Dojo Percussion team achieves precision, perfection

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Fifteen drummers and 13 other percussionists rattle off synchronized rhythms and march at a breakneck pace that aims for shock and awe.

And they achieve it as part of Dojo Percussion.

Dojo is an independent and competitive percussion team founded in Omaha about four years ago.

"It's a brain meld," 20-year-old ensemble drummer Derek Matthews said. "Everyone is extremely focused. Nowhere else are you required to lock rhythmically with 25-plus people."

Some of the music has 200 beats per minute. That means the drummers are stepping, in formation, at 200 steps per minute, he said.

Dojo competes at indoor events in the Midlands and regionally in cities like Denver, Nashville and Minneapolis. It also plans to compete April 19 to 21 at Winter Guard International in Dayton, Ohio. Winter Guard is an international, indoor competition for percussion ensembles and for color guards (like the flag teams you see during football and marching band seasons).

Dojo members have high expectations for Winter Guard in Dayton because their team won first place in its division in 2010, the first year the team competed.

For a percussion team, Dayton and the Winter Guard are what Omaha and the College World Series are to a college baseball team, according to Dojo's director, Dana Murray.

Murray is an Omaha native and percussionist who worked as a jazz musician in New York City from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. He toured the world as a drummer for Wynton Marsalis from 1996 to 2000 and recorded with the likes of Max Roach and Victor Lewis.

Murray returned to Omaha in late 2003 to raise his son and to open a drum studio for youths in the metro area. He teaches percussion at Omaha Burke High School and Bellevue East High School.

He organized Dojo Percussion as a way to challenge young musicians in the Midlands. Many of the Dojo members are in college, participating in their college marching bands. Some are in high school and a few are out of school. The top age for competing, in accordance with Winter Guard rules, is 22.

Dojo musicians auditioned for their spots in September and have been working on their music since late autumn. Six dancers joined the ensemble in January.

Most Dojo participants are from the Omaha-Council Bluffs or Lincoln areas. But the current membership roster also includes musicians who commute from Plattsmouth; Norfolk, Neb.; and Pierce, Neb. One of the ensemble's marching advisers, U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Nicole Eddy, drives from her home in Des Moines.

When ensemble members arrived for a recent six-hour practice session at Burke High School, Murray gathered them in the auditorium to talk about their afternoon assignments and the competitions scheduled from February through April.

Dojo director Dana Murray, an Omaha native, once toured as a drummer for Wynton Marsalis.

"You can be as good as anybody if you all max out," he said. "If you are deficient on anything, work on it. ... Grow motivated to compete."

The ensemble musicians left the auditorium for 40 minutes of stretching, calisthenics, jogging and sprinting.

Then musicians who play marimbas, timpanis and other stationary instruments gathered in a school hallway to practice.

Meanwhile the battery drummers assembled on a stage with their ear protection and with their bass drums, snare drums and multidrum kits. The loud, piercing beats of a battery-powered metronome — the kind used at outdoor marching band practices — marked the beats for a warm-up.

Marching in place, the drummers stood erect — heads and chests held high and eyes looking straight ahead — and played memorized drills to challenge their focus.

If one of the drummers was off the beat, no matter how slightly, Murray or another adviser drew attention to the error or stopped the practice.

Judges at competitions notice if anyone in a group is not synchronized with the others, Murray said. Everyone must focus and be on target.

Murray said ensemble members are eager to do well and win top honors in their division.

"You can't win all the time," Murray said. "When you come up short, you learn from it." Approximately 11,000 youths competed last year at Winter Guard International.

To be competitive, Dojo members put in 21 hours of practice together every weekend. Members are also expected to practice at least an hour a day at home and to maintain a daily physical fitness regime.

Band directors at area high schools and colleges encourage participation in Dojo Percussion in the winter months, according to Ron Hardin, director of bands at Bellevue East High School.

"It's a way to keep them prepared for the next fall," Hardin said. "It keeps their skills up and helps them perform."

He estimates there are another 30 percussion and guard groups, in addition to Dojo, competing in the region under the auspices of the Heartland Winter Arts Association. Most teams are affiliated with schools, so they do not compete directly with an independent team like Dojo. But independent and scholastic teams appear at the same public competitions.

"Independent groups like Dojo are the capstone," Hardin said. They draw top musicians from area schools and recent graduates who want to continue their interest in music.

Alex Steinke, of Plattsmouth, and Britton Wood rehearse with Dojo Percussion.

Hardin creates the choreography for Dojo Percussion; Murray writes the music.

Hardin has been involved with competitive drum corps and indoor percussion ensembles for more than 20 years as a competitor, adviser and judge. In recent years the level of skill demonstrated at the indoor percussion competitions has grown exponentially, he said.

Typically an indoor percussion team will have a marching battery of drummers and a stationary front ensemble of marimbas, xylophones and timpani — just as Dojo Percussion does, Hardin said.

Murray said he was inspired by the works of composer Harry Partch and the movie "Pan's Labyrinth" when he composed the music for Dojo's 2012 show. The front ensemble will use some handmade instruments (including a "keyboard" comprised of 25 car horns with different pitches) created by Omahan Alex McManus and a 10-foot-tall "dorimba" built by Dojo adviser Matthew Lippincott.

Members of the marching battery must have stamina and coordination to play and move like dancers in the show, snare drum player Matthews said. The University of Nebraska at Omaha sophomore leads Dojo's battery of drum players.

"It is a sport of the arts," Matthews said. "You absolutely have to be physically fit. Otherwise, you will probably get run over."

The steps are so fast that team members can't walk heel-toe like a marching band. They do what dancers call a running jazz step, he said.

Matthews said the practices and competitions can be exhausting mentally and physically, but his passion for the music and the bond he feels with the ensemble members and the director have pulled him back for three years.

"There's nothing in the world like getting in a line with a bunch of guys and playing a perfect triplet roll," Matthews said. "The competition is so intense at Dayton. It's like a Husker event. The experience you get musically you can't get anywhere else."

Omahan Isaac Grant, 21, says he's also drawn to the music. He played in the Omaha North High School marching band as a student and now works as a drum instructor at the school. This is his first year with Dojo, and he plays snare drum.

"This is probably the most underrated kind of music," Grant said. "This type of playing, you have to synchronize to the point of perfection. It's a skill that doesn't come easily and it's just beautiful. Gorgeous. This is something I really love. For this type of music, this is the highest level that you can perform at."

Contact the writer: 402-444-1052, jane.palmer@owh.com

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