Yazid

A biography

Yazid (also known as Bill Johnson) is a graduate of Florida A & M University with a degree in Psychology, Class of ’75. While a student at FAMU, he played clarinet with the Marching 100 Band on a music scholarship. He grew up in the Washington, DC area and had played bassoon with the DC Youth Symphony Orchestra, and toured extensively in the northeast and in Europe with this group while in high school. After leaving FAMU, Yazid played jazz bassoon with a notable jazz group in Tallahassee during the late 70’s called Silk.

He then pursued a career in computer technology and was a systems analyst with the Department of Children and Families for about 14 years. He began studying drumming about in the year 2000, and studied with Phillip “Olumide” Gilbert here in Tallahassee. Yazid plays Sabar drumming, a West African tradition from Senegal.

Yazid is now teaching drumming full time. He teaches all ages --- preschool to seniors. He is working with New Beginnings PreSchool, Florida Arts & Enrichment Education (FACE) afterschool program, the Montessori School on Thomasville Road, Sail High School, the School of Arts and Sciences, The Magnolia School, The Cornerstone School, and is also the instructor and leader for the FSU African Drumming Ensemble. He also hold classes for adults at the Yoga Meditation Center, the Crystal Connection, and the Senior Center. His dream is to create a top notch children’s performance group that could tour and give children the experiences that were so special to him when he played with the DC Youth Orchestra.

For Yazid, drumming takes him to a spiritual plane where he becomes grounded in a reality that is The Moment – the eternal now. Drumming reflects our basic life force of rhythm from our breath and heart beat. Many people find peace from the ancient spiritual wisdom learned from drumming.