Sunday, April 24th, our World Beat Tribal Dance group "the Big Sur Natives" performed for the many runners and spectators at the famous "Big Sur Marathon" on Carmel's beautiful Monastery Beach next to California's Highway ! ... This was my third year as a member in this wonderful percussion based band.

All we used for amplification was a trio of Bose.... through two of the Bose we ran five percussionists (just about every hand drum you can think of..) a master Didgeridoo player and an occasional trance vocal.

As for myself with my single Bose, I functioned as the only melodic and harmonic instrument on both Nylon String and Guitar Synth... (besides the guitar, I play a myriad of synth sounds such as sitar, mizmar, bamboo flutes, assorted basses, many spacy synth pads, pitched percussion, etc. etc. etc...)

The sound with the 3 Bose in the big outdoors next to the Pacific Ocean, was simply unbelievable. With the Beating Drums resounding off the waves and echoing through the forest. I would even would go so far as to say it was breathtaking!

The positive comments about all the percussion coming through so balanced, loud and huge sounding was phenomenal! Every nuance was audible ... the softest of hand drums simply become huge in mix.

We were just about a mile from the finish line so many spectators, photographers and all the runners heard us. The beauteous female dancers were dancing on the road between the runners providing them with a little extra spurt of energy and enthusiasm so they could finish up the long run.

We are a performance-trance dance group with many featured female dancers ... they dance the styles of many different cultures with great spirit and finesse...

You can check it us out here...

http://www.bigsurnatives.com/pages/celebrate.html

Ciao, Joseph Lucido
Monterey, CA