Hi Ginny,
I discovered this compilation CD on Amazon.com whilst searching for Aselin Debison. They don't have the tracklisting.
I did stumble across an article on drumshow.ca =>
Nova Scotia's founding cultures - Acadian, aboriginal, black and Celtic - come alive to a powerful beat from a stellar cast of singers, dancers, musicians in DRUM!
By ANDREA NEMETZ / Entertainment Reporter, Halifax Chronicle Herald
Saturday, October 2, 2004
A trip to Louisbourg inspired a unique musical production celebrating Nova Scotia's four founding cultures.
DRUM!, which in various incarnations, has played for tourism industry operators, Tall Ships 2000 visitors and been part of the East Coast Music Awards televised broadcast, grew out of a family trip Brookes Diamond took to the Cape Breton fortress.
"We were told about the soldiers who played drums there and the idea occurred that every culture has drums, every culture has drumming to different rhythms and it would be good to put all the rhythms together on one stage, in one show," says Diamond, who is busy preparing for the show's two latest incarnations, a 50-minute abbreviated version for cruise ship passengers and a two-hour production which opens to the Halifax public for a limited run on Oct. 15.
The first version of the show, featuring performers from Celtic, Acadian, black and aboriginal backgrounds, with Doris Mason as music director, was staged for the hospitality industry in 1999.
The following year Brookes Diamond Productions put together a new show featuring 270 dancers, singers and musicians that played for the public at the Grand Parade in front of Halifax City Hall for the four days of the Tall Ships, with the crowd doubling every night.
That show spawned the album DRUM! a musical tribute. . . featuring Mason, Jeremiah Sparks, Grand Derangement, McGinty, Ian McKinnon, Papa Grand, Morning Star, Chebucto Community Singers, Hallelujah Priase Choir, Aselin Debison and Kendra MacGillivray. Next, a six-minute opening segment was created for the ECMA broadcast in Charlottetown in 2001, which in turn sparked the interest of CBC producers in Toronto, who requested a full-hour show.
More than 100 performers and 60 crew were assembled for the four-day shoot in June 2003 at Electropolis Studios in Halifax.
Written by Gaelic songstress Mary Jane Lamond and Jac Gautreau and directed by CBC's Shelagh O'Brien, the resulting show, with a sleek, futuristic set by Tom Anthes and Stephen Osler is set to air this fall on CBC TV.
"The set for the TV show was beautiful and we wanted to save it for use in a live show," says Diamond. "It was always the idea to stage DRUM! for an extended period of time and after we completed the TV show, we returned our attention to the live performance. Because of the unique nature of the presentation, it was decided the show would be best served in its own facility."
With more than 200,000 cruise line passengers visiting Halifax each season, many of whom are interested in seeing something of the province's culture, staging DRUM! on the waterfront seemed a natural fit, he says.
Eventually the DRUM! producers settled on a space in the shed at Pier 20 (behind the Westin Nova Scotia) where in three weeks a temporary theatre space seating 300 was created. Anthes and Osler helped with the theatre design.
"It's a unique space and comfortable and cozy," says Diamond, noting the waterfront is also a central location for non-cruise ship tourists and Halifax residents alike.
On Tuesday, a new version of the show directed by Tim French, who helmed the Broadway musical The Producers in Toronto, will begin running in the afternoon for cruise ship passengers.
"We wanted to get it in before the cruise season ended and create interest that will translate to sales over the winter cruise booking season," says Diamond, who discussed it over dinner with the captain of the Queen Mary II during the liner's recent Halifax visit. "
Read the complete article here...
www.drumshow.ca/press_article4.htm
