Welcome to Drummer Talk #170 where we talk about some of our best and worst gig experiences!  In news, we talk about yet another drummer with his own coffee, the K Zildjian scholarship, DW’s new airlift system, and we pay tribute to the late, great Levon Helm.  Did we mention that Jeff Bowders is the drummer of the week?!

News

• Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer launched his own line of coffee, “Rockin’ & Roastin’,” a organic, fair trade, custom-roasted coffee.
• Kerope Zildjian Scholarship
• Levon Helm loses the battle against cancer.
• DW Airlift
• Forearm-less drummer’s videos make it onto msnbc.com
• Woodshed Percussion presents second annual “Shedfest”
• International Jazz Day to celebrated with All-Star Concerts
• Zildjian extends Drummer Love deadline

Drummer of the week, Jeff Bowders

• Born in 1976 and his favorite movie is “Rocky”, www.jeffbowders.com
• He has played for people like Rebecca St. James, Ginny Owens, Fusebox, Chris Tomlin, and Paul Colman Trio. Jeff is currently Paul Gilbert’s drummer and an instructor at Musicians Institute. Recently came out with an album entitled The Pilgrimage of Thingamuhjig, featuring his drumming.

We’re back from our long hiatus with a show talking about the 10 things (in no particular order) the “best” pro musicians have in common.  Also, we have 2 new guys on the mic!  In news, Luis Conte gets the online drum academy treatment, Roy Haynes is honored, Questlove opens his own hoodie shop, and Zildjian’s Drummer Love heads to Europe!  Show notes after the break!

Show Notes

1. INTRO

• http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

2. NEWS

• Luis Conte school of percussion
  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/04/12/prweb9395422.DTL
• Roy Haynes to Receive Peabody Medal
  http://www.jazzpolice.com/content/view/10113/79/
• Zildjian’s Drummer Love Europe
  http://www.idrummag.com/news/2012/4/13/zildjians-drummer-love-get-some.html
  http://zildjian.com/drummerlove?utm_source=generic&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=DrummerLoveEurope
• Questlove’s Hoodie Shop
  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/30/questloves-the-hoodie-shop_n_1391652.html
• Sonny Igoe Dies at 88
  http://www.northjersey.com/arts_entertainment/music/145878935_Sonny_Igoe__88__drummer_for_Big_Band_greats.html
• World’s Largest Cowbell Ensemble
  http://www.boston.com/Boston/businessupdates/2012/03/phish-drummer-ben-jerry-plan-world-largest-cowbell-ensemble/2Ezo4eJ8baYpdNVwMDYTbM/index.html
• King’s X Drummer Gives Message to the Fans
  http://somethingelsereviews.com/2012/04/05/kings-x-drummer-jerry-gaskill-releases-new-video-message-for-fans-ill-be-better-than-ever/

3. TOPIC – http://www.zorothedrummer.com/thebiggigbook/index.html

• 10 Things the Best Pros Have in Common

• The best professional musicians are all self starters and entrepreneurs.
• The best professional musicians have an unquenchable thirst for learning.
• The best professional musicians arrive early.
• The best professional musicians arrive prepared.
• The best professional musicians have a healthy balance of career and the rest of life.
• The best professional musicians can read anything you put in front of them.
• The best professional musicians can play anything you ask them to play.
• The best professional musicians have a desire to see others grow in their own musicianship.
• The best professional musicians embody a servant-minded attitude towards their role in music.
• The best professional musicians are humble about their gifts and talents and strive to leave every bridge unburned

On this week’s show, we talk part 2 of Surviving a Cover band.  Show notes after the break!

Show Notes

We’re finally back to kick off Season 7!  Today’s topic: Surviving in a Cover Band (Part 1).  Check out below the break for show notes!

Drummer Talk U

Groove Theory (learn grooves and styles)
MasterClass (Transcriptions)
Practice Room (learn skills and techniques)
DTU Library (articles by DTU)
Monthly fee $2.00, Annual $20.00 – The Unavailing May 1st

Topic:

Music Radar’s Monster Drum Solo’s part 2 (10-1)

NEWS

• RIP Joe Morello, here is a transcription of his Take Five solo.  Here is Take Five on iTunes
• Drum Channel offer 1.99 monthly charge – but online rentals are not included
• Phil Collins Says sorry and QUITS
• Drum Magazine annual voting for the “drummies” is now open
• Stylus Mag’s top 50 Rock Drummers
• iDrumMag.com is a new online drumming magazine that is free
• Napster Founder wants to buy out Warner Brothers including Metallica
• Tommy Lee in SyFy Travel Show
• Tommy Igoe switches from DW to Yamaha

TOPIC

Music Radar top 20 solos (20-11) next week (10-1)

Direct Download

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Today we talk all about drumline and things you need to get started in drumline/corps style playing. Also, Paul Skidmore joins us in house and talks about being a drumline instructor. Show Notes

     From what I can tell this Video is designed to give the viewer some of the tools he used during his tenure with SRV (Stevie Ray Vaughan) & the DTB (Double Trouble Band). The thing is… if he was successful then he didn’t do much in the band. Now I’m not knocking him as a musician, I’m saying that as a teacher he’s quite a minimalist. This is an hour long DVD and there is a grand total of 18 instructional examples in the whole thing. In most other DVDs of the same length they managed to get in more than two or three times the amount of teaching he did in this DVD. The other thing is that the teaching he did do wasn’t that enlightening. It was very simple stuff that most people could master with very little effort. If you’re going to teach complex stuff it’s ok to cut back on the number of subjects you cover. But if what you’re covering is basic and easily grasped… you better put in a LOT more then just 18 instructional examples.

Breakdown.

     Content-wise it’s really really diluted. He mostly talks about a few different ways to shuffle, and places to accent the beat. He even does a cool shuffle/march thing that’s all on the snare drum but then it’s pretty much over. He does a gear talk that doubles as a “this is how you can get your kit to sound like mine” tutorial, and he jams with video producer Arlen Roth and his buddy Tommy Shannon (the other half of double trouble.)

     In terms of presentation it comes off as very unplanned and almost like instruction wasn’t the goal. It honestly felt more like a SRV tribute then an instructional video. The only times Chris showed any real passion was when he was talking about SRV. The rest of the time he’s kinda meandering through something that resembles a drum lesson but he seems totally out of place. There were a bunch of musical performances but honestly all they did was to cover for the fact that Chris had very little to say. This says more about the director and producer of the films then it does Chris because I’m sure he had more to teach then this. It’s their job to give him direction and coax the knowledge from him… they failed

     For extras they have slow motion exercises, artist biography, selected discography, and suggested listening. That isn’t horrible when you consider the age of this thing but it’s nothing special.

     All in all this one is skippable. I wouldn’t bother, you’ll learn a lot more by listening to some SRV records.
As you can tell my no-mic scoring experiment is still in effect so tell me what you think about that in the comments section.

Later Days

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TStutMsLX2s[/youtube]

Here’s some cool facts from its Wikipedia entry:

Ionisation (1929 – 1931) is a musical composition by Edgard Varèse written for thirteen percussionists, the first concert hall composition for percussion ensemble alone. The premiere was at Steinway Hall, on March 6, 1933, conducted by Nicolas Slonimsky, to whom the piece was later dedicated. One critic described the performance as “a sock in the jaw.”

The instrumentarium is the following: 3 bass drums, 2 Side drums, 2 Snare drums, tarole, 2 bongos, tambourine, tambour militaire, crash cymbal, suspended cymbals, 3 tam-tams, gong, 2 anvils, 2 triangles, sleigh bells, chimes, celesta, piano, Chinese blocks, claves, maracas, castanets, whip (instrument), guiro, high & low sirens, and a lion’s roar.

Ionisation features the expansion and variation of rhythmic cells, and the title refers to the ionization of molecules. As the composer later described, “I was not influenced by composers as much as by natural objects and physical phenomena.” (Schuller 1965, p.34) Varèse also acknowledged the influence of the Italian Futurist artists Luigi Russolo and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in the composition of this work.

Source: ModernDrummer.com

The great Louie Bellson was recently hospitalized a few months back while recovering from a hip-breaking fall. However, he has been enormously encouraged and thankful by the greeting cards and well wishes.

Mr. Bellson has now transferred to a Rehabilitation Facility in L.A. where he resumes a rigorous regimen of physical therapy. You can lift Louie’s spirits during his accident recovery by going to his website www.louiebellson.net and write a letter into the GUESTBOOK. MD wishes him a quick and healthy recovery.

Looks like Billy’s set up a “Pay For It What You Will” system a la Radiohead.They’re available for free but you can pay for them if you want. Billy’s a great guy. Go ahead and support him. Links to the downloads as well as Billy’s thoughts from his site are available after the jump.

Source: Billyward.com

Rehearsal Tapes

Videos

When I released my first CD, Two Hands Clapping an album of live duets, I wanted to “sell it” on the internet and have people pay what they think it is worth to them. Well, all my friends talked me out of it! But now that Radiohead has paved the way (in more ways than one!) by selling their music and letting the purchaser decide what it is worth to them, I feel excited about this offering (AND check out the video download as well of the band playing the next night in New York City). You can purchase this now and download it. YOU set the price of what it is worth to you. If it turns out that it was worth more than you think it was, I hope you take care of the musicians next time. You won’t hear music played well in this world if the musicians cannot afford to play it.

The Billy Ward trio consists of myself, Barry Coates (guitar and composer) and Bill Urmson (bass). I have played with these guys on and off for almost twenty years.

We rehearsed in advance of our ’08 Modern Drum Festival at my upstate New York house beginning on the previous Sunday. By Tuesday, we were starting to get bored (and we hardly played anyway & just a couple-a-hours, then we were cooking food and having relaxed fun together). So on Tuesday Barry brought out a few new songs. Three of them can be heard here on the following day, Wednesday. Our noses were in the charts as we were playing these three songs for only the second time. They are songs 2 (Holy Moley), 3 (Low-Life brothers) and 4 (Lower Forty).

This recording was made with two Shure KSM141 mics into a Chandler TG2 stereo mic pre. That’s it. We intended this to be only for our own study, but we believe that particular day’s music turned out the best of the entire week. So we hope to share it with you!

My drum kit is a 14×18 X-shell DW. Floor tom is 13×13 X-shell DW. Rack tom is 7×10 VLT-shell DW, and finally, the snare is a 5×12 DW Jazz Series snare. The kit is finished in Champagne Glass. This is the kit that I would take to a local gig (discussed here, on the board). Those two mics are a good 6 feet from the drums and there is still low frequencies hitting the mics. Also, the room is all wooden floored with bare walls, save for artwork — so it is not a room designed to sound good. (I just want to acknowledge that sometimes the music can overtake obstacles)

I apologize for not having any “band arguments” on tape. They are not there because we don’t do that. These are mature musicians who I believe to be very good at what they do. I am very proud of this Trio and hope it helps your own playing as yet another follow-up of my latest DVD, Voices In My Head.

The mix places the drums quite a bit out front — what the heck, I guess the room allowed me to be louder than those guys…but this means you can hear everything I am playing. Feel free to follow through with your questions and comments on my discussion forum contained in this website.

thanks and Enjoy!
-Billy

Source: Harmony-Central.com

With Its Focus On The Drums And History Of Iraq, The Roots Of Rhythm: Special Edition Adds An Important Chapter To The Classroom Study Of World Drumming. The Percussion Marketing Council is proud to announce an exciting, new addition to its groundbreaking Roots of Rhythm world drumming classroom education program: Roots of Rhythm: Special Edition. This extraordinary, sixteenth Roots of Rhythm chapter features the daf from Iraq and was inspired by a peace-building mission to the war-weary Kurdish region of northern Iraq undertaken in the Fall of 2008 by world-renowned music therapist and drum circle facilitator Christine Stevens and Roots of Rhythm author and ethnomusicologist Dr. Craig Woodson.

“I was originally asked to bring drum circles to northeastern Kurdistan by an American conflict mediation specialist working in Iraq,” says Stevens. “During the trip we learned about the important role that drumming plays in that part of the world. One of the drums we discovered in Iraq, the daf, is a frame drum that has been used throughout the region for centuries in religious practices and spiritual ceremonies. Through our efforts, the daf became an instrument of peace.”

“By establishing a connection between playing drums and building peace, we learned that the drum can be used for physical and psychological rehabilitation as well as a tool to reduce the tensions and barriers between people of different cultural, religious, social, territorial and ethnic backgrounds. It is amazing that something as simple as a drum can have such far-reaching, life-changing results—not just in the Middle East but in the U.S. and around the world.”

Dr. Woodson adds, “The part of the world we visited is an ancient land inhabited by an ancient people where, despite a long history of oppression and devastation, their traditions and passion for drumming have survived throughout the centuries. Considering the importance of this area in the world today, and the historic importance of this drum, the Special Edition adds a new element of relevance to the Roots of Rhythm curriculum. By studying this lesson students and teachers will gain a better appreciation of Iraq, its people and its drumming.”

Along with the countries and customs of this rich and relevant Middle East region, the daf lesson can also be used in the classroom to teach the theoretical and practical application of conflict mediation and peace-building. The Special Edition includes references to the concepts of teamwork, cooperation, discipline, collaboration, consideration of others (aka “the golden rule”), community service and the importance of individual contributions towards a common goal throughout its pages.

The bonus chapter features general information on the geography, history and culture of both Kurdistan and Iraq as well as descriptions and examples of their drums, music and rhythms. Also included is a discussion of the daf’s development and influence on other cultures plus authentic and play-along musical examples, a recommended reading list, a student activity sheet and a tutorial on classroom instrument making.

Roots of Rhythm: Special Edition is intended to be used in conjunction with Roots of Rhythm, the popular interdisciplinary music and academics curriculum that integrates world drumming with core academic subjects in upper elementary school classrooms. The Special Edition chapter, resources and audio and video examples, along with complete Roots of Rhythm content and support material, can be found at online.

This week we talk about working with live sound guys .. gals .. humans.  Sound people.  John Bonham is the drummer of the week, the Inverted Flam Tap is the rudiment of the week, and we review the Lenny White signature stick by Vic Firth.  Show Notes

Source: AllAboutJazz.com

AAJ: Are you still planning a documentary on the history of fusion in jazz?

LW: Yes, that is my intention. I’m compiling interviews, viewpoints, footage. I want to start with Miles and Bitches Brew and go from there.

AAJ: Any plans after the RTF tour?

LW: I plan on recording a new project of my own to be released maybe next year or sooner depending on whether I can finish it in time. I also have a few pop projects I’d like to try to get out. I’m renovating my laboratory so that’s going to take some time. And I’m just going to take some time to breathe…

AAJ: Any words of advice for other innovative artists compelled to search new forms and ideas?

LW: Like the Nike ad…Just Do It.

Click here to read the full interview …