Part II of our  look at all the crazy gear coming out at this year’s Winter NAMM in Los Angeles (Anaheim!!).  Travis Barker is the drummer of the week, we talk  about Tommy Igoe’s new DVD, and no one laughs at Carter’s jokes.  Show Notes

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We look at all the crazy gear coming out at this year’s Winter NAMM in Anaheim and Adrian Young is the drummer of the week! Show Notes

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Today Dave flies solo as we finally finish part 2 of our PASIC 2009 recap and we pay tribute to the late, and very great, Ed Thigpen.  Show Notes

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Sad news that Ed Thigpen, father of modern brush technique, has passed away.

From The Chicago Tribune:

Jazz lovers called him “Mr. Taste,” and the nickname couldn’t have been more fitting.

Always fashionably dressed — and sounding as impeccable as he looked — Ed Thigpen conveyed elegance in every aspect of his life and art.

At the same time, his ability to generate propulsive, hard-hitting swing rhythm made him a driving force in pianist Oscar Peterson’s great trio of the late 1950s and ’60s, which also included bassist Ray Brown.

This high-profile spot established Mr. Thigpen, born in Chicago and raised in Los Angeles, as an international figure. It also made him a featured player at Chicago’s long-gone London House, where Peterson’s trio enjoyed extended residencies.

Mr. Thigpen, 79, died Wednesday, Jan. 13, in Copenhagen, said his daughter, Denise. The drummer, who had moved to Denmark in 1972, performed regularly through October. He was hospitalized in the last two weeks with “weak lungs and weak heart,” said his daughter, speaking from Copenhagen.

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We are back from our Christmas break with a show all about stands! Mike tells us all about the drummer of the week, Ed Shaughnessy, we talk about Ramon Samson, the Guitar Center Drum Off Winner, and Carter is late! Show Notes

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It’s full blown end of the year madness here, so in Dave’s stead, Carter and Mike run things in this final episode of Drummer Talk for 2009. This week’s topic: Gear you shold wish for for Christmas!  See everyone in 2010! Show Notes

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I’ve been excited to see this one for a while. I was waiting for the promised Blu-Ray version to come out so I could see if the instructional experience is that much better in HD. Alas, my patience expired when I saw it available on Netflix. I saw the preview for this DVD and thought “that guy sounds like a more progressive version of Steve Smith… and I like that.” As it turns out Todd Sucherman: drummer for Styx, session drummer, and clinician, is a big fan of Steve Smith. In fact Todd actually tells a touching personal story about his relationship with Steve Smith which is one of the nice little touches in this DVD that make it so great, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
(more…)

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Exams are bearing down at visible school and the crew can’t make it this week. We apologize and will be back in full force next week.

The Drummertalk Team

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This review might be a little nontraditional but you’ll have to forgive me because this DVD is quite nontraditional. It’s one of those most rare of animals, the drum and bass instructional video. Carter Beauford, (drummer for DMB) and Victor Wooten, (bassist for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones), decided to turn the recording session for Victor’s album Yin-Yang into the foundation for an entire drum/bass instructional DVD. This isn’t two separate instructional DVDs that Hudson Music decided to sell as a package. It doesn’t try to teach everything you need to know to play either instrument. Rather, it focuses on the music on the Yin-Yang album and examines the give-and-take between Carter and Victor when they play. This is an instructional that demands you pay attention to what they play and analyze it for yourself. (more…)

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Today, we go over the first day and a half of PASIC 2009.  Clinics include Maria Martinez, Chris Pennie, Sergio Belotti, Tobias Ralph, Felix Pollard, Steve Fidyk, and Benny Greb.

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If there’s any drummer who can claim they’ve come from the rock and roll jungle it’s Matt Sorum. With seven years under his belt, he’s the longest sitting Guns N’ Roses drummer ever. Matt Sorum was ejected from the band by Axl Rose after he defended Slash’s decision to leave. So along with Slash and former Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan they formed Velvet Revolver… which is now on hiatus because their lead singer left the band. Lead singer issues aside, Matt Sorum is a road tested rock drummer and well qualified to speak on the topic of rock drumming. (more…)

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5:06 Pearl guy comes out and takes a pic of the audience. Gives history of Pearl and VD. Gets Dennis Chambers on the phone. Lol

5:09 VD takes the stage. Takes mic. VD: I’m gonna talk about rhythmic concepts and what I call rhyhmic phrasing in zones. Today I’m going to talk about left and right zones. Normally we think in top and bottom. We can start with a triplet, and break them up in different ways. Meshing one rhythm in another. 4’s and 5’s. We’ll split the triplet between the left foot and snare with the left hand. It becomes a layered groove when you play underneath it. (he keeps referencing a handout, but I don’t see anyone who has one.) you have two constant downbeat that occur in different places when you superimpose the different zones. These can come out as a fragment or a fill or whatever. It’s all about understanding pulse and meter in different ways.

Now, let’s look at combining the double and single paradiddles. The left side is playing the double between the left snare and hh. The right side is playing the single. Then try it reversed. There’s nothing to say you have to stick to each pattern. You can play around with it.

The next one is a group of five notes and a paradiddles.

5:33 VD: How bout some playing? (applause) There is a little bit of zoning going on here.

5:34 Plays track. Prog rock thing. Guitar heavy with synthy stuff. Feels like it’s in 7 but VD is superimposing many different feels on top of it. Goes into straighter section. Sick fast tom fills around the kit. He’s got two mounted toms way up high and draws applause when he goes up to them.

5:39 2nd track. Mellower tune. Odd meter. Synthy. Very out there. Alternating from different meters and feels. Ballad to hard rock to thrash to smooth jazz. Weird.

5:47 Solo. Starts with snare work adding toms around. Lots of kick work. Going in and out of odd metered grooves. Huge kick rolls section. Blowing all around the kit. Into rudimental snare section with kick going all crazy under it. Cool remote hh roll thing. Huge be tom roll to end it as he throws his sticks to the ground.

6:01 Thank yous.

That’s it folks!!! Thank you for joining us and our Drummer Talk PASIC 2009 coverage. Be sure to tune in to our recap shows coming up!

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3:00 Crowded house.

3:07 PAS-IC guy out for intros.

3:08 Vic Firth out to intro JD. I want him to be my grandpa.

3:10 JD takes the stage and goes to the mic. Thank yous. Discusses a new Sabian 3 point ride cymbal. JD: I’m gonna play some music. Hang on, I hop you enjoy the ride.

3:12 Plays. Hits the hh with mallets and holds mic super close to hear the overtones of the top and bottom hats. Now hitting other cymbals and pulling out the deep dark overtones. He’s almost making a melody with the various cymbals. He swirls the mic over the cymbal and creates an amazing swirling sound. Moves to sticks and creates melodic ideas on toms. Toms are tuned WAY high. Looks like he’s got an 8 piece kit. Plays “A Love Supreme” melody on toms. He’s so smooth and makes this look effortless! Smooth doubles all around the kit. He might be the first old timer jazz guy I’ve seen who plays matched grip. Lots of cymbal work. Settles into med-up swing groove. Ride work is amazing. Into huge funky jazz style. Going to town. Into an Afro Cuban feel before blowing more heat around the kit. Metric modulation into up tempo jazz. heat then settles into phat groove.

3:34 JD: This is my tribute to the drummers of Motown

Lays down the funk. The crowd is really getting into it! Fills get longer and longer as he breaks away from time before returning to the root groove. More and more complex all around the kit. Finally returns to the Love Supreme motive. Diminuendo to a big crash finish. Standing O.

3:51 JD takes mic. Q&A

Q: what’s going through your mind when you solo?
A: I don’t come with anything planned. My drums are tuned high and it helps me create melody. Since I’ve studied form, I can play out of them. I expect to sit down and play something I’ve never played before. Be prepared to play what you don’t know.

Q: Insights in playing with Keith Jarret?
A: Keith and I just click. We never had deep discussions about music, but we knew we were kindred souls. We developed a way to leave space for each other. Waiting for the music to take us somewhere. If it doesn’t feel right we’ll stop. It’s been a real blessing.

Q: Who were your heros?
A: As a kid I listened to a lot of Duke, Basie. I grew up in Chicago. Art Blakey, Sid Catlett, Papa Joe Jones, Chick Webb. Wilbur Campbell was a mentor to me. Then the other heros who didn’t play drums: Monk, Hubbard, Herbie, Coltrane.

Thank you for coming! (applause)

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Q: are you reading charts?
A: Most of the time there are just chord charts. The majority of the time we have charts. We have time codes that allow it to sync up. Cool process.

Q: Play some ice and rocks!
A: This is my version. (lots of huge tom rolls and cymbals.) It’s snow and slush that is a real challenge!

Q: What heads?
A: Clear ambassadors. It gives me a clean, open sound. Engineers live it too! It gives them a clean slate to work with.

Q: Elecronics?
A: I tend to stay away from electronics. I mostly will work with loops or a click track. I don’t use a lot of sound effect.

Q: Have there been games you’ve gone after instead of letting it come to you?
A: Hmm. My studio does so many great things and there are times when I found out they’re working on a game, I’ll offer my services.

Q: In your free time, do you play the old games?
A: I love donkey kong! Can you imagine working on Pong??

Q: can you talk about your TV stuff?
A: When I watch TV I’m always wondering who played drums on these things. Commercials. Movie trailers. Even library music! Where companies will hire me to play background music ths gets purchased.

Q: How consistent is your work?
A: Like any other musician, when it’s good it’s good, bit when it’s down you have to be the squeeky wheel! I love to play so I’ll call buddies and offer my services. The cool thing about being a sideman, you can always find work.

Getting started consists of all these gigs where you’re on stage. It’s all about knowing people.

Thank you for coming out!

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10:59 Waiting for clinic to start. There is a massive DW kit on stage. We’re on the second row! There are not a lot of people here.

11:02 PAS-IC guy comes out to intro.

11:03 Intro is done live via satellite. It’s Larry King! Lol. And it’s not live.

11:04 JS takes the kit. There is a huge screen beside him rolling vid sync’d to the track he’s playing. It’s a huge hard rock tune. Next tune, power rock sports anthem sync’d to NBA clips. New tune-random clips of Godzilla and Soccer. Next, playing electronic thing to racing game footage. War footage, protestors. JS playing marching/hard rock thing. Into motocross clips. He’s moving in and out of styles with the video clips. Now he’s playing a world/Arabic style. Ends with huge thrash tune.

11:18 JS takes the mic. Thank yous.

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