Southampton - It was almost impossible to go anywhere on the East End this summer and not hear the name Dan Bailey. Whether he was jamming on African drums with Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman at the weekly Monday night drum circle at Sagg Main beach, hosting Thursday night drum lessons at One Ocean Yoga in Bridgehampton, or playing with his band Dan Bailey and Living Rhythm at venues like Regular's Music Café, the Talkhouse or regularly at the Surf Lodge in Montauk, Bailey consistently kicked out great jams and enhanced the fun quotient at every event he played.

Not only did he help lead the drumming sessions at Sagg Main along with players like Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, but he also was a participant in the fun. "For me it's one of the most beautiful things. I remember thinking right at the beginning of July "Wow, I already feel like I've had a whole summer's worth of fun' just because of Monday nights." Photos courtesy of Nate Best

Originally from East Quogue and currently living in Sag Harbor, music has been a part of Bailey's life from a young age. "I've been playing music most of my life, since I was about six or seven years old. I started playing drums and guitar when I was around eight, writing songs at 12 and I started teaching drumming at about 13," Bailey related during a recent interview. "I was raised in a musical family. My parents are both musicians; my mom is a songwriter and my dad is a drummer, among other things. My godfather, Babatunde Olatunji, is a well-known drummer from Nigeria, so that's how I really got into the African drumming."

Teaching drumming from such a young age might seem a bit unusual, but through the influence of his godfather and his parents, he explained that he sort of fell into it and his love of teaching grew from there. "Growing up a lot of my friends went down some not very positive paths and my mom saw that and asked Baba to take me to one of his drumming workshops at the Omega Institute in upstate New York when I was 12 for a week-long program with all these amazing artists where I was totally immersed in African song and dance," said Bailey. "I came back and that September my mom was teaching African dance and asked me to train some drummers because they wanted live music for the class, which is really how I got started teaching. Teaching is really the best way to learn and I learned so much by teaching the things that I had learned from my godfather and I just never looked back."

For Bailey, not looking back has meant that music isn't just something that he does on the side, it is his profession. "I do make a living with music," he said. "I do a lot of private lessons teaching drumming and guitar, I play shows and do performances and play private parties and I also import drums from Africa and sell them on my website, www.danbaileymusic.com."

Bailey's latest album with Living Rhythm, "Rise Wild Stepper," produced under his own independent label Idris Records, is currently on sale now through his website, www.danbaileymusic.com. They are currently working on another album that he hopes to release next spring or summer.

Perhaps one of the things that has gained him the most exposure this summer, outside the shows he plays with his band, was the drum circles he participated in Monday nights at Sagg Main beach, an event that gained popularity both because it was deemed an excellent way to spend a summer evening and because of the controversy that surrounded the event once neighbors began to complain. "It has been going on for years but this summer it kind of just blew up and turned into this whole big thing. It's just sort of exponentially growing and it's definitely been sort of a hot topic this summer," Bailey explained. "For me it's one of the most beautiful things. I remember thinking right at the beginning of July 'Wow, I already feel like I've had a whole summer's worth of fun' just because of Monday nights."

Bailey performs throughout The Hamptons and New York City.

The controversy caused the event to move to Ditch Plains in Montauk for two weeks, but Bailey and his friends pitched in to keep the event running smoothly and placate the complaints. "I would go up and talk to cops and ask how we could help them and where we should park and everything. Part of what keeps it going is that either myself or some of my close friends will stick around to the end and clean up the beach. I understand that it's nighttime and it's hard to see, but you'd think that it's common sense to leave with whatever you brought to the beach, but that's not always the case," he said.

"There were a lot of nights where we would hang out all night until the sun came up and we could see so we could clean up the beach and put out the fires and make sure everything was all sorted because we do want to keep it going. Next year we'd like to try and coordinate with the town to actually help us out with say some trash cans and restrooms. We don't want to be a burden on the natural environment there or on the residents so we want to sort something out to make it work for everyone. It's a beautiful community event and I think everyone wants to see it continue."

Keeping in line with his altruistic spirit, Bailey also pitched in to provide live music for the East End Global Mala Project; a worldwide event that runs in conjunction with the UN International Peace Day. "The Global Mala Project brings all these different yoga studios all over the world together to basically raise awareness and just meditate on a positive frequency and try to promote a peaceful existence by bringing people together to do positive things," explained Bailey. "A friend of mine named Lauren Hannah who always tries to get me involved in their events asked me to play this year and of course I said yes."

One of the accomplishments that Bailey says he is most proud of this summer is the series of gigs his band landed at the Surf Lodge in Montauk. "Once the owners saw us, they loved us and wanted us there all the time. We ended up playing there six or seven times this summer, which was great because it was really our crowd and it was outside during the sunset and we play a lot of reggae so it was a great fit there. That was a good accomplishment for the summer, and gets the name out there and makes us as visible as possible."

In addition to teaching and playing African drums, for the past two years Dan Bailey has been playing with his band Dan Bailey & Living Rhythm, slated to appear at the Talkhouse on Oct. 23.

But with the summer season drawing to a close and the opportunity to play at events and fundraisers on the beach growing smaller, Bailey is planning on stepping up events with his band, playing several private parties both out East and in Manhattan, as well as two Talkhouse performances on Sept. 26 and again on Oct. 23.

Additionally, Bailey is looking to broaden the scope of the group's music by incorporating different music elements outside their predominately reggae repertoire. "We sort of chose to go with doing a lot of reggae, and though that is maybe about a third of the music that I write, I definitely do a lot of other styles like Blues, Folk, Jazz, Bossa Nova, and Latin music, I have a few songs I wrote in Spanish," he said. "Right now we're sort of looking to diversify the live show and have it incorporate a cross section of my music instead of just the reggae. We're starting to really blend it all together."

To that end, Bailey and Living Rhythm have already started work on a new album produced under his independent record label Idris Records. "We released 'Rise Wild Stepper' last year and then since then we've released three different drumming albums for a total of four releases out there so far," he said, "I'm hoping to release it next spring or summer."