#219 Monette Marino- Solo Artist, World Percussionist, Educator & More!
This episode is sponsored by Dream Cymbals.
Monette Marino is a world percussionist. She spent the majority of the last 20 years studying under Master Drummer Mamady Keita from Guinea. In 1999 she received her Teaching Certificate from Mr.Keita and opened a branch of Tam Tam Mandingue USA in San Diego, California. From 2004–2012 she managed Mamady’s world tours, assisted him in teaching master classes, and performed with his ensemble, Sewa Kan. She received her diploma from Mamady Keita & Tam Tam Mandingue in 2011.
She has since branched out as a solo artist releasing her debut album “Coup d’Eclat” and also opened her own school of percussion called MO’RHYTHM. In addition, Monette Marino has created an iPhone App “Mo’Rhythm Africa – Play Along Djembe/Dunun App” now available on iTunes for iPhone/iPad/Apple TV. Prior to her involvement in West African percussion Monette studied folkloric and popular rhythms from Cuba, Brazil, and Korea.
R.I.P.
Neville O'Riley Livingston, the Jamaican vocalist better known as Bunny Wailer, died on March 2 at Medical Associates Hospital in Kingston, Jamaica, at age 73. A founding member of The Wailers alongside Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, Wailer went on to become a reggae icon in his own right. Wailer traveled and performed sporadically, each appearance a regal occasion befitting a seldom seen reggae monarch. -Article
Andrew Barlow was a multi-faceted percussionist with over 15 years of teaching, composing and performance experience. He has been invited to perform on 3 continents, performed in Japan, South Korea, Canada, and all 48 continental states. Andrew has composed and arranged for over 70 scholastic ensembles and independent ensembles across North America.
His areas of focus included, but were not limited to marching percussion, concert percussion, world percussion, drum set, musical theatre, orchestral music, studio recording, composing and management/administration.
If you would like to help out his wife and child, there has been a GoFundMe page set up to do so.
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday to drummer Kenny Aronoff. The book Damon talks about is called “Sex, Drums, Rock 'n' Roll!: The Hardest Hitting Man in Show Business”. You can hear a little of his story as told by one of his students, friend of the show, Tommy Diehl.
Happy Birthday to friend of the show Paoli Mejias. You can check out his episode by CLICKING HERE.
Gig Alerts
Based on conversations with governors in key U.S. states, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino is optimistic that large-scale American concerts are closer than ever to returning. He said that “a clear outline to a 75% to 100%” capacity for outdoor U.S. events in 2021 was looking likely to be green-lit.” -Article
Hit Like A Girl 2021 is the tenth annual international contest for female drummers, percussionists and beat makers. Its purpose is to showcase and encourage drumming and lifelong musicianship for girls, women and gender expansive individuals, regardless of age, playing level or geographic location. The event is produced by Hit Like A Girl, Inc. and made possible by the generous support of artists, individuals and companies in the music and music products industries. You can read more HERE.
Educational Spotlight
PAS is proud to award nearly $60,000 annually in scholarships and grants in support of our mission to inspire, educate, and support percussionists and drummers throughout the world. Recipients are given unique opportunities to advance their percussion careers; whether through financial assistance in collegiate study, or a once-in-a-lifetime experience by attending the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC). Through a partnership with Zildjian Company, PAS also provides funding for percussion-based presentations directed for underserved youth, ages pre-school through high school. -More Info
Every Wednesday “Drum Summit" LIVE! features a guest drummer/percussionist.
The show is hosted by Middle-eastern percussionist Ava Nahas and live streams on the @drum_summit Instagram on Wednesdays at 10AM PST/ 1PM EST, which is 10:30PM in India.
During the 30-40 minute show, each guest is asked to talk about their gear, their past and current projects, give short lesson, and answer questions that may be sent by the audience. The show will be promoted on the Drum Summit and Hit Like A Girl social pages and will be reposted after the LIVE session.
Iconic Recording
The iconic recording for this week is “Fankani” by Mamdy Keita from his first album ‘Wassolon’. This album features:
Mamady Keïta : djembé & chant solo
Navy Fiaty : djaraba, kenkeni, kenken
Didier Labarre : djembé, dununba, sangban, kenkeni
Ken Ndiaye : djembé, dununba, kenkeni
Special Guests :
Jeanne Baegné (djembé, sangban, kenkeni, dabara, kenken) -- Pierre Marcault (djembé, dununba) -- Moonha Ndiaye (djabara, kenken)
Music News
The Modern Drummer Readers Poll for 2021 is now open for voting. You can CLICK HERE to submit your votes and entries.
The Grammy's will be on this Sunday March 14th, 2021.
A Jeff Buckley documentary is officially happening, with the blessing of the Buckley estate.
Orian Williams will direct the biopic, “Everybody Here Wants You.” The film stars Reeve Carney as Buckley, chronicling his life before his death cut his career short in 1997. Buckley’s mother is on-board to co-produce the documentary with Tom Butterfield, Mary Guibert, and Alison Raykovich.
“This will be the only official dramatization of Jeff’s story which I can promise his fans will be true to him and to his legacy,” said Mary Guibert. “Thankfully, my determination to assemble all the rights participants, no matter how long it took, is about to culminate in the best way possible.” -Article
Shout-out to Reeve Carney for being selected for the role of Jeff Buckley!
Ahead of the full-scale return of non-socially distanced entertainment events, the British live concert industry is backing “vaccine passports” for shows and festivals.
Multiple British live concert industry bodies and organizers have come out in favor of developing a vaccine-passport system, which would presumably enable attendees to quickly demonstrate that they’ve received a COVID-19 vaccine as a condition for admittance.
UK Music indicated in a report that it was “working with government to develop guidance for how to hold events safely,” for instance. Hospitality Weekend in the Woods’ Josh Robinson said in a statement that he and others “want to urge government to follow the example set up already in other areas,” including the travel sphere, in terms of mandating a COVID-19 vaccine passport. -Article
To read how Israel is already on top of the Vaccine Passport, you can CLICK HERE.
While the health crisis has sidelined the live industry, the U.S. music economy remains a titan, collectively employing some 2.5 million folks and generating a whopping $170 billion in GDP.
Starting today (March 5), the 50 States of Music website has been updated with an interactive deep dive into the vital statistics of the music industry in each U.S. state.
Visitors can click through for state-by-state analysis on a wealth of music businesses, key artists and musicians, record labels, royalty recipients, songwriters, venues, and more. -Article
You can also slide over to Be An Arts Hero (dot) com, and send a letter to your senator to push for a cabinet level position for the Arts and Culture.
The show Damon will be playing drums on is called Pose! It will be on the third season finale. That season airs starting in May.
Shout-out to Pete Zambito for having Damon on his podcast (Pete’s Percussion Podcast). Part 1 aired last week, part 2 comes out this week.
Monette Marino Interview
The song leading into the interview is called “Rumba de la Guinée” by Monette from her album ‘Coup d'Eclat’.
Monette starts by talking about how she has adjusted her teaching during covid times by having a setup using Zoom. She has added new international students.
She uses her macbook, a ring light and a Yeti Blue Microphone. The other program she uses is called FlipGrid. The program Damon tried to remember is called Go React.
Monette has been working on clearing out her garage and learning rhythms with her daughter during covid times.
Monette is a native San Diegan. Damon points out the zoo and fish tacos as popular attractions to the city.
Monette has a school of music called Mo’Rhythm. She offers lessons in a multitude of ways.
Damon and Monette talk about how live stream concerts are different and the audience and dancers are what’s missing. They also talk about the possibility of the passport vaccine. This interview was conducted before the news about the aforementioned passport vaccine came out.
Monette started on the drumset before moving to Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian percussion. Ultimately leading to West African percussion.
Monette took a class UCLA, taught by Leon Mobley. She later saw Yaya Diallo at UCSD. Yaya had a group called the African Troubadours with Hassan Hakmoun and Adam Rudolph.
Monette mentions Djembeföla, the Mamdy Keita documentary.
Monette started playing drums because of her dad. He was in a band called The Strangers and they had a song called “The Caterpillar Crawl”.
Here are some cassette converters to turn old cassettes to digital MP3s.
Monette was learning Afro-Cuban rhythms from a student of (friend of the show) Michael Spiro.
SDSU, Gonzaga, UCLA, UCSD are the institutions of higher learning that Monette attended.
Shout-out to the late great Jimmy Cheatham.
Monette talks about the Mandinka people and the Mali Empire. Drummers to check out include Mamdy Keita and Famoudou Konaté who are both still living.
Monette talks about the Ballet Djoliba and its relationship with Harry Belafonte.
Monette has a percussion app to help you learn the rhythms.
Monette talks about her daughter and the relationship they have with her father.
Monette talks about the music she has released, like the aforementioned album ‘Coup d'Eclat’ and the new single “Sira”
If you want to wait till the first Friday of the month to purchase Monette’s music on Bandcamp, she will get 100% of the proceeds.
Monette is also a financial adviser if people need help setting themselves up for long term solutions or retirement.
Shout-out to Leon Mobley, Mahiri Fadjimba-Keita, Mamdy Keita, & Sheila E.
Monette brings up the group Women of Rhythm in India.
You can follow Monette on her Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
The song leading out of the interview is Monette’s new single “Sira”.
