Drummer Daniel Ray left Beaufort at age 16 to pursue his dream of playing music, and in many ways he has returned as a man on a mission.

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"I came back after 54 years, and the same thing that I left is still here," said Ray, who goes by the nickname Big Black, adding sadly that three girls in his neighborhood, one of them only 12, have had babies. "I see a lot of the things happening then still happening now, which means that a lot of these kids have not progressed. I'm going through a culture shock. I haven't gotten over it yet, and something really needs to be done. My whole outlook is to do something to make it better."

After traveling the world for decades and performing with some of the biggest names in the history of jazz, the 71-year-old Ray, or Black as his friends call him, came back home at age 70 after living for many years in Los Angeles, where he raised his children.

Black said that he wants to build a free child care center for "babies having babies," but he also is confronting his culture shock through his art. Since Sept. 29, Black has been teaching basic hand drumming to local youth as well as adults at Artworks, the new home of the Arts Council of Beaufort County. An eighth-grade dropout, Black sees art and music as a way to inspire and save children, much like it did for him after he left Shanklin High School and hit the road as a drummer. He also has instructed people on the university level.

"One of the reasons that I'm at the Arts Council is I would like to get young people interested in art," said Black. "It's up to some of us to figure out ways to create things so that people can see the light. You know that old African theme --each one, teach one? You have to teach people that don't know."

Although he was raised in Beaufort, Black was born in Savannah, and he was recently inducted into the Coastal Jazz Association of Savannah Hall of Fame during the 2008 Savannah Jazz Festival, where he performed with the Coastal Jazz All-Stars.

"It's always good to get some recognition, because I don't go out seeking recognition," said Black. "I just go out and play. My first instrument was the trumpet, but the drums stole me from the trumpet."

IN THE MIDST OF LEGENDS

A self-taught conga player, Black got his start in the 1950s playing in groups at clubs and hotels in Miami and in calypso bands throughout the Caribbean. He has played with everyone from Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie to Pharoah Sanders and Sun Ra.

"It's just been a whirlwind of drumming since I left Carolina 'till now," said Black. "I was lucky. My childhood dream was always to play with Dizzy. I played with Dizzy. I played with John Coltrane. I played with everybody that's anybody in the world of giants, from Duke Ellington on down. Like I said, I've been lucky."

Black's records include the MCA releases "Message to Our Ancestors" (1967) and "Big Black and the Blues" (1972), and he appeared on the classic recording "The Night of the Cookers" (1965) with Freddie Hubbard, among others. He's also appeared at numerous music festivals, including the Zaire Music Festival before the

Muhammad Ali/George Foreman fight in 1974. It was Black who played congas in Ali's corner to open the festivities.

"I don't call myself an African drummer or Afro-Cuban drummer," said Black. "I'm an American drummer, because I play the American experience on my drums. I learned to play sitting on the front porch in South Carolina. I'm a natural-born drummer, I suppose. It was just a part of me. As far back as I can remember, I was banging on things."

Black came from a musical family, and he was drawn back to Beaufort by his sister, Rebecca "Beckeeta" Ray, a well-known dancer who performed around the world, sometimes with Black. Their mother, Geneva "Big Sister" Ray, left them property in Beaufort, and Rebecca wanted Black to help her maintain the land. His dream is to eventually transform the land into a public gathering place for musicians and the community and call it Big Sister's Music Park.

"For years (Beckeeta's) been begging me to come home," said Black. "She was a marvelous dancer, and everyone knows her around here. She taught a lot of kids how to dance."

Black said that his mother was a humanitarian who loved the arts, and as a child, their home served as a stopping point for musicians traveling between New York and Florida. Although he is self-taught, one of Black's mentors was his late older brother, Fish Ray, who also gave him his performing name.

After hearing him practice in Miami one night, Fish Ray realized how good his brother had gotten at the drums, and as a joke, Fish and some other musicians called him Big Black as a way to describe his bold style of playing. The name stuck.

Calypso, born in Trinidad, took America by storm in the 1950s, and Fish performed with the hit group Lord Flea and His Calypsonians, who were among several bands profiled in a 1957 article in TIME magazine.

"They were one of the biggest calypso groups in the country, second only to Harry Belafonte," said Black, who added that poet Maya Angelou was also part of the calypso scene back then, performing as a singer. "We were all part of that whole scene. That was probably my first beginning as far as getting into the so-called big time."

NURTURING LOCAL TALENT

As the executive director of the Arts Council of Beaufort County and a self-professed lover of jazz music, JW Rone is grateful to have someone of Black's caliber instructing people in the community.

"It's amazing to have the level of quality in so many teachers that we have here, but to have the opportunity just to spend time with Black is amazing for me," said Rone. "Just listening to the stories of heroes of mine that he hung out and played with. He's truly amazing, and what he's saying is so true. How do we get this music to people?"

Emily Fader has been taking lessons from Black for about two weeks now. Fader's mother and grandfather both played instruments, and she said that she has been surrounded by art her entire life.

"I've been learning a lot," said Fader, 34. "It's just so special to have someone like Black here. It's a great opportunity for us to learn from someone who knows."

Basic Hand Drumming with Big Black is currently scheduled to run for seven weeks, but the Arts Council and Black hope to extend that period. So far, not too many young people have participated, and Black wants to change that.

"There's a lot of talent here," he said.

Besides The Jazz Corner on Hilton Head Island, Black and Rone said that there are not many outlets for jazz music in the Lowcountry. Ultimately, Black would like to see Beaufort adopt a program like Jazzmobile in New York City, an organization founded in 1964 that presents free outdoor mobile concerts, many of them in neighborhoods that normally would not be exposed to jazz.

"We need something like that here, where people can come out and listen and it's not going to cost them anything," said Black. "They just come out, kick back, listen and soak up some culture."