"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!

Winner of DRUM! Magazine's 2005 Reader's poll:
Best Percussion Recording -- Invoking the Muse

Download KPFK Global Village Sergio Interview Layne Redmond

The February 2000 issue of DRUM! Magazine listed Layne Redmond as one of the 53 Heavyweight Drummers Who Made A Difference in the '90s.

She's the only woman on this list which includes Tony Williams, Roy Haynes, Zakir Hussain, Elvin Jones and Micky Hart.

And she 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 she 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.

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.

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.

Her recordings include: Since the Beginning, Trance Union, (with Tommy Be), and Sundaryalahari: The Wave of Bliss. Her best selling meditation cds include: Chanting the Chakras, Chakra Breathing Meditation, and Heart Chakra Meditations. Sounds True released her book/cd Chakra Meditation on the classic teachings of yoga and the chakras in 2004. With Rosangela Silvestre she produced: Flowers of Fire: Sacred Chants and Rhythms of Candomble. Her music videos from this project, Xango and Iemanja have gained a world wide following. She created two instructional videos for Interworld Music: Rhythmic Wisdom and A Sense of Time. 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.

"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."

--Kyle Gann, Village Voice

Andy Doerschuk, DRUM! Magazine Feb./Mar. 2000 REVIEWS: Roots of Awakening

"From ancient times and distant civilizations, drumming and chanting have been bundled together as one of the single-most potent ways to reach spiritual transcendence. Few Westerners have studied and refined these practices with the fervor shown by Layne Redmond's work as a performer, ritualist and historian.

On her third CD release, Roots of Awakening (Interworld), Redmond presents cleansing and awakening Nada Yoga meditation practices in three extended mantras that are chanted in original sanskrit syllables. These repeated phrases are designed to fine-tune our internal energy complexes known as chakras, which affect our emotional, mental and physical bodies. Whether or not you study Yoga, or even believe in its benefits, the effect of these performances is hypnotic and alluring, and can calm even the most frantic moment.

Along with Redmond's masterful frame drumming, the album also features Tommy Brunjes on Udu drum and percussion, Amit Chatterjee on sitar, tambour and chanting, Steve Gorn on Bansuri bamboo flute, with Laurel Massé supplying additional chanting. Chatterjee's monotone vocalizations float above droning sitars and tambour that are colored by subtle flute and bells, while Redmond supplies deeply resonant frame drumming that is remarkable for its range of tones. The CD booklet contains highly detailed liner notes written by Redmond, which explain the philosophies and traditions behind these performances, accompanied by illustrations of the seven chakras. Always thorough, she leaves no stone left unturned.

In a world full of copycats and wannabes, Layne Redmond is an original. She plays music to make your body and mind feel better. Few can claim to do that."

Modern Drummer Video Review January 2000 -- Bill Kiely

"Most Americans know the name of one frame drum -- the tambourine. And we give it a single musical role -- to accent the backbeat. But what would happen if we opened the door to frame drums wide open? Could serious technique be applied to make music that matters? Educator and virtuoso Layne Redmond answers "Yes!" in Rhythmic Wisdom, her 70 minute instructional video on the history and technique of the frame drum. Redmond is a good teacher, putting the focus on your learning, not on her performing. She covers basic technique and interlocking rhythms, and enlightens us about remarkable drums from around the world. Perhaps most striking is Redmond's account of how drumming connects to religion, history, physics, and psychobiology. They say it's just music, but through Redmond's eyes it appears to be a good deal more."

Carol Wright, New Age Music Editor, barnesandnoble.com

"Just listening is a ticket to an altered consciousness. The bell-like rhyming words, the vibratory vocal overtones, Redmond's infectious rhythms (more Middle Eastern than tabla-like), Steve Gorn's soothing flute, and the hauntings drone of the sitar and the tuned windwand can easily carry you to a peaceful centeredness. If nothing else, this album will make you appreciate the hand-played frame drum; Redmond really rocks."

Ladyslipper, Fall 1993

"Her compositions, and their arrangements, are pure genius; not to be missed! Highly recommended!"

David N. Blank-Edelman, Rhythm Music Magazine

"Layne Redmond can still hear the faint feminine rhythms of the ancient Mediterranean world - a time filled with women frame drummers celebrating their goddesses. In this age of unhealthy arrhythmia and dis-empowerment, she brings the pulse back to the people through her work as a teacher, composer and performer. The frame drum is reincarnated as an instrument of power in Redmond's hands thanks to her deft technique, ear for nuance and passion."

Kyle Gann, Village Voice, Nov. 10, 1987

"The festival [New Music America '87] climaxed quietly when Glen Velez and Layne Redmond, playing nothing but small frame drums, performed two ethnic-sounding improvisations of extreme delicacy, virtuosity, and imagination."

See also,

Following in the Footsteps of the Drumming Goddesses

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