You cannot stop snapping your fingers to the vibrant rhythms and melodies of Word-Beat. Inspired by the texts of Langston Hughes and Martin Luther King Jr. among others, Charles Williams and Tom Teasley lit up the Literary Cultural Club in Jeddah on Wednesday. With Williams providing the vocals and Teasley on percussion, this collaboration of poetry and music teases the senses and feeds the soul.
Twelve years ago, while teaching music at the same school, the pair was asked to do a concert. Teasley came up with the idea of creating something with spoken words and percussion.
“It was well received. We thought, why don’t we expand this and we did a full-length program in the festival that summer,” said Williams. “Twelve years and two CDs later we’re still working together.”
The night at the club began with a traditional West African song of welcome. Word-Beat then presented the audience with an hour of unique fusion. Teasley performed with a wide range of percussion instruments including hand drums from around the world, a drum set and electronic instruments. Williams, with his rich resonant voice and expressive gestures, read and chanted poetry, words of wisdom and memorable lines from Hughes, Martin Luther King and Barack Obama. Understanding and unity is the message Word-Beat wants to send out to the world through their music.
“The pieces that we’ve chosen are words from native people, philosophers, thinkers, and people who are promoting unity, harmony, brotherhood and understanding between people from all over the world,” said Williams. “Most of our stuff has an African-American slant. But we also have words, proverbs and music from other cultures.”
In the same way that words convey the universality of humanity, Teasley said he had also chosen Middle Eastern, African and Far Eastern influenced music.
“It all kind of filtered through my experience of being an American musician. Hopefully we’re trying to represent what is good about America by taking a variety of cultures and respectfully trying to interpret it and put it forth into the world,” said Teasley.
Word-Beat started touring the Middle East last year by visiting Bahrain and Jerusalem. In Bahrain, Teasley performed with the master drummer from the Symphony Orchestra.
“They would play the traditional Bahraini rhythms on an Arabic ‘tabla’ (drum). I’d interpret American funk and blues rhythms. It was a beautiful marriage of cultures. Whenever I travel, I like to absorb the musical influences of where I’d been and then take that to the next level,” said Teasley.
Visiting Saudi Arabia for the first time, Williams and Teasley performed in Riyadh, Dhahran and Jeddah. In Dhahran Teasley formed another collaboration with a Saudi oud player. “Neither one of us spoke the other’s language. Music is really a universal language,” added Teasley.
The two American artists said they were pleased with the Saudi response.
“I would like to thank the Saudi audiences for opening their hearts and minds to something that is a little new and different. We had a wonderful response,” said Teasley.
“The audience had been warm and welcoming. It’s been a really positive experience and one sees that people are more alike than different. We all have the same human heart and soul and it has been a real pleasure in the Kingdom,” added Williams.
The duo present concerts and clinics internationally. Their first CD is called Poetry, Prose, Percussion and Song, while The Soul Dances is their latest release.
