Layne Redmond was an American drummer, frame drum expert, writer, teacher, historian, filmmaker and mythologist. Remo created a frame drum designed by Redmond as their first Signature Series product.
The February 2000 issue of DRUM! Magazine listed Layne Redmond as one of the 53 Heavyweight Drummers Who Made A Difference in the '90s.
Layne Redmond is the only woman on this list which includes Tony Williams, Roy Haynes, Zakir Hussain, Elvin Jones and Micky Hart.
And Layne Redmond is one of the few drummers listed who has not been in a commercially successful pop, rock or jazz band. Instead Layne Redmond has followed an extremely unusual path specializing in the small hand-held frame drum played primarily by women in the ancient Mediterranean world. From 1981 through 1990 she performed and recorded the first contemporary frame drum compositions with percussionist, Glen Velez for European and American labels.
During this period Layne Redmond intensively researched the playing styles and history of the frame drum in religious and cultural rituals culminating in her book, When The Drummers Were Women. This book details a lost history of a time when women were the primary percussionists in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Egypt, Greece and Rome and also explains why they are not today. When The Drummers Were Women was released by Random House in June 1997 in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe.
Layne Redmond is recognized as one of today's most exciting performers on the frame drum and has been featured in many music festivals including the Touch Festival in Berlin, Seattle Bumbershoot Festival, the Institute for Contemporary Art in London, Tambores do Mundo (drum festival in San Luis, Brazil) and as a soloist at the 1995 World Wide Percussion Festival in Brazil. On March 2, 2002 Redmond and Tommy Brunjes performed and gave clinics at the Vienna International Percussion Festival 2002.
Layne Redmond is a master clinician and has taught and lectured numerous times at the Percussive Arts Society's International Convention, the National Association of Music Therapy and in 1998 she gave the keynote lecture and performance at the eighth annual Healing Sound Colloquium. Some of the venues she's taught or performed at are Penn State, Vassar College, William's College, Bucknell College, Hartford Seminary, Andover Newton Theological Institute, Sam Ash Music Institute, Berklee School of Music, Calif. Institute of the Arts, Roulette, The Knitting Factory, and Esalen Institute.
Layne Redmond's recordings include: Being in Rhythm, Since the Beginning, Chanting the Chakras: the Roots of Awakening and she has two instructional videos: Rhythmic Wisdom and A Sense of Time. Golden Seed Music released the new duo cd, Trance Union, by Redmond and Tommy Brunjes. She was the first woman to have a Signature Series of world percussion instruments with Remo, Inc., one of the world's largest manufacturers of percussion instruments and drum heads.
"Layne Redmond, the leader of the Mob of Angels, is a superb percussionist. On Friday evening, she drew an astonishing variety of well-focused sounds from a tambourine, two frame drums and an African finger piano."
- The New York Times, June 9, 1991, James R. Oestreich
Drum! Magazine Reader's Poll 2002:
Percussionist of the Year, Layne Redmond
Percussion Album of the Year: Trance Union, Layne Redmond & Tommy Brunjes
Percussion Video of the Year: Rhythmic Wisdom, Layne Redmond
Winner of DRUM! Magazine's 2003 Reader's poll:
Second Year In A Row -- Best Percussion Recording -- Trance Union!
"Glen Velez, Steve Gorn and Layne Redmond are as close as anyone's come to the universal crossover group. Their pretty timbres and pure tuning attract the naive ear. Jazz fans and raga buffs alike enjoy following the variations they spin around their rhythmic patterns, which are complex enough to intrigue experimentalists. Their improvs are cleanly sculpted and motivically intricate enough to satisfy any lover of Brahms. Their rhythms are classic, their melodies romantic, their technique astounding. They probably don't make enough noise to please industrial band devotees; aside from that, they may be New York's most perfect musicians."
Zakir Hussain
