in the spirit

Your first drum is your heart. That makes everybody a drummer in the eyes of Ayo Adeyemi, who leads a drumming circle every other Saturday night at Yoruba House in West Los Angeles.

People trickle in about 8 p.m., but hearts start beating to the same rhythm sometime after 9, when the warmups are over and the group of 30 or more begins to get serious. The energy finally moves from head to soul once a small group of masters unpacks handmade instruments and starts playing. Then everybody in the house--therapists, retailers, moms with their kids--seems inclined to break into tribal dancing and ancient chanting to the deities of fire, water and physical strength with Ayo, a priest in the tradition of the west African tribe, leading the way.

At the ancestral altar in the corner of the room, images of Krishna, Buddha, Jesus and Martin Luther King Jr. flicker among the candles. “No religion excludes any other; people from every background come here,” says Carole Adeyemi, Ayo’s wife, who organizes the circles as well as group lessons with the electrifying Ayo.

Beginners who arrive early on a drumming night benefit from a brief lesson, using a rented drum for $5, if they like. “A circle is a rite of passage for marking time,” says Carole Adeyemi. “It makes us aware of the passing events in nature and in our world.”