Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: Thaddeus Harrington Charles Williams, Singer /actor, and Tom Teasley, global-jazz percussionist, perform Word Beat, a combination of poetry and percussion,

Media Credit: Thaddeus Harrington Charles Williams, Singer /actor, and Tom Teasley, global-jazz percussionist, perform Word Beat, a combination of poetry and percussion, at JazzAlive, Feb. 19, Blgd. 46W Recital Hall.

    Word Beat featuring singer/actor Charles Williams and global-jazz percussionist/composer Tom Teasley offered a soul-lifting performance in UDC's auditorium on Feb. 19. The duo combined the reading of African songs, celebrated American poets like Langston Hughes, unforgettable speeches by the late Martin L. King Jr., to the talking instruments played by Teasley.

    From the welcoming West African words that proceeded out of Williams trained voice as punctuated by Teasley's West African djembe drum beats, through the closing words accompanied by his Egyptian Dumbek drum, the performance highlighted the marriage of world culture to such musical instruments as the Irish frame drum called bodhran, the heng and the drum set. Word Beat's performance was in the true tradition of the avant-garde theatre even though its themes ranged from gospel to politics.

    William started with a song honoring the story of creation with God feeling lonesome before he created man. The story offered a symbol of a humble God kneeling down in the mud, playing with clay and molding man. As William then moved on He then moved on to God's Trombone by James Weldom, Teasley traded his African djembe for the Irish bodhran. This scenario was repeated with each successive theme featuring Langston Hughes and more West African songs and stories highlighting the struggle of man to attain higher levels of spiritual and intellectual maturity.

    "Langston Hughes would be 106 years old were he alive today," William said as he recited the African American poet's famous spiritual, "Since I lay my burden down…" which is often heard in Baptist churches around the nation. "Hold fast to dreams; for if dreams go, life is a barren field frozen with snow," the singer went on underscoring the message in Hughes' writing. William's cultural bag was full of proverbs from various African nations. Among others, he shared a political proverb as a warning to nations. "The ruins of a nation begins in the home of his people."

    He also shared a proverb meant to instill wisdom. "Treat the world, it wasn't given to you by your parents; it was lent to you by your children." Other proverbs West African proverbs framed to convey the need to love included the following: "There is no new medicine to cure hatred; better be loved than feared." One proverb glorified knowledge in these terms: "Knowledge is like a garden; if uncultivated it cannot be harvested; therefore anticipate the good so that you may enjoy."

    The last West African proverb William shared advocated the taming of the tongue: "silence is also speech." The duo's performance concluded with a re-enactment of Martin L. King's famous speech: "We shall overcome…" accompanied by Easley's talking drums.

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