WORLD MUSIC FESTIVALS WILL FOCUS ON HEALING, SPIRITUALITY.

Byline: Theo Douglas Music Writer

FROM DUKE ELLINGTON to whirling dervishes, Macedonian folk songs to Japanese rice-harvesting ceremonies, talking drums to honking saxophones, this year's second World Festival of Sacred Music - Los Angeles, which begins today, promises to be anything but predictable - or predictably reverent.

Returning three years after a rapturously received first edition, the festival of 2002 should offer proof that an audience may be won over without being converted.

Bearing the word ``sacred'' in its title, the question of religion - namely, whose - comes immediately into play. But organizers say if this sprawling, two-week festival can really be captured in a word, that word would likely be ``spiritual'' rather than ``religious.''

Beginning as it does just three days after the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the second World Festival of Sacred Music will, at times, honor the memory of that terrible day with pieces designed to soothe worried minds, rather than inflame passions.

``Now that this country is in the aftermath of Sept. 11, I think there's even more of a desire to be part of something that advocates a positive, forward-thinking agenda. There's a lot of people who feel that way,'' says festival director Judy Matelma. For those purposes, she says, music is nearly perfect.

``It neither forces you to think nor feel anything specific, but evokes a more personal experience, and one that makes available both our emotional intellect and our spiritual response mechanisms,'' Matelma says. ``It's not threatening, and it doesn't purport to convert anyone to do anything. It's more of an invitation.''

An open invitation - that's what many artists would like to extend to fans of, say, the Indian sitar or Buddhist chants. Yet despite heavy historical roots, the 15 days of events are more easily accessible than they might seem. Many have clear, undeniable links to pop culture.

Today's 6:30 p.m. gala concert at UCLA's Royce Hall, for example, will feature sacred music written by famed jazz composer Duke Ellington from 1965 on. Also on stage will be qawwali artist Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, whose uncle Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan actually linked qawwali to grunge music in a 1990s collaboration with grunge standard bearers Pearl Jam.

Says Matelma: ``Qawwali music is so powerful. Even if you don't understand the words, you can tell they are so powerful and so heartfelt and so full of love.''

Similarly, the third annual Festival of Drums & Art, Sept. 21-22 at the Green on the Hill in Signal Hill, will feature a man who knew rock legend Jimi Hendrix and lived nearby in London at the time of Hendrix's death.

Now in his 50s, talking drum artist Remi Kabaka is in the position of playing an instrument conceived more than 5,000 years ago as a method of communication - yet having a host of Web sites dedicated to him and his music on the Internet.

``I see what you mean,'' Kabaka - a tall, slender man clad in traditional dress - says with a twinkle. ``I went to some of the best schools money can buy. I went to Oxford and all of that.'' It sounds ritzy now - though it may not have, at the time - but Kabaka and his drum wound up accompanying the likes of Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood and the Rolling Stones on their 1969 ``Beggar's Banquet'' record.

Not bad career landmarks for someone using an instrument of oak, goatskin and string conceived ``thousands of years before Alexander Graham Bell,'' as Kabaka puts it. But, he adds, ``Depending on what I'm playing with, I can play jazz, classical, country and western. Anything I can do on the (drum) kit, I can do on the talking drum.''

The talking drum is capable of many a joyful noise, but this year's edition of the Festival of Drums will have a more somber focus, says its organizer, Charles Udoma.

``It's a spiritually powerful event. We encourage people to come out and dedicate themselves to the peaceful movement that will be there,'' Udoma says. ``We've got (drummer) Francis Awe. He's going to do an opening and a sacred ceremony there to honor the departed (from Sept. 11) and to usher in a spirit of peace in the new millennium.''

For information on the World Festival of Sacred Music - Los Angeles, call [phone]. For a complete listing of events and ticket information, go to www.festivalofsacredmusic.org.

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Guitarist Miroslav Tadik is scheduled to perform Macedonian folk songs Sept. 27 at the Carpenter Center in Long Beach.