Where and How it Began
Christopher Logan Austin is a percussionist, composer, performer, recording artist, and, at times, a teacher. Originally from Illinois, he moved to Bloomington, Indiana in 1991 where his musical identity began to take shape. He moved to Sarasota, Florida in 2003 where he currently lives.
Since an early age Christopher was tapping, banging, clicking, and pounding on any surface around him… driving his mother crazy. In high school he performed in punk, indie, and progressive bands on drum set. In his late teens he was introduced to hand percussion in the form of congas and the African ashiko.
Through is his late teens, Christopher was mostly focused on visual art. But after an introduction to a drum circle at age 17, the inherent communal nature of music performance and, more specifically, drumming, captured the part of him that sought to connect with people. Music instantly took over as his predominant creative outlet.
Instruments
Christopher plays a wide varitey of percussion instruments from various cultures around the world. He is most proficient on the African djembe and and Afro-Peruvian Cajon. Christopher plays the following instruments with varying degrees of proficiency:
- African Djembe
- African Djun Djun
- Middle-Eastern Frame Drum
- Middle-Eastern Darbuka/Dumbek
- Middle-Eastern Riqq
- Afro-Peruvian Cajon
- Afro-Cuban Bata
- Afro-Cuban Shekere
- Afro-Cuban Congas
- American Drum Set
Musical Genres
Throughout his childhood, Christopher was exposed to an extremely diverse musical palette ranging from bluegrass to rock, classical to jazz, world to electronic, and everything in between. As a result, he has a great appreciation for quality musicianship, regardless of the genre of the music. That said, he is most commonly listening to music that employs odd meters, complex arrangements, and inspired execution such as the progressive rock of the 70’s, what is referred to as “prog metal”, or jazz fusion.