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Statesman Journal

January 28, 2009

MUSICIAN SHARES HIS PASSION WITH STUDENTS
by Chris Hagan

(click here for downloadable/printable PDF version)

Mark Powers lives his life by rhythm.

Be it the rhythms he pounds out on his drums, the rhythms he feels between people or the ones that have carried him from rural Wisconsin to Africa and finally to Salem.

“Sometimes I look at what I’m doing and it seems like it’s so unconnected, but it all relates to percussion one way or another,” Powers said.

A teacher at Weathers Music in South Salem, Powers has built an impressive resume that includes nearly 50 students at the shop, performances across the country, school residencies and even a corporate leadership program called Rhythms at Work.

“He can wear so many hats and wear them very well,” said Weathers owner Keith Weathers. It’s led Powers to develop a wide network of colleagues in Salem since landing here in 2006 when Weathers was the first music store between Eugene and Portland to call the number on his business card.

“Having a guy like Mark in the Salem community is real lucky,” said Sprague band director Brad Howard. “He could play anywhere-​ and he has played a lot of places-​ but he chooses Salem to call home right now.”

The music career came as a last minute reprieve days before he attempted to fulfill his high school nickname of Doogie Howser. After finishing high school at age 16, he was set to start a pre-med program, but opted for a music school at the last minute.

“Literally at the 11th hour I was supposed to go for an orientation and I asked my mom if I could go to Minneapolis for an audition at this music college,” Powers said.

He started college as a heavy metal fan (he even admits to cut-off leather gloves) but was persuaded to diversify. The events reattached him to the rhythms that originally got him into music as a child.

“I honestly think the reason I picked percussion was growing up in Bayfield, Wis., up in northern Wisconsin, we were three miles from the Red Cliff Indian tribe,” Powers said. “I remember going to powwows as a kid and loving the drumming which was more simple and trancelike. And the dancers with all the bells and rattles on their legs, which I totally do at all of my jazz gigs.”

That led him to pursue the source of his favorite beats, traveling to Ghana to study under local drummers.

“I teach the West African style here, but I didn’t want to study it from a guy like me,” he said. “I wanted to go to the source.”

Since then, he’s tried to give that information back as much as possible, starting school residency programs, writing magazine articles, an instruction book he’s looking to publish and even a YouTube channel.

Last year he and Howard, a fellow percussionist, helped put together a percussion seminar for Salem-Keizer teachers. The two even share some students, a situation Howard takes advantage of occasionally.

“I ask (my student) what he’s doing in his lessons, what has Mark shown you, and I’ll give my student things to take to Mark because I know he has different approaches, ways to take that problem apart and from different angles that I haven’t thought of,” Howard said. For Howard, Powers is a unique combination of well-trained musician who can explain what he’s thinking to students.

“Sometimes you’ll come across great players who can’t articulate what they’re doing because it was natural and they’ve never had to think about it,” Howard said. “What he does well is he has tremendous ability, but he also knows what it means to work on things and he’s able to communicate on a wide range of ages and ability.”

Besides his own teachings and programs, Powers is a freelance drummer, hooking up for one-off shows all over the country.

“A lot of this stuff is fly-out dates so I’ll go to San Francisco or Austin, Texas, and I can just bring my laptop and my sticks and there will be a kit there waiting for me,” he said. “And it’s a situation where I’m not in a band, so if I can’t do it they’ll just find a different drummer.”

Powers also is working on an instruction book and writing magazine articles, including for the Mel Bay Web site.

But his main goal is to continue to travel. His next targets are Brazil and Cuba.

“Someone coined a term for me once, like ethno-percussionologist,” Powers said, “because I really enjoy studying percussion’s role in different cultures. I really have a fascination for that and that’s what I want to teach.”

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Salem Monthly

Volume 6, Issue 5- August 2009

RHYTHM RX
by Michelle Andujar

According to holistic theory, when there’s disease in the body, its vital force has been blocked.

Drum therapy proposes that drum vibrations can penetrate the electromagnetic field around us, creating a better balance with their positive rhythms.

“Music can be the vehicle for some people to really express themselves, people who otherwise may have trouble adapting or communicating with the rest of the world,” said local percussionist Mark Powers, who has used drum therapy with autistic children and inmates. “I’ve created a number of rhythmic games to get autistic kids to focus on one steady beat for a length of time.”

Drumming exercises have helped Alzheimer’s patients communicate better with their family members, he added.

Having someone drum over the affected part of the body, close enough for the patient to feel the drum’s pulsations through the hollow bottom of the instrument, is thought to help speed the recovery process.

“The deep, resonating sound waves literally go into the body, making the immune system kick into gear and start the healing processes,” said Steve Koc, a chiropractor at Riverfront Wellness Center, who maintains a gong and a hand drum at his work station, and drums over clients upon request.

Some people have experimented with drumming as a form of prayer.

“When our friends are ill, we play for them, and a lot of times it works,” said Rick McKenzie, local drum maker and one of the founders of the Salem drum circle at Riverfront Park.

Besides being drummed over or drummed for, the act of drumming has its own beneficial effects.

“Moving the arms causes the lymphatic system to flush through the chest and the axila,” Koc said.

As a Marine, Wendy Graves was almost paralyzed from Persian Gulf Syndrome, nerve damage from exposure to chemicals during the Desert Storm and Desert Shield military operations. She can walk now, thanks to physical and drum therapy, she said.

“Since I started drumming, I don’t have to work so much with a physical therapist. My balance is better. I don’t know if it’s the exercise, the energy, or both. Drumming has made me much stronger. It’s a great upper-body exercise, and it’s fun,” Graves added.

Drumming may have many mental and emotional impacts.

“It’s a form of meditation,” Koc said. “We get stressed out mulling over the past. Sound only exists in the present. You can’t hold on to it. With drumming, you focus on what you’re doing, and move on. It’s a natural high, without the addiction and hangover factor of other escapes.”

Powers teaches a workshop once a month called “Inner Rhythms Percussion,” which endeavors to help people have better relationships. “It is based on the idea that if you become aware of the rhythms in your own life and in your relationships, you’ll be in a better position to make changes where it’s needed,” he explained.

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News Review

(a publication of the Correctional Education Association of Wisconsin)
March/April 2004
Volume 18, Issue 5
by Rich Norenberg, WRC

The Wisconsin Resource Center’s multicultural program sponsored “Drums of Africa” on February 18. This centerpiece to WRC’s Black History Month celebration was provided by local percussionist Mark Powers. Mark
recently traveled to Ghana, Africa to learn local drum making, drumming traditions and styles of such as Gahu, Tokoe, Achiagbekor and Kinka pieces with the Ewe people of the Volta Region. He returned with locally hand made drums and in addition to his already diverse and strong percussion background, new traditional African drumming methods. Mark presented this experience and entertained inmates and staff during his 90-minute show.

Mark opened his presentation with an attention-getting drum roll on a wooden African xylophone. The sound centered the audience’s attention and many moved to the edge of their chairs to focus on his work. With audience in tow, Mark led a brief overview of what was to be expected in his show.

The ensuing slide show visually represented his three months stay in Ghana, Africa. This led to an attentive audience engaged in a lengthy question and answer session. “Drums of Africa” was wrapped up with a lecture and powerful demonstration on the drums. Some drums Mark played included the Djun-Djun, Talking Drum, Kpanlogo, and Master Drum. With several more drums on hand, Mark ensured all were played for their unique sound and a description of each piece was provided. Needless to say, Mark’s drumming wowed the audience.

Some of Mark’s recent accomplishments include being officially entered in the Guinness Book of World Records, 2000 Wisconsin Band of the Year, 1999 Central Wisconsin Band of the year, 1998 Horizon Award, 1995
Minnesota Band of the Year and 1995 Minnesota Academy of Music Award. Mark also plays for several local bands and has worked with Hollywood Images, Ronald McDonald House and the Minnesota Twins. He is planning a return trip to Africa in September 2004.

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IntuneMag

(a publication of Musictech College)

Spring 2004
by Cory Clay

After graduating from high school in Grand Marais, Minnesota, Mark
Powers attended Musictech College from 1993-1995, and graduated with a degree in performance. “My percussion addiction probably began as a result of attending Chippewa pow-wows as a child,” Powers says. “Without a thorough understanding of the culture behind the music, there was no way that I would have been allowed to participate, but the intensity of the gathering drum rhythms definitely permeated my being and triggered a future of hitting stuff.”

On September 11, 2003, Powers and his three drummer buddies, Peter Buxman, Patrick Flanigan, and Namiah Tribolini, set out to break the record in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest drum roll by a group. The friends played a non-stop buzz roll on a 12- inch DW snare for 12 hours. From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., they alternated shifts in 10 to 15 minute increments. The day was a success! Not only did Powers and his drumming partners break the world record (previously held at nine hours), but they also raised over $1,200 for local school music departments and the Wisconsin PAS chapter.

Currently, Mark is freelancing with several jazz, rock, and country bands, teaching private drum lessons and community percussion programs, and participating in the artist-in-residence programs in area schools. Powers also recently returned from a two-and-a-half month trip to Ghana, West Africa, where he studied the drumming of the Ewe and Ga people. One of Powers’ songs, featured on Just Drums II, will be available this spring through Fever Pitch Records. And an interview Powers did with Ghanaian master drummer Emmanuel Agbeli is featured in the April issue of Fever Pitch magazine.

Powers says that music is his passion because, “Rhythm is everything that I am . . . everything that we are.” He offers some good guidance to Musictech students by saying, “Diversify! Play all styles. You’ll learn something every time. And teach. In music and in life, the process of giving what has been given is a rhythmic cycle that is important to nurture for the betterment of all.”

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Appleton Post-Crescent

March 18, 2004

EVENINGS AT THE IMPROV
by Jim Lundstrom

view cover photo (Post-Crescent photo by Kristyna Wentz-Graff)

Jazz is suddenly a happening thing in Appleton. You could even say a jazz orgy is taking place here. Multiple venues are offering a variety of jazz, from a piano/bass duo to big band. Almost as a symbolic standard bearer of the growth of live jazz in Appleton, the Oshkosh based trio Jazz Orgy recently set up its weekly jazz jam shop in the front window of Ravens in downtown Appleton on Wednesday nights.

The trio- Mark Powers on drums, Andy Mertens on upright bass, and Mark Martin on keyboards- recently celebrated its fourth year of jazz orgies every Sunday at Peabodys Ale House in Oshkosh. but started playing Ravens just last month.

Already word has spread that Jazz Orgy is in town, and others come to play with the Orgy.

On a recent night you would have found at Ravens several members of the Groove Hogs horn section, a crack drummer in the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble, guitarist Chris Aaron, piano/bass duo Helen Exner and Jason Brown, and a number of other players all waiting their turn to get in on the Orgy.

“As it stands right now, they’re my favorite nights.” said Ravens’ owner Clint “Howie” Gennett. “They play with so much energy, and it’s brought in so many new people. Everyone who comes loves the vibe. It’s just going to get better. I’m excited every Wednesday.”

Bass player Mertens, an LU graduate, is happy to be in Appleton as well. “I love it.” he said. “It’s awesome being back in the old haunts.”

The band really does seem inspired, flying along with all pistons kicking in- Powers, machinelike in his precision but incredibly human in the percussive colorations and textures he provides from whatever part of his cocktail kit he chooses to make music on; Mertens, who is endlessly inventive on the bass and moves easily from a blistering barrage of bass filigrees to achingly mournful bowings; Martin, who conjures up a world of sound on his RD-600 Roland digital piano and Hammond XK-2 organ.

“Playing with the two Marks is just so cool,” said bass player Jason
“Red” Brown after playing a lickety-split version of Chick Corea’s “Spain” with Martin and Powers. “They both have great ears.”

“A lot of what we do is on the fly. We just yell out ideas to each other,” said drummer Powers. “Money can’t buy chemistry like that.”

When The Jazz Orgy came to town, the band knew it wanted to play a similar format to it’s Sunday nights in Oshkosh, with different players drifting on stage throughout the night. “Absolutely, we want it to be a jam,” Martin said. “That’s why we call it the Jazz Orgy.”

“It’s such a great thing when musicians have a venue to come to where they can just meet and play,” said Dan Crane, an Evanston, IL native and Lawrence University senior who drums in the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble. “It’s great to meet all these other musicians. They’re playing standards, so if anyone knows their stuff they can play.”

“This is great. I’m in full support of the Jazz Orgy,” said Steve Cooper, tenor sax player in The Groove Hogs. “I’ve been going down to Peabody’s for years. When I heard these guys were coming up here, I knew I’d have to come down and support them. As long as they’re here, I’ll be coming down.

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The Compass

(Official Newspaper of the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin)

February 13, 2004

AFRICAN DRUM BEAT COMES TO OSHKOSH PARISHES:
MUSICIAN STUDIES DIFFERENT WAYS TO GIVE VOICE TO PRAISE
by JoAnne Flemming, Compass Correspondent

Oshkosh drummer Mark Powers is on a mission to study percussion instruments in different parts of the world.

He spent two and a half months last fall in Ghana, West Africa, studying drumming techniques. Since his return in December, those techniques have enriched liturgies at St. Mary Parish in Omro and St. Raphael Parish in Oshkosh. Powers also brought back two dozen, handcrafted African drums. These included djembe drums carved with traditional symbols. The ones he presented to the parishes include Ghanaian symbols for God Omnipotent.

Powers started playing drums in fifth grade, in his native Bayfield, where he was intrigued by the drumming he heard at Native American powwows. After graduating high school at age 16, he attended music school for two years in Minneapolis. While in Minnesota, he met a Ghanaian who introduced him to drumming from his country. Because of that friendship, Powers became determined to go to West Africa.

Realizing that goal took 10 years.

In the meantime, he moved to Oshkosh, where he set up a downtown studio. Besides giving percussion lessons, he plays with various bands. African drumming has been included in the music which the band, Revelation, plays at St. Raphael’s Lifeteen Masses and with what the Ruah Trio performs weekly for St. Mary’s Sunday Masses. Powers belongs to both groups.

He has also developed three programs he does as artist in residence at parochial and public schools:

  • “Hands Around the World,” an introduction to percussion instruments from different countries.
  • “Junk Jam,” lessons in music performed on such non-musical devices as garbage cans, brake drums and buckets.
  • A West African program that centers on Ghana.

Because of a student’s mother, he became involved with the music group at St. Mary. St. Raphael’s group includes area musicians, both Catholic and non-Catholic.

When he set out on his long-awaited journey to Ghana last October, Dane Richeson, a percussion professor from Appleton’s Lawrence University directed Powers to places where he could study drumming: these included the villages of the Ewe and the Ga tribes.

His first stop was with the Ewe at Kopeyia, the village which is the home of the Dagbe Cultural Center. While the center does not hold formal drumming classes, it “is a destination for Western percussionists,”
Powers said.

The Ewe, he explained, have a several styles of drums, built with staves and resembling different sized and shaped barrels. They are played with two sticks, or with one stick and a hand.

Powers learned how to make various tones on the drums, but said he also learned how drumming permeates Ghanaians’ lives. While drums are played for social occasions, they are also used for events such as funerals. He joined a group that performed for a hospital opening. Drums can still be used for communication, as much today as in the past.

While studying at the Dagbe Center, Powers often heard someone running through the village playing double iron bells: one high, one low. These were gakogui, he was told, and they served as newspapers. The different tones announced the times and locations of events, usually funerals.

When Powers later visited the Ga people along the Ghanaian coast, he heard bells played while fishermen dragged in their nets. He learned that the music made from these banana leaf-shaped bells kept people motivated at their work.

He said the Dagomba region in the north is known for “talking drums.” These are shaped like hour glasses, with tops and bottoms connected on the outside with strings. In playing them, a drummer squeezes the drum under his arm to contract the strings and change the instrument’s tone as he hits it with a curved stick. The resulting changes in tone are supposed to be like “inflections in the human voice,” Powers said.

However, a “talking” drum often speaks to the village chief and, since the place where Powers was visiting had no current chief, drumming there was temporarily forbidden.

Even though he couldn’t play any Dagomba drums, he was able to study Ga hand drumming techniques. These include different strokes resulting in slap tones, open tones, bass tones, light finger and palm tones. Combining these tones creates various rhythms.

Besides drums, Powers studied other percussion instruments. He explained that, musically, any instrument struck to produce a tone is considered a percussion instrument. This includes the xylophone he discovered in northwestern Ghana. While similar to a Western xylophone, it had gourds hanging from its bars.

He traveled around the country by tro-tros, small European vans used as public transportation. He described them as “really smelly, really dirty.” They were over-packed. It wasn’t unusual, he said with a laugh, to sit next to a woman with “live chickens between her legs.”

Powers plans to continue to study hand drumming. Early next year, he will spend a month in Thailand. He also wants to study drumming in India and South America.

© Catholic Diocese of Green Bay

1825 Riverside Drive | P.O. Box 23825 | Green Bay, WI 54305-3825

Phone: 920-437-7531 | Fax: 920-437-0694 | E-Mail: diocmail@gbdioc.org

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Oshkosh Northwestern

September 12, 2003

DRUMMING FOR WORLD RECORD: 12-hour drum roll lands title
by Doug Zellmer

Their hands may be a little sore, but four men have laid claim to a new Guinness Book of Records for the longest continuous drum roll.

The 12-hour marathon started at 8 a.m. Thursday in New Moon Coffee Co. in downtown Oshkosh. It was completed at 8 p.m. when the last smack of drumstick to snare drum took place.

“I’m in awe and very excited. It’s just huge for my life,” said drummer Patrick Flanigan.

Although they drummed for 12 straight hours, the four set the world’s record shortly after 5:11 p.m. as onlookers applauded when they bested the current mark listed by Guinness of 9 hours, 11 minutes and 1 second. The record was set March 26 of this year by 11 students at Maple Street School, Contoocook, N.H.

“It’s a huge sense of accomplishment for four small town guys. I knew we could do it,” said drummer Namiah Tribolini.

The longest continuous drum roll, however, must be verified by Guinness Book of Records. Five people witnessed the entire 12 hours to verify the accomplishment and the event was videotaped.

Joining Flanigan and Tribolini in the continuous drum roll were Mark Powers and Peter Buxman. Buxman hails from St. Paul, Minn. The other three are from Oshkosh. The four alternated with each drumming for 10 minutes at a time.

Powers said the Guinness record set by the New Hampshire school children was in memory of people who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D. C.

“We wanted to commemorate 9-11 and also acknowledge moving onward,” Powers said.

Powers said he also set up the drum roll as a way to have fun with friends and to promote the percussive arts.

“It was a great event to do it with some of my best friends and some of the best drummers in the area,” Powers said. “We were confident that we could pull it off.”

A massage therapist was present to keep the drummers hands and wrists in shape for the marathon drum roll.

Claiming the longest continuous drum roll is the second recent attempt in Wisconsin to set a new Guinness Book of Records. Carroll College student Rey Monis, a disc jockey at the campus radio station, recently broadcast nonstop for 104.5 hours.

Doug Zellmer: (920) 426-6667 or dzellmer@thenorthwestern.com.

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Oshkosh Northwestern

July 11, 2003

OSHKOSH MAN DRUMS UP TRIP TO AFRICA
by Doug Zellmer

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