Throughout Rick Kramer’s life, there’s always been one constant: music, specifically percussion.

Kramer credits the evolution of this constant to his time in South America as a teenager. While his father was conducting agricultural research for Monsanto in Brazil, Kramer was busy learning Portuguese and exploring South American music.

“The music was all around,” he recalls.

In Brazil, performances were easy to come by, and bars –many of which had live concerts – were easy to access. Kramer had previously played the drums in a junior high band in St. Louis. Now, he was performing with Samba groups on the streets of the Latin American country.

“This is really where my passion for world rhythms took off,” Kramer said, who was 15 at the beginning of the move.

At 18, his family moved back to St. Louis. Several years later, he graduated from Webster University with a degree in media communications. By 1993, he worked for KSDK as a floor director and teleprompter operator. However, music was never far from his mind. Soon, it would become part of a lifelong profession.

“Music was always in my soul,” said Kramer, 60. “There was just no escaping it.”

Jóia World Percussion

By the early 1990s, Kramer and friends were forming the musical group Jóia World Percussion. Jóia, which means “jewel” in Portuguese, incorporates Brazilian, Cuban, African and Japanese styles that explore rhythmic patterns.

The ensemble performs at numerous local events, including Festival of Nations, Tower Grove Pride and the Webster Groves Blues and Jazz Festival. Unlike some musical groups that require a stage and a microphone, Jóia World Percussion can pick up and perform anywhere. The lively, quick Samba rhythms standalone by themselves.

During each Jóia World Percussion performance, Kramer leads the group through a combination of whistle, hand signals and drumbeats. He often encourages the audience to join in making music as well by picking up one of the group’s instruments, such as a tambourine or shaker. Then, after one person finishes playing an instrument, they can pass it on to another interested observer.

“The point of Jóia World Percussion is really to make music accessible to everyone,” said Kramer.

In addition to local performances, Kramer also uses his music to help others. He works as a teacher at Hope Creates, a local nonprofit that assists children and young adults in the juvenile court system through expressive arts. He also works at Springboard to Learning, another area nonprofit that teaches children to create and collaborate through meaningful experience and expression, such as music.

“You see youth who’ve experienced significant trauma become confident and proud of their art skills,” said Kramer. “It’s just wonderful.”

Jóia Tubes

Around the same time Jóia World Percussion was forming, the idea for Jóia Tubes was germinating.

Kramer’s college roommate was vacuuming out the metal resonator pipes from a marimba; a percussion instrument that creates sound when striking wooden tone plates with mallets. While doing this, the two discovered that the pipes created a new, unique sound all by themselves.

“Then we thought ‘That would be interesting to make an instrument just from that,’” said Kramer.

According to Kramer, tube type instruments developed from marimba resonators have been around since the 1930s and were later used to create sound effects in Disney cartoons. However, these pipes were made from bamboo and created a dry, pop sound.

Flash forward to the 1990s and Blue Man Group was using a similar contraption to the early Disney bamboo instrument. Instead of using bamboo, however, they used polyvinyl chloride (pvc) pipes to create a dry sound effect.

“The idea behind Jóia Tubes was to develop a more orchestral sounding instrument,” said Kramer.

Jóia Tubes are primarily used for children to play in a classroom setting. However, they’ve also been used by several performers, including Patrick Moraz of “The Moody Blues,” as well as St. Louis Symphony percussionist Rich O’Donnell. They’re made in St. Louis and sold in the United States, as well as various places around the world including Australia, England, and Germany.

The ‘Jóia’ of Judaism

Growing up, Kramer’s family attended Temple Israel as well as services at Central Reform Congregation.

In 2004, Jóia World Percussion performed at CRC during the installment of “Tikkun,” a sculpture by local artist Ilene Berman. The musical group has also performed at CRC for World Peace Day.

Like music, Kramer’s faith has also been a constant in his life.

“It [Judaism] lets me know I’m doing the right thing,” he said.

As for Jóia World Percussion, one thing’s for certain: “It won’t end with me,” said Kramer. “We’ve been playing for over 30 years and still are.”

Joia will be performing at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21 at the Webster Groves Blues and Jazz Festival at Allen and N. Gore avenues and at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28 at Tower Grove Pride in Tower Grove Park. Admission to both is free.