Big Bada Boom

If your initial feelings on communal drumming conjure up a cloudy Nag Champa thought bubble of sweaty Matthew McConaugheys or a bad trip at a beachside bonfire with some young and grating trustafarians, perhaps it's time to scrub your brain completely clean of everything that college experience delivered to you and delve into the origins and the deep and disciplined history of group percussion with Florida's Big Drum: The Fushu Daiko Story. Saturday at the West Regional Library, you'll learn all about the historic art of Japanese taiko drumming and its unique development in the Sunshine State with a free multimedia presentation and taiko drumming demonstration. Since the early 1990s, Fushu Daiko has been training in the art of taiko, a 2,600-plus-year-old tradition of Japanese drumming, with recognition along the way from the mayor of Miami to the consulate general of Japan for strengthening understanding of Japanese culture in the States. While it is communal in nature, the cross-cultural drumming style requires loads of strength and practice and often combines elements of jazz and rhythm and blues. If you love what you see, you can join in the performance with a 20 percent discount toward a taiko workshop in the future. Stick around for a postpresentation sushi feast by Japan Inn of Plantation. The presentation starts at 3 p.m. Saturday at 8601 W. Broward Blvd. in Plantation. Call 954-765-1560, or visit fushudaiko.org.
Sat., Aug. 9, 3 p.m., 2014