The All Around This World: Africa CD will only possibly come together because Amon has a large “musical family” of talented music-makers in New York, or currently based elsewhere but formerly based New York, who we can call upon to lay down top-notch tracks. Our primary go-to musician so far has been the instinctively talented multi-instrumentalist Sean Dixon. Sean, who performs in more bands around New York and beyond than one could possibly mention, has risen to a formidable challenge by starting us off with drum kit and bass on a handful of tracks. Amon has also been working with pianist Ethan White and horn/woodwind specialist Jon Natchez, who this NPR interview describes as “Indie Rock’s must valuable viagraforhealthyman sideman.” The revered “uncle” of this family, the musician, teacher and friend who brought me together with Amon, and introduced many members of of Amon’s New York-based African musical community to each other is Michael Markus, whose Wula Drum is the only source you should consider if you’re thinking of buying a West African djembe. DrumMagazine.com refers to Michael as “probably the world’s greatest non-African djembe player,” which is both incredibly high praise and, as far as I know, true.
We are revising the AllAroundThisWorld.com site — the information you’re seeking may still be here, but a lot of links are broken and details may be out of date. We are currently using a new (better!) site — ExploreEverywhere.com — to tell you all about our class offerings, our “pen pal” program and how to become one of our teachers, and will eventually be moving all the goodies from here over to there. So, GO TO THE NEW SITE!
