Peanuts Taylor: "Wherever there's a Bahamian there's a Drum"

(May 2001) Peanuts Taylor began beating a drum at the age of four and never stopped. The world-renowned percussionist played Cuba's Tropicana in its 1950's heyday and today travels the world as a representative of Bahamian culture. But when he has a few days free he heads to Harbour Island, birthplace of his mother, Eunice Higgs, and the place she brought him to live during the last year of her life.

After years of running the successful Drumbreat club in Nassau, Peanuts has retired to perform, to teach, and to act as a representative of the Ministry of Culture. This year he performed at Percussion 2001 in Cuba with musicians from countries including Africa, Spain, and France, and he became the first non-Cuban to win that country's cultural medal of honor.

Peanuts is also a bit of a philosopher who frequently rereads Hugh Prather's "Notes to Myself." Fingering a well-thumbed copy over coffee at Arthurs Bakery he explained, "Material benefits don't last. Only purity and truth are lasting. To be happy we must share our gifts."

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