Make Music Day KC - RBI’s Rhythm Band event

presents RBI’s Rhythm Band. Join us on Sunday, June 21st from 1:00-2:00 PM at Lakeside Nature Center located at 4701 East Gregory Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64132.

Rhythm Band Instruments is a part of music education magic that brings quality, innovation, and tradition into music classrooms around the world, and will be part of Make Music Kansas City!

Local renowned percussionist Miko Spears will share a general history of polyrhythms while explaining percussion to the participants while getting them to join in playing in a different spot than the previous player. Miko will guide the experience as he plays the pulse and truly makes it a true moment of creating music.

Everyone gets a chance to be involved and create multiple rhythms and learn about how to take a solo! This clinic is open to all ages and no experience is necessary. Learn a little bit and take some music with you!

Miko Spears has always had a deep passion for music since his early childhood growing up in Chicago. He stumbled upon latin music while doing research on Celia Cruz. Something about the percussion spoke to his soul, and he was hooked, devouring as many instructional books and videos he could lay his hands on. Professional tutelage came in the form of the late maestro Agustin Diaz, from Havana Cuba, who taught him all the forms of Afro-Cuban Rumba and other folkloric traditions over a 10 year period.

Mr. Spears was the percussionist for the number one big band in Kansas City, The Hearts of Darkness. With this band, he was able to open for great musicians and bands like Huey Lewis and the News, Snoop Dog, Willie Nelson, Public Enemy, and Con Funk Shun. He currently serves as the bongocero for Cubanisms.

Miko has been greatly influenced by the folkloric traditions of Cuba. An avid rumbero, he is currently the director of the Kansas City Rumba group which performs Afro-Cuban rumba. His influences include Puntilla, Los Rumberos De Cuba, Pedrito Martinez, Roman Diaz, Clave Y Guaguanco, Yoruba Andabo, and other Cuban folkloric groups. He also makes traditional Cuban cajons, used in folkloric music and shipped around the globe. He brings a very folkloric aspect to the group, both in his playing and his passion for Latin music.

Miko uses hand made Cuban folk instruments and provides a general history of percussion while demonstrating polyrhythms using RBI Rhythm Band Instruments that have been provided for the participants.