Faculty royal hartigan
royal hartigan, a percussionist, has studied and performed the musics of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas, including indigenous West African drumming, dance, song, and highlife, Turkish bendir frame drum, Japanese taiko drumming, Philippine kulintang gong and drum ensemble, Chinese Beijing, Cantonese, and Kunqu opera percussion, South Indian solkattu rhythms, Korean Nong Ak gong and drum ensemble, Javanese and Sumatran gamelan, Gaelic bodhran, Cambodian sampho drumming, Vietnamese clapper percussion, Native American drumming, Dominican merengue, Brazilian samba, European symphony, and African American blues, gospel, funk, hip-hop, and jazz traditions.
He was awarded an A.B. in Philosophy from St. Michael's College in 1968, specializing in medieval metaphysics and the existentialism of Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. He received a B.A. in African American music at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in 1981, studying with Roland Wiggins, Frederick Tillis, Reggie Workman, Archie Shepp, Max Roach, and Clifford Jarvis. royal earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in world music at Wesleyan University in 1983 and 1986, studying intensively with Edward Blackwell, Freeman Donkor, Abraham Adzenyah, and other master artists from Java, India, China, and West Africa.
He has taught ethnomusicology, African drumming, and world music ensemble at The New School for Social Research in New York and the Graduate Liberal Studies program at Wesleyan University. royal helped develop and taught graduate and undergraduate courses in world music, large and small jazz ensembles, African American music history, and West African drumming and dance at San Jose State University before assuming his current position in world music at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
His publications include Cross Cultural Performance and Analysis of West African, African American, Native American, Central Javanese, and South Indian Drumming, a 1700-page analysis of world drumming traditions (the Edwin Mellen Press); articles in Percussive Notes, World of Music, Annual Review of Jazz Studies, and The African American Review; and a book, West African Rhythms for Drumset (Manhattan Music/Warner Brothers). He has given lectures and clinics on world music and jazz in Africa, China, Europe, and North America. He travels to West Africa each summer to teach, perform, and do research, collaborating with J.H. Nketia at the Institute for African Studies, University of Ghana, and the musicians at the Dagbe Cultural Center, Kopeyia village, Volta Region, Ghana.
He has performed, given workshops, and recorded internationally with his own quartet (Blood Drum Spirit 1997), Juba (Look on the Rainbow 1987), Talking Drums (Talking Drums 1985 and Someday Catch, Someday Down 1987), the Fred Ho Afro-Asian Music Ensemble (We Refuse to be Used and Abused and Song for Manong 1988, Underground Railroad to My Heart 1994, Monkey Epic Part 1 1996, Turn Pain Into Power 1997, Monkey Epic Part 2 1997, Yes Mean Yes, No Means No! 1998), Hafez Modirzadeh's Paradox ensemble (Chromodal Discourse 1993, The People's Blues 1996, The Mystery of Sama 1998), the David Bindman-Tyrone Hendersoin Project (Strawman Dance 1993, Iliana's Dance 1996), and poet Nathaniel Mackey (Strick: Song of the Andoumboulou 1995). He has released a documentary and artistic video of his work in West Africa and its relation African American music cultures (Eve 1997).
