Regardless of musical inclinations, everyone is born with the potential of being a human instrument, equipped with a voice and a body.  The first music probably exploited these tools to stomp, clap, sing, snap and chant.  On August 12, at the International Body Music Festival concert, presented as a part of Lincoln Center Out of Doors, various artists from throughout “The Americas” paid homage to the roots of music.  The performances were a slamming step away from the catchy lyrics and swooning electric guitars of pop; they were deceptively simple, refreshing and culturally insightful.

Artistic director Keith Terry’s SLAMMIN All-Body Band gave groovy, soulful and relaxing renditions of Eden Ahbez’s “Nature Boy,” Outkast’s “I Like the Way (You Move)” and Stevie Wonder’s “Overjoyed.”  The balance between words and sounds was soothing: beat boxer Steve Hogan provided the beats and bounce, Destani Wolf sang with melting vocals, and Bryan Dyer strummed a groovy imaginary bass.  The group’s accompanying guest dancers had contagious enthusiasm but ultimately, their simple formations, sounds, and moves contrasted with, and detracted from, the more complex musical core.  A break in the middle of the set was a cute attempt at humor—ballroom dancing to “Two for Two”—that soon exhausted its welcome.

To illustrate the variety of genres and people involved in body music was an eleven-person group hailing from Sao Paulo, Brazil—Barbatuques.  All sported gray and black but all also spanned across the ethnic (and size) spectrum.  Many of their songs had a “quirky mystic” quality: there was lots of animal hooting, bubbly cheek clapping and finger snapping that frequently transitioned into darker and heavier body playing, stomping and clapping.  The sheer massive size of the group allowed for resonating and complex arrangements of body sounds.  The call and response so characteristic of the night’s music was best put to use by Barbatuqes, who sent out one of their members to jest as well as teach the audience a couple ways to play the human instrument.

Inuit throat-singing Canadian cousins Celina Kalluk and Lucie Idlout tightly held onto each other, the microphone separating their lips by mere centimeters, as they gave and took breaths to reproduce sounds from nature—albeit more guttural.  While the act was not a common sight for most, the pair quickly eased any culture shock by inviting the audience to laugh at the end of each “game” with them.

Awkwardly placed in the middle of the two big groups was solo Hambone performer Derique McGee.  But the programming issue was countered by a little hand slapping and moonwalking; his animated facial expressions jolted giggles throughout the audience.  As short as his performance was, it was still representative of the festival’s essence; as much as the performers are paying dues to the past, they are also revitalizing and innovating body music on the whole.