Simon Philips: Complete is another case of two older videos being merged and resold as a single DVD. Its two individual parts being Simon Philips and Simon Philips Returns.
The thing about this DVD is that it doesn’t really reveal to you what you are getting into when you buy/rent it. Certainly there’s no hint as to the nature of the content in the title of the DVD. So I’m going to tell you what you’re getting into. Mostly you’re getting performance and breakdown of music Simon Phillips wrote, along with a couple of solos and some sections on general drumming topics. Some of the general drumming topics include double bass drumming and double bass tuning, timekeeping, coordination, snare drum tuning, and snare drum playing.
The advice he gives is pretty good in many of the areas he talks about and not so good in some of the others. Usually when the advice isn’t satisfactory it’s because he didn’t go in-depth enough as opposed to the advise just being bad. Also, as with most older DVDs, lots of the ideas and advice he give have been done again but better in newer DVDs. You can tell this stuff was big news back in the old days but today much of it has been improved on. I’m searching and failing to say something else about this DVD which means it’s time for the break down.
Steve Smith, shiny headed drummer extraordinaire has done it again! Standing on the Shoulder’s of Giant’s is Steve’s tribute to all the greats that came before him (and he does them justice.) Steve Smith’s Jazz Legacy was originally Buddy’s Buddies, a tribute band to the work of Buddy Rich. As they went on, they started expanding to the work of other jazz drumming greats. Eventually the name was changed to Jazz Legacy because they had left the realm of a Buddy Rich tribute band and became something more.
This video contains the entire 2006 Modern Drummer Festival performance of Steve Smith’s Jazz Legacy and after each song there is a long discussion about it between John Riley and Steve Smith. John Riley’s presence does help make the DVD much better and I’ll explain how. If you remember my review of Steve Smith’s Drum Set Technique & History of the U.S. Beat, my one criticism was that Steve Smith was very stiff when he was talking to the camera. Well, because John Riley is there, Steve has an actual person to talk to. The effect being, Steve is much more personable and easier to watch. But Riley is more then just someone for Steve to bounce conversation off of. He is a Jazz scholar in his own right and adds much insight and a different perspective to Steve when they discuss the performances and the artists to which the performances are tributes.
This presentation by Hotlicks is reminiscent of Frankenstein’s monster. The idea being to take the best sections of six different Hotlicks features and blend them together in one monster presentation. Most of the movies that are sampled in this video have a full length of about sixty minutes. While this movie itself is only 41 minuets long. My point being that you getting less by watching this then you would by watching one of the videos sampled in this feature.
Now to be fair, I’m pretty sure that about half of these videos aren’t in production anymore so this might be the only way you have to get a glimpse into what those videos contained. I’ve searched for the videos by Kenwood Denard, Tico Torres, and Tommy Aldridge but I can’t find them anywhere. If you were desperate to see these things, you might find one at a Goodwill somewhere in Nebraska in VHS format. (more…)
Part 2 of Stanton Moore’s two part series on New Orleans drumming is his take on modern New Orleans drumming. If you saw the first one you might get a feeling of deja-vu watching this one as lots of the same stuff seems to be covered in this DVD. For example there is another section on using the different areas of the snare drum just like the previous DVD
I did note that I complained about how he didn’t talk much about sticking on the first DVD. Well he does on this DVD. If he’s going to talk about a sticking in a particular chapter, the chapter will be named after that particular sticking. Usually the chapter consists of him just going through a bunch of different ideas that you can accomplish with that particular. Much like the last DVD. Lots of good ideas but I feel that he just scratches the surface with the meager amount of time that he uses to actually teach. He does once again have a bunch of sections on specific rhythms that he came up with for the drum-set. There’s one he calls magnolia special that involves him using a jingle stick (christmas wand) on a floor tom to get this tambourine kind of vibe.
Before I begin the review, I have to make everyone aware of a policy change that I will make effective as of this review. From now on I’m going to review DVD’s with more then one volume (like this one) each on their own individual merits. I realized in my review of Joe Morello’s DVDs that I barely mentioned the first DVD at all in my review. Granted, my opinion at that time (and it hasn’t changed since) was that there really wasn’t much to talk about. Still, it merited it’s own separate review. I will still talk about the relationship between the (or more) related products, but my score at the end will be reflective of the product as it stands by itself.
Todd Sucherman (drummer of Styx) will soon be the first drummer ever to have an instructional video on Blu-Ray. The trailer for which you can view is below or you can view a higher quality version here. Little is known about the feature as of yet. However, I don’t think that it’s too much of a stretch to say that it will be a euphoric experience for your eyes and ears (if you’re a drummer who likes/loves Styx.)
In case you’re wondering, yes, I’m definitely going to be doing a review of it. It might be pricey… but that’s why I have a Summer Job!
The problem with reviewing these old drum technique instructional videos is that their modern counterparts just blow the old ones out of the water. These new DVD’s likeSecret Weapons for the Modern Drummer and Drum-Set Technique/History of the U.S. Beat are so thorough and comprehensive that there is not very much to be gained by viewing these old ones. This is somewhat true of Joe Morello’s Drum Method 1 & 2, but not as much as I expected.
There are only two volumes. Morello mentions a third installment in both volumes one and two, don’t bother looking for it, it doesn’t exist. Each volume is sold separately and comes with it’s own little booklet with detailed transcriptions of the exercises Morello goes through. It would be perfect if they would just sell it as two disk set with one big booklet/downloadable PDFs… but, alas, they don’t. I’m reviewing these two as a pair because they are at there best as a pair. I wouldn’t recommend buying one buy itself and I wouldn’t recommend renting them if you are serious about learning from them. The reason I wouldn’t rent them is because you won’t get the little booklets that come with them. The reason I wouldn’t buy one without intending to get the other is because the second volume is the juicer one of the two, but it refers you back to the first volume on several occasions. Meanwhile, the first disk just isn’t worth it in terms of content if it isn’t paired with the second. What a pickle. (more…)
Chris Coleman: Playing with Precision and Power is the latest in a set of instructional videos under the Dynamic Drumming name. The first two volumes in the series are only available on VHS as far as I can tell, which might have something to do with their scarcity. You’ll probably need to look on ebay or some electronic retailer to find the first two volumes.
The first half of the vid is nothing but Chris playing with a band. They play four songs and go through two interview segments before Chris actually does any instructing in this instructional video. All the songs appear to be written by Chris Coleman which is pretty impressive but, I mean, dang! It’s like a concert-clinic in two large and unequal pieces. There was nothing to indicate that it would be this kind of format… it just kinda ambushes you, you know?
Steve Gadd is probably the most well respected drummer alive today, so it makes sense that he’d be chosen to star in Hudson Music’s new Master Series DVDs. The new Master Series, um, series… is pretty much just a recording of a drummer doing a clinic, master class, showcase concert, meet n’ greet, panel, Q&A session and whatever other title they may give these types of events. Maybe it was born out of a desire to share these live sessions with the public who couldn’t be there in person. Maybe it was because they couldn’t schedule these artists to come in and shoot a DVD so they just recored a clinic the artist was going to do anyway. Maybe these Master Series DVD’s cost less to produce… we may never know. Regardless of the reason, these things have been a long time coming.
The great thing about this DVD is that you have the best seat in the house, where the action is! If Steve is doing something interesting with his feet, you’re right there with the bass drum cam. When he does brush work, you’re right over the snare drum, catching ever sweep. Just a really pro job from the Hudson Music crew (though by now we’ve come to expect that.) So let’s talk about Steve’s performance. (more…)
I didn’t even know he had a new record coming out, but alas, the grand master du funk has released he new album, Emphasis! (On Parenthesis). It’s not out on iTunes yet, but it’s available over at Amazon.com MP3 for only $8.99! I recommend you go buy it .. NOW!
Who knew that Peter (Ginger) Baker made an instructional video? I did. So I’m reviewing it.
The DVD is actually a re-released version of the original video that was on VHS, but it’s now armed with slow motion, looping, & chapter select features. Which means that it kicks the crap out of the VHS version.
Ginger Baker starts out the video with a bare bones minimum description of how to hold a drumstick and a woefully inadequate section on tuning the drums. It does get better from there, however. Baker’s approach to teaching is a lot like your standard drum teacher’s method. As soon as you can hold the sticks you move on to rudiments, the first two being the paradiddle and the mummy (it’s an english thing) daddy roll. Cool thing about this video is that whenever he does demonstrate a rudiment, the sticking appears on the screen. Nifty. After he demonstrates the basic rudiment he usually turns it into some form of a tom groove. Baker’s tom grooves are probably one of the most interesting parts of his playing and he does a great job of showing how he uses them in his playing. For example he plays a song called “Ants in the Kitchen” where the main groove is a paradiddle that has been shifted one sixteenth note. Instead of RLRR LRLL it’s RLLR LRRL.
John Blackwell Jr’s DVD was one of Hudson Music’s first “High End” DVDs. Double disk, tons of special features, great camera work, shot at Bear Tracks studios in upstate New York. You know, the high end ones. It was the first Hudson Music DVD I ever owned (I have since given it to goodwill) and it was also one of the worst drum instructional I’ve ever owned. Now before you start throwing things at your computer screen, just hear me out. This isn’t a knock on John Blackwell as a drummer or as a musician. He is awesome as both… but he just wasn’t good at teaching in this DVD. He might be a lot better now or better in different settings but he just wasn’t good at communicating or teaching in this DVD.
It’s a crying shame because he’s definitely got a lot of things that I would love to learn from him. For example his Bass Drum technique is awesome. We’re talking Jojo Mayer and above level of playing with his right foot. But he basically says “I’m rocking the foot but not sliding it, now watch.” He then proceeds to blow your mind with the awesomeness of his right foot. He then plays a couple of grooves that show you that this stuff can be used in a musical context… then he moves on. AAARHHHGGGHHH!!! It’s like watching a magic trick. You see him do it but you don’t know how! Anyways, seeing as I went into the technique section I might as well cover all of them right quick… and “right quick” is really all I need. (more…)
Canadian power-rock trio Rush hopes to start work on a new studio album next year, but will serve up a double helping of live material before then.
First up, on April 15, is “Snakes & Arrows Live,” which features such rarities as “Circumstances” and “Entre Nous,” tunes the band had never performed on stage before last year.
Lifeson said he and bandmates Geddy Lee and Neil Peart are also thinking a bit about a follow-up to last year’s studio release “Snakes & Arrows,” which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200.
Simon Philips: Complete is another case of two older videos being merged and resold as a single DVD. Its two individual parts being Simon Philips and Simon Philips Returns.
Steve Smith, shiny headed drummer extraordinaire has done it again! Standing on the Shoulder’s of Giant’s is Steve’s tribute to all the greats that came before him (and he does them justice.) Steve Smith’s Jazz Legacy was originally Buddy’s Buddies, a tribute band to the work of Buddy Rich. As they went on, they started expanding to the work of other jazz drumming greats. Eventually the name was changed to Jazz Legacy because they had left the realm of a Buddy Rich tribute band and became something more.
This presentation by Hotlicks is reminiscent of Frankenstein’s monster. The idea being to take the best sections of six different Hotlicks features and blend them together in one monster presentation. Most of the movies that are sampled in this video have a full length of about sixty minutes. While this movie itself is only 41 minuets long. My point being that you getting less by watching this then you would by watching one of the videos sampled in this feature.
Before I begin the review, I have to make everyone aware of a policy change that I will make effective as of this review. From now on I’m going to review DVD’s with more then one volume (like this one) each on their own individual merits. I realized in my review of Joe Morello’s DVDs that I barely mentioned the first DVD at all in my review. Granted, my opinion at that time (and it hasn’t changed since) was that there really wasn’t much to talk about. Still, it merited it’s own separate review. I will still talk about the relationship between the (or more) related products, but my score at the end will be reflective of the product as it stands by itself.
The problem with reviewing these old drum technique instructional videos is that their modern counterparts just blow the old ones out of the water. These new DVD’s like
It would be perfect if they would just sell it as two disk set with one big booklet/downloadable PDFs… but, alas, they don’t. I’m reviewing these two as a pair because they are at there best as a pair. I wouldn’t recommend buying one buy itself and I wouldn’t recommend renting them if you are serious about learning from them. The reason I wouldn’t rent them is because you won’t get the little booklets that come with them. The reason I wouldn’t buy one without intending to get the other is because the second volume is the juicer one of the two, but it refers you back to the first volume on several occasions. Meanwhile, the first disk just isn’t worth it in terms of content if it isn’t paired with the second. What a pickle. 
Chris Coleman: Playing with Precision and Power is the latest in a set of instructional videos under the Dynamic Drumming name. The first two volumes in the series are only available on VHS as far as I can tell, which might have something to do with their scarcity. You’ll probably need to look on ebay or some electronic retailer to find the first two volumes.
Steve Gadd is probably the most well respected drummer alive today, so it makes sense that he’d be chosen to star in Hudson Music’s new Master Series DVDs. The new Master Series, um, series… is pretty much just a recording of a drummer doing a clinic, master class, showcase concert, meet n’ greet, panel, Q&A session and whatever other title they may give these types of events. Maybe it was born out of a desire to share these live sessions with the public who couldn’t be there in person. Maybe it was because they couldn’t schedule these artists to come in and shoot a DVD so they just recored a clinic the artist was going to do anyway. Maybe these Master Series DVD’s cost less to produce… we may never know. Regardless of the reason, these things have been a long time coming.
Who knew that Peter (Ginger) Baker made an instructional video? I did. So I’m reviewing it.
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