people express themselves in paint, or words or other media more than others, but I sincerely believe that one’s preference for a persons art over another does not make that art any better or worse.
When I run my hands over an object and feel their textures my mind is filled with the colors of paints that have a similar texture. I know that a person’s skin is not red or blue, but sometimes to me it feels that way, and because of this I think painting has given me a very special way to view the world.
