Something melanin-deficient is going down at the Buttonwood Tree this Saturday. At 8 P.M. on December 22nd, the Buttonwood Tree will be bringing the all-white Neo Percussion Quartet to Middletown.
“We’re thrilled to be giving Middletown the chance to hear this one-hundred-percent-whitey group’s exciting blend of African, Caribbean, and South American rhythms,” said Nicole Wertheimer, executive director of the Buttonwood Tree, a performing arts center on Main Street in Middletown.
“A year ago we came up to Wesleyan to take gamelan lessons,” said Chad Ellingsworth, III of Neo. “When we told people about our group, we heard that Buttonwood Tree was the place in the area for whiteys to perform in styles totally divorced from their own cultural history.”
“Neo has never performed at the Buttonwood Tree,” said Muffy Hardwick, the quartet’s only female member. “But once I drove all the way from Yale to hear a totally awesome slam poet perform there. I don’t remember her name, but I remember totally vibing with her experiences as a poor, black woman. I just had to call my parents in the Hamptons and tell them all about it right after the show.”
The Neo Percussion Quartet was formed in 2001 by four upper-middle- and upper-class whiteys: Ellingsworth, Hardwick, Geoffrey Goodspeed, and Farber Kennedy. The four met at a cocktail party hosted by Kennedy’s parents at their Cape Cod summer house.
“Initially, I was just trying to get into Muffy’s pants by acting culturally aware,” said Goodspeed of the group’s genesis. “Chad and the Farbster were totally stepping on my game. I mean, they were really all up in my grillpiece, ruining my mack. But then Chad mentioned studying [South Indian rhythmic system] solkattu at Princeton, and it turned out that we all shared an interest in the rhythmic styles of cultures which our white European ancestors have oppressed throughout history.”
“We went down to the rec room and started beating out polyrhythms on the drum kit my little brother got for his birthday and never used,” recalled Kennedy. “I think that was when [Kennedy family manservant Alfred] Penniwether came down and told us to keep it down ’cause the adults were trying to watch golf on the big-screen upstairs. I don’t know. We were pretty drunk at that point.”
The Neo Percussion Quartet’s mission statement is to “combine Indian, Caribbean, African, and South American rhythmic influences into a coherent whole enjoyable by economically comfortable whites everywhere.” All four members of Neo attest to the importance of non-white music in their musical upbringings.
“[Hardwick family housekeeper] Tamika [Washington] used to listen to old blues records while she cleaned my room,” said Hardwick of her early influences. “I think some of those guys were black. Then, after daddy fired Tamika because he said she was stealing silverware, our new nanny Maria [Leon-Guerrero] would listen to lots of salsa and meringue [sic], which is a traditional folk dance from Haitia [sic].”
“I think our motto about sums it up,” said Kennedy. “’If you’re white, you’ll love it! And if you’re an octoroon, you’ll love seven-eighths of it!’ So dress up your two-point-five children in their Protestant Sunday best and come have a totally appropriated rhythmic experience!”
The whiteys of the Neo Percussion Quartet will be sharing the music of wholly unrelated cultures with the Middletown community tomorrow night at 8 P.M. at the Buttonwood Tree. Tickets are $10, or $5 upon presentation of any country-club membership card.
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