by: Jesse S. Somer
In life we all have dreams and goals, aspirations to follow a certain path that will lead to social achievements and personal growth. We all hope to fulfill a destiny where we can put all of our efforts into one activity or more that helps the world in one way or another. Recently I went to see a musical group called Taikoz and I believe I was witness to a certain level of human achievement that was simply mind-blowing. These people have obviously trained and practiced so much that they have reached a level of mastery. They have taken the human life experience to the limit.
Taikoz are a multicultural group based in Australia who focuses on the ancient art of Japanese Taiko drumming. One of the group’s members, Riley Lee, also plays a traditional Japanese bamboo flute called a shakuhachi. He is world renown for being the first non-Japanese person to be given the title Grand Master of this sacred Zen Buddhist instrument.
Let me give you an idea about this concert. It was held in a relatively small opera-style, three-tiered theatre and I was fortunate enough to get front-row middle seats. Throughout the evening the handful of drummers played approximately 50 different drums, and play they did! For over two hours they beat out multiple complex rhythms, sometimes whilst dancing, and occasionally intermingled with the most beautifully peaceful flute accompaniment you have ever imagined.
Now, what truly got to me was these people’s physical, mental, and spiritual presence. The drums, some two and a half meters high, hit every single person in the crowd right in the stomach. However, it was the intensity in the drummers’ eyes and muscle-strained bodies that infected the crowd with an electric energy that left everyone feeling like they had run a marathon by the end of the night. Of course all we were really doing was sitting down.
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