A DRUMMERS DREAM (John Walker, Canada). 84 minutes. Friday (May 7), 10 pm, Royal Sunday (May 9), 1:30 pm, Royal. Rating: NNN
Who knew that Ontario cottage country hosts a drumming summer camp that features some of the world’s top percussion talent? This camp, run by Nasyr Abdul Al-Khabyyr (who once toured with Dizzy Gillespie), is the focus of veteran director John Walker’s latest. While watching it, you won’t be able to keep from tapping your foot.
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Drumming aficionados will eat up every beat of the well-filmed performances and talks by Mike Mangini, Horacio “El-Negro” Hernandez, Raul Rekow and others. And the final jam at the end, when the students join in, is lots of fun.
But there are few surprises – except when Hernandez escapes in a canoe – and the absence of contributions from, say, Kodo drummers, makes the project feel a bit Western-centric.