There are as many aspects of excellence among percussion players as in any other discipline: passion, technical ability, knowledge, feel, and originality, to name a few. These are yardsticks against which to measure the abilities of particular players in parceling out respect and success. But what do you say about someone who possesses all of these? It's the difficult part of writing about Bashiri Johnson. His encyclopedic knowledge and uncanny ability to find the right instrument and the right part for any music he's involved in, have made him one of the most sought after and high-profile percussionists on the planet.

Born and raised in the hard-edged Bedford-Stuyvesent area of Brooklyn he was, in his own words, "a product of the streets".

"I almost went to Boys High School, which was around the corner from my house. Fortunately I didn't go there because I would have never gone to school, just had parties at my mom and dad's house. But I went to John Dewey High School where I developed an interest in playing music, percussion specifically. I started playing conga drums and it developed from there. I became a fond lover of African rhythms and all the sounds I was hearing on the radio."

At about this time the seminal event in his musical career took place.

"I snuck backstage at a Miles Davis concert and asked Mtume, who was performing with Miles, if he would take me on as his student. He did and I was his sole student for three years."

But it wasn't only an amazing musical education this apprenticeship provided.

"I learned about the music business and about producing. Mtume was producing Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway records, and Stephanie Mills records, and he was getting away from playing and into production. I wanted to play like him and was getting into playing. So in addition to music, I learned about business, and I learned about being my own businessman in a business that is wacky."

In this he was ahead of the curve, anticipating the situation today when the availability of computers, digital recordings and the Net have given musicians the opportunity to control their own financial destiny. It also gave him the savvy to go after and obtain top-of-the-mountain gigs in the face of ever more intense competition.

"To meet the demands of the limited work that's out there these days you have to be really, really diverse and make people happy on a lot of different fronts and genres."

That he has the diversity and skill to do so is a testament to, among other things, the eclectic and wide-ranging nature of both his musical taste and his education. No matter how varied the material, he finds a way to make it cook, to swing, to groove.

"When I was practicing and studying, and doing my wood shedding, I used to turn the radio on and practice to the radio, to every station that was on the radio. First I copped the parts I heard on the song. If I heard Ralph MacDonald playing on a particular record I'd cop his parts, Then I would say Hey, I can one-up him, and I would play what I thought should be on the record. So I would do that on every radio station, and I think that's how I became successful as a recording artist and a session guy. I think people call me because of that sense I have, or that instinct or talent or whatever, to find the percussive niche in a particular record."

To be able to find that percussive niche, that just-right color that a producer might be looking for, means having not only an encyclopedic knowledge of rhythm possibilities, but the instruments to produce them.

Lots and lots of instruments, a collection of instruments so massive it should have its own zip code.

"I have about 7 cases of instruments I use. And when people call they know I'm going to come with a barrage of percussive sounds and instrumentation. I find that when I listen to a record I might hear something in my head, and I can go right to it in my cases. I don't have to try and create a sound on the spot, I have a sound that I think would work for it. So that's why I have such an extensive array of sounds."

And at the heart of his instrument collection?

"I have the full LP® catalog of instrumentation. Plus some other world and folklore stuff."

But that's way too abbreviated and dry a listing of sounds for a musician who once used a stuffed animal-specifically a German speaking, talking rabbit-on a recording (check out his Supreme Beats CD).

A talking rabbit might be the oddest but by no means the only, shall we say, unusual instrumentation Bashiri has made use of.

"I've played paper before, taken paper and played a groove with it-a crunchy kind of groove. I've played velcro.  I've had to play concrete, I've played steel beams from a construction site. And sugar packets-though I'm not the only one who's played those. I think if you have good technique with a lot of different instruments, you can apply that technique to a lot of different material."

The ways in which he's applied his abilities and the range of artists he's worked with, is no less eclectic than his choice of instruments. Stylistically he's covered everything from punk and headbanger to pop and traditional jazz. So prolific has been his recording career that his resume reads more like it belongs to several players rather than a single individual.

"I've done Madonna's first record, Whitney Houston's first record (and playing live with Whitney is one of Bashiri's regular gig's), Donald Fagen's last record, Miles Davis, Spice Girls, Boys 2 Men-almost any pop artist you can think of, I've pretty much done some work with them. A lot of alternative groups as well and some hard groups like the punk band Rancid. Jazz too, like Kenny Garrett, or worldbeat, like Angelique Kidijou. So it's really spread. I've done a lot of different things for a lot of different artists. And I try to make everyone happy by bringing to the table a level of excellence and treating their music like its fresh, which it is. It's never boring for me, it's a great experience to contribute something to all this different music."

In addition to the previously mentioned Supreme Beats, he's currently working on his latest CD titled Afro Tek. There is also his work as a producer which currently includes up and coming artists and a spoken word poetry project. Then there's the book he's written, Love Notes and the music that goes with it. And touring, which has taken him to so many places on the planet it's easier to list where he hasn't been than where he has.

The only question is, when does he find time to eat?

All quotes taken from an interview conducted in December, 1999 by Martin Cohen for MPR.

Story written by Jim McSweeney

Listen to Bashiri discuss his career and check out a QuickTime movie of him performing.

Listen and watch Bashiri sing a Congahead Theme Song.

To learn more about Bashiri Johnson, please CLICK HERE.

www.bashirijohnson.com is the official website of Bashiri Johnson.