MASTER PERCUSSIONIST TRANSFIXED AUDIENCE
By Nadine Pedersen

When Jamal Mohamed was little, he wanted to own a drum set and play contemporary North American music.
He bugged his parents, until finally, his father relented and bought him a single bongo drum.
“I was disappointed,” remembers Mohamed, who was a Beatles fan.
Mohamed explained that his father had hoped he would grow up and enter into a profession that would give him a good income, like a doctor or a lawyer.
“Now that I’m older, I understand his point,” joked Mohamed, who remained a musician. After listening to him play, it’s impossible to think of him in any other role.
The man is a master percussionist.
On Saturday, Mohamed wowed the audience at the 12th Annual Yukon International Storytelling Festival when he pulled sounds out of an Egyptian Ney Flute, an Egyptian Darabuka drum, a Kanjera drum from South India, a simple frame drum, and a large metallic mixing bowl from his friend’s kitchen.
He began with the Darabuka, a goblet shaped clay drum with a synthetic skin.
His fingers flicked over its skin, pulling out an amazing variety of sounds until it sounded like there were several drummers playing with him in the tent.
From there, he switched to the Egyptian flute. He explained that it took him a month of trying before he was able to produce a sound from the instrument.
Now, he appears to have mastered it. On Saturday, when he held the flute to his mouth, music weaved out of it. It quivered through, charming the audience with its haunting melody.
Mohamed then wet the lizard skin of a South Indian kanjera drum, to prepare it for his next piece. He held the small drum, with a single ringer (like on a tambourine) near his face and began to play. The sound was completely different from his earlier pieces, with frequent tempo changes and a lively pace.
From there, he pulled out the mixing bowl, added a bit of water to it and began tapping its base. The notes warped as he tilted the bowl. If dolphins could play instruments, this might be what they would produce: sub-aquatic sounding rhythm music.
From the mixing bowl, Mohamed went to a simple frame drum, took out some brushes and began playing jazz music. One audience compared him to the famous jazz drummer Gene Krupa.
Mohamed’s performance ended with his playing Dizzy Gillespie’s Night In Tunisia with his host, Jay Burr, accompanying him on the tuba.
Mohamed interspersed his pieces with anecdotes from his past and about the history of drumming.
Though he was born in Lebanon, Mohamed grew up in the Chicago area, listening to blues and jazz as well as Middle Eastern music. He currently teaches percussion at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Tex.
He also has a Middle Eastern Jazz ensemble called “Beledi” and a percussion group called “D-Drum”.