John Mitchell

Discovering African Drum Rhythms John Mitchell

Elder Mitchell is a native of Cleveland Ohio, and proud product of the Cleveland Public School System. This includes being a student, a teacher, a counselor and an administrator. He has been teaching African music and performing arts to people of all ages for over twenty-five years. The inspiration for this book comes from his studies and performances with many great African Drum Masters, including Papa Assane M'Baye and Alassane Sarr of Senegal, West Africa. Elder Mitchell along with Paul Assegal (BabaOni Lu) are cofounders of the Passages African Drum Youth Ensemble. This Ensemble is based out of Cleveland Ohio and has performed at many local and regional events, as well as toured nationally. In addition to his ongoing teaching and performing schedule, he served as the African Drum consultant for the historic African American Karamu Theatre's recent productions of the Colored Museum, God's Trombones and Ruined. He was also music director for the Karamu special presentation during Cleveland's first annual Ingenuity Festival in 2005. The purpose of the book is to introduce a systematic and easy approach for learning basic African rhythm patterns to beginners. The end goal being to help the individual student learn the rudiments of African drumming within the context of a larger drum ensemble.