23 Facts About Kelvin Underwood

Kelvin Underwood was born on March 22,1975 and is an American musician specializing in the drum set and taiko, the art of Japanese drumming.

Kelvin Underwood was born in Fayetteville North Carolina on March 22,1975, the youngest of 6 children.

Kelvin Underwood's father was in the United States Army, and for three years during elementary school, his family lived in Munich, where he was filmed dancing to "Billie Jean" in his school's talent show at age 9.

Kelvin Underwood later "caught the drumming bug" watching MTV and air drumming with a pair of drumsticks given to him by a family friend.

When Kelvin Underwood was 13, his brother recognized his interest in drumming and, along with his father, bought Kelvin Underwood his first true drum set, which he still plays today.

Kelvin Underwood had no prior experience playing taiko, but he tried out the new instrument, drawing on the rhythms he had seen in the performance and his own experiences on the drum set.

The founder and director of Ondekoza, Tagayasu Den, was impressed by Kelvin Underwood's playing and invited him to join the group in the International Folk Festival in downtown Fayetteville.

Still a high school student with dreams of studying music in college, Kelvin Underwood declined, though he kept in touch with the members of Ondekoza over the next few years.

Kelvin Underwood had no formal teacher or training, and instead learned how to play taiko in performance, primarily through observing and listening to the other players, aided by small amounts of broken English and Japanese.

Kelvin Underwood originally joined the group looking for a sort of apprenticeship, wanting to learn what he could about the art of taiko over roughly six months and never intending to spend years in Japan.

Kelvin Underwood played in nearly every piece, playing odaiko and yatai bayashi, and soloing often.

Kelvin Underwood became a sort of frontman for the ensemble, appearing on posters and acting as a spokesperson when they traveled to English-speaking countries.

Ondekoza traveled widely in the four years Kelvin Underwood was a member, between 1994 and '98, visiting three continents.

Kelvin Underwood never got the formal training he had been looking for when he first joined Ondekoza, and after four years with the group, he wanted to find a way to become a better percussionist, to retain his dormant skills with the drum set, and grow as an artist.

Kelvin Underwood had become a masterful taiko player in the Ondekoza style, but he had not explored the art form beyond the boundaries of his ensemble.

Kelvin Underwood wanted to follow his own route of experimentation, while Den was more interested in preserving the stylistic integrity of Ondekoza, and so in 1998, the two parted ways.

Kelvin Underwood focused on the drum set in college, not playing any taiko during his time at Berklee from 1999 to 2003.

Kelvin Underwood found that the other musicians he played with lacked the extreme focus he had found in the members of Ondekoza, and the "basic taiko spirit" that he feels taiko players everywhere share.

In early 2004, Kelvin Underwood saw a performance by the Los Angeles-based taiko quartet on Ensemble and was struck by the group's innovation and originality.

Kelvin Underwood noted the "masterful" emphasis on movement as the ensemble incorporated elements of traditional Japanese dance into their performances, as well as the focus on melody achieved using instrumentation that was uncommon to the other taiko groups he had seen: Koto, Tuvan throat singing, and a variety of percussion instruments not usually found in taiko music.

At the time of that performance, Kelvin Underwood had no plans to become involved with on Ensemble, but he later met ensemble members Shoji Kameda and Kris Bergstrom and was surprised to discover that they knew of him from his time in Ondekoza and were interested in working with him.

Kelvin Underwood was gradually incorporated into more songs, branching out to play more instruments, and as songs grew up around his abilities he became a main member of the ensemble.

Kelvin Underwood finds it challenging to remain involved with on Ensemble over such a distance, but he travels a lot between Ashland and Los Angeles for rehearsals and joins the group for tours throughout the US.