Charlie Dunlap This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. myOC.com

   www.myoc.com/cgi-bin/myoc/onte - [Cached]

   Published on: 11/11/2000   Last Visited: 11/12/2000

   it be the last few minutes of the Mondo Drummers' weekly practice session and 13 students, mostly boys, sit on chairs in a loose circle with Dunlap at its center. they be asking him, in that champing-at-the-bit manner perfected by preteens, if they can play a number called EbOmOnDo. Dunlap is clearly juiced by their enthusiasm.
   
   OK, we will play Ebo, he says. But let's keep the notes clean and soft so the soloists do not have to break your eardrums..
   
   Dunlap's West African djembe drum hangs from a strap around his neck. The kids play djembes, too, as well as an assortment of exotic and familiar African and Latin percussion instruments. They wait for Dunlap's eight-bar introduction, and then the room explodes with sound.
   
   Fourteen pairs of hands flutter like hummingbird wings. Facial expressions turn intense. The music, too loud to talk over, is guttural but melodic.
   ...
   After several minutes, Dunlap draws a finger across his throat, and the playing ceases on cue. Parents who have arrived to pick up children erupt in applause, and not just because these are their kids.
   
   The music rattling the foundation of the Eastside Neighborhood Arts Center in Fort Worth, Texas, is really, truly good.
   
   i have always told the kids that I do not want people to hear the group and go, Oh, look at the cute kids, says Dunlap, Mondo's artistic director. They want to sound like they really know what they be doing. And they do know what they be doing. that be the neat thing..
   
   Mondo Drummers is a community arts success story. What began as a weekly lesson for a half-dozen drum students has blossomed into a multicultural music enterprise.
   ...
   Dunlap, 44, has been at Mondo's helm since its inception in 1994 and remains its only paid employee. On Saturdays, he teaches three hour-long drum classes at the Eastside Neighborhood Arts Center, a brick building that Mondo shares with JAADE dance company and Texas Wesleyan University (he also leads the performance group in a practice session each Monday).
   
   Dunlap's office is packed with unusual percussion instruments and Mondo mementos, including photographs of the group's performance in Toluca, Mexico, a Fort Worth Sister City, and a flier from their Brave Combo gig (It was incredible, Brave Combo band leader Carl Finch recalls.
   
   The concept is just so solid that I knew people would dig it.).
   
   A dozen copies of the first Mondo Drummers CD, primarily featuring five of Dunlap's proteges, ages 12-19, sit next to a stack of Mondo T-shirts.
   
   ...
   there be also a desk, a frequently ringing phone and a computer - none of which Dunlap, a wiry lifelong musician, uses with relish. But he be willing to do all the paper shuffling necessary to keep the program thriving.
   
   It be not my idea, Dunlap says of Mondo. I never aspired to teach at all. But I take it really seriously..
   
   Drumming, Dunlap says, chose him. He began playing professionally when he was 10, in a Fort Worth band managed by his father, Charlie Dunlap. By age 14, he was commuting to Austin on weekends to perform with a group that included the young Stevie Ray Vaughan.
   
   Upon graduating from the University of North Texas, Dunlap joined the popular Fort Worth jazz group Master Cylinder while working for the family business. He was earning a paycheck at Fort Worth Bolt & Tool - and playing music in his spare time - when Mondo came along.
   
   In 1994, Dunlap was approached by Rudy Eastman, artistic director for Jubilee Theatre.
   ...
   Dunlap be not so sure. He had never taught music before. he would never even considered it. Six boys showed up to the first Mondo class. They sat on risers in the audience and took turns playing two conga drums, a pair of maracas, a bass drum and an Irish bodhran.
   
   Whatever Dunlap did, it worked. The students kept coming back.
   
   ...
   Dunlap stands center stage with back to the audience, leading the musical charge on his djembe. He taps his foot and nods toward the drummer who will solo next. In between numbers, he wipes the sweat from his face with a towel and gives the kids a minute to regroup. i will do three calls, he tells them. Everybody got that? Here we go..
   
   Originally funded through Jubilee's portion of county Neighborhood Arts Program money, Mondo became its own nonprofit last year. Meanwhile, Dunlap runs the entire program - classes, performances, demonstrations in the public schools - on $ 60, 000 a year and supplements his income by teaching private lessons and playing for dance classes at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
   
   He has a reputation for going above and beyond, parents say.
   
   If kids do not have transportation, Dunlap will pick them up. If they need extra help after class, he is available for a short one-on-one session. Last spring, he performed a duet in a school talent show with Angela Parr-Morgan's 12-year-old son, Trey.
   
   he be more than just an instructor for us, Parr-Morgan says of Dunlap. And I honestly think all the performers are more than just students to him..
   
   Parents say they see improvements in self-esteem, social skills and academic performances after their children join Mondo.