A Different Drummer Preaches Fusion of Cultures With Natural Rhythms

Gino Zenobia is caught up in African drums, and can you believe it all started with the Doobie Brothers?

“The Doobie Brothers fused a lot of African drums in their music, and that started me thinking and researching all kinds of percussion instruments,” said the Laguna Beach drum maker, who would just as soon talk about African drums as play them.

Zenobia likes to tell audiences that he uses a chisel and hammer to fine-tune his drums. He sometimes brings up to 20 different drums with him to gigs.

Someday, he said, he hopes to visit Africa to see and hear firsthand what he has studied and researched: “It’s all so fascinating. For instance, the African talking drum was actually used to communicate a distinct language among tribes that could fully understand each other through sounds.”

The visit to Africa may be his only current goal. “I keep busy doing things I love, and that way I don’t have to worry about goals,” said Zenobia, 40.

When he gives talks, “people from age 5 through their 90s have tons of questions, and some can relate because they were from countries where the drums” originated.

What he’s talking about these days is the African-Cuban influence that has caught on with many musical groups. He often uses the word fusing to describe the blending of different instruments and music, such as African drums in jazz.

“This is the way it all began with me,” said Zenobia, who makes his instruments and records music in his home. “When I was playing regular drums, I began to listen to the African drums that were subtly being included in rock ‘n’ roll music groups.”

He said that led him to think, research and play all kinds of percussion instruments. He found that there were hundreds of different drums used in the world.

“Things change so slowly that people don’t even realize it--and that includes music,” said Zenobia, who was a landscape designer until 2 years ago. That role, he said, has since been taken over by his wife, Jackie, 39.

“The gender gap is diminishing among ages, sexes and ethnic origins, and it’s all coming together,” he said.

Zenobia is part of a band called Afrocoustics. He also plays his African drums and instruments in several bands in county gigs. He plans to be one of the exhibitors at the Sawdust Festival July 1 to Aug. 27 in Laguna Beach, where he will play his drum music for visitors.

He called his music New Age sounds: “Primal music kind of spurs and sends electricity into your body. We have to give due respect to the people who started and created the music and instruments. Most of it can be traced back to Africa.”

Linda Schwartz of Huntington Beach builds houses and donates them to charity. It’s her way of coping with the death 5 years ago of her daughter, Cheryl, 23, due to complications of influenza.

“When 3 p.m. came around, I would go into a deep depression,” said Schwartz, 49, recalling the weeks after her daughter’s death. “That was the time she always came home from school. I needed something that was totally absorbing to get me through.”

The houses are miniatures. It takes her 7 months to complete them. However, her latest creation was no small task. She crafted a three-story house completely wired for electricity and furnished with 1-inch-scale reproductions of Victorian furniture, which she built.

“I do the light work and my husband, wears the hard hat and builds the walls,” she said, pointing out that husband, Ed, 52, has a degree in engineering.

The house is on display at the Discovery Museum of Orange County in Santa Ana and will be auctioned June 3, with the money going to the museum’s tour program.

“I’m getting good enough to start thinking of doing more difficult houses. . . . One of these days, I’m going to build a house and keep it,” said Schwartz, who has another daughter, Marci, 25. “At least until I have a grandchild.”

Georgia Rothwell of Fullerton became the first woman member of the Placentia-Yorba Linda Lions Club. She was then elected secretary.