Gordy Ryan has been passing through Tulsa since the mid-80′s when he was first invited here by an African student group at TU to give an African drumming workshop. After a few hiccups at the beginning of the session, the group invited Ryan back the next year and then the next. Eventually, they attracted a diverse mix of local musicians and were invited to play at May Fest.
Ryan brings an accomplished background to Tulsa with him every year. He played with Olatunji Drums of Passion, founded by the late Babatunde Olatunji, a renowned Nigerian musician and an ambassador of African culture. Since Olatunji’s passing in 2007, Ryan has played with various other drum groups.
Transcript
Gordy Ryan: [singing]Well, you’re mine. Yes, you’re mine dear, Delta Lady. Oh, you’re mine. Yes, you’re mine dear, Delta Lady.
GR: [laughs] There you go.
My name is Gordy Ryan. We are truly passing through Tulsa here, a very quick trip but very intense and deep experiences with the people.
I came up in music with a traditional Cuban apprenticeship and drums and then I went to – I was playing drums in Lima, Peru. I was told to go meet Babatunde Olatunji in New York City at his center in Harlem. And so, I became, I’m going to say part of the Drums of Passion.
The original motivation of Olatunji was to show people the beauty of African culture. And even though I have mixed blood, I’m primarily Caucasian; I was the first one in that group. And the first time I got – I came to Tulsa; I was brought by the University of Tulsa African Association because they’d heard about me and knew I played with Olatunji. Well, when I walked in the door the first night, it was a Friday night, I walk in and the cats all look at me like, “Oh.”[laughs] But, this is a gauntlet I had crossed before because with Olatunji we would go into a place, we might go into an all-black place and people are, you know, people look at me, right. You know, “Hey, what’s this guy doing in this situation? This is the best band in the world, African band, why is this guy in that band?” But, you know, the music starts and hey, it doesn’t matter anymore.
That first time I came, you know, the African brothers brought me in and it was great. I know there’s tend to be more cultural isolation between black and white in Tulsa. But, I haven’t felt it. I haven’t felt the prejudice. We had a very intense cultural mix. See, we’d have people from different bands joining us. So, we had guys from the black reggae group, we had people from a group called WhirlyGig that did like Allman Brothers and Grateful Dead covers. They’re really good.
Yeah. I’m sort of a specialized sampler you might say. [laughs] But, the African music is a total theater. It’s your voice. It’s your hands playing the drum. It’s your face, the expression on your face when you’re playing. The way you connect with each other and the audience. There’s the way your body moves. If you’re sitting down and we have a move going, the pelvis is moving. You’re moving on your center point. You’re feeling that. You feel a tremendous energy of vitality passing across your body. And that has a very cleansing effect and a very vitalizing effect so it actually brings more life into your organism and more awareness into your organism. That’s the personal level. Then, you’re playing with a group of people and you’re starting to feel the intuitive oneness with all of those people in the moment. Then that expands out to now a greater part of all humanity on the planet. I’m not kidding. This is really, you know, this is really hard is you suddenly start, “Ah, this is not a whole bunch of little people running around the planet.” All this is actually – there is actually a planetary being that we are all, we are that.
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