Jaqui
MacMillan
The Joy of the Drum
Wammie
Award Winner 1996-2003; Remo Drum Artist;
Founding and Board Memberof the
Drum Circle Facilitators Guild;
First Place Mid Atlantic Songwriters' Competition
Jaqui's drumming quest began in the early 1980's, when she started playing sessions
with D.C. area musicians. Since then, she has studied with many Masters:
Mamady Keita, Babatunde Olatunji, Shina DurosinmiEtti, Carlos Moore, Sam Turner,
and at the Tam Tam Mandingue School, with Mahiri Fadjimba Keita (apprentice of
Master Mamady Keita). She is also a graduate of the 1999 Drum Facilitators Playshop
and the 2001 Drum Facilitators Mentor Program in Hawaii with Arthur Hull.
Jaqui won the Washington Area Music Association’s
"World Music Instrumentalist Award" for 1995 through 2003 and the "World
Music Female Vocalist Award" for 2001. She performed with the Washington
Area Music Award (WAMMIE) winning group, Big Village, for eleven years and produced
six recordings ,(CD's / cassettes), with the group. She performed with Rachel
& Jaqui - a World Beat / Folk duet, and Mama Muti
- drum and vocal duet (with Amikaeyla Gaston), and has done many other
solo performances and studio sessions.
Venues played include:
the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., The Wetlands in New York City, The Starwood
Festival in upstate New York and hundreds of other festivals, clubs and
smaller venues in the Mid Atlantic region. She has shared the stage with the Neville
Brothers while performing with renowned sax man, Ron Holloway at the Artscape Festival
(Baltimore, MD), and also with Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead), Giovanni Hidalgo and
Baba Olatunji at the "Babatunde
Olatunji Benefit Concert 2001" at the Paramount Theatre in New York.
Her group, Big Village, opened for Shawn Colvin, Los Lobos, Rusted Root, Syd Straw,
Vinx, Yothu Yindi, Wavy Gravy, Gheggy Tah, Betty and Tricky, among others.
Her duet, Mama Muti, performed and recorded (on the Sounds True label) with renowned
astrologer and author, Caroline Casey.
She is the co-founder and co-facilitator of the Village Tree , a drum, dance and "building
community through rhythm" event held in Maryland. Jaqui is a REMO
endorsee and facilitator and has facilitated drum circles for elementary
schools, at summer programs for children, at hospitals, for corporate team building
events, with "at risk" children and at centers for homeless and battered
women. She is a founding and board member of the Drum
Circle Facilitators Guild (DCFG), a non-profit organization based in Washington
DC. Jaqui has taught privately and given workshops for over nine years through
her program, "Drum For Joy!!!". Her main focus is the
Djembe drum from West Africa, although she is also interested in and has studied
congas and Afro-Cuban drumming, the dunun drums from West Africa and the Middle
Eastern Doumbek. She suffuses her teaching and playing with great respect
for the traditions and with the joy of drumming!
Her TV
appearances include the Fox 5 morning news in DC, a feature story on the Channel
9 evening news in North Carolina, a telethon for Children's Hospital (channel
9, DC), and many Mid-Atlantic Cable shows. Currently, she is working on a book
about women who drum, and she is featured in the November 2000 issue of DRUM!
Magazine.
Jaqui believes that healing happens
through the arts and music |
