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Singers who don’t Play

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I’ve noticed something. Singers who don’t “play” an instrument always seem unnatural during instrumental portions of songs. It always seems they don’t know what yo do with their hands. They tend to go over to some other musician, and feign like they’re playing some instrument. Here’s my idea: Pick up a cowbell, or tambourine, or maracas, or an autoharp, or something. It seems a shame to have a musician on stage who’s not actively making music at that moment. Or maybe, as a drummer (and drummers are always busy doing something), I’m just jealous.

Is It Scoot Time?

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I got the door to the garage open. The battery is installed, freshly charged. The stale gas was siphoned out, and fresh gas put in the tank. A few jumps on the kick start to get the oil circulated. A touch of the electric start. She fired right up! She’s warming up in the garage now! Will I get my first scoot of the season today?

Louie Bellson

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Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni, aka Louie Bellson, died on Saturday. Louie was the pioneer of the double bass drum set–something seen frequently among hard rock and heavy metal drummers today. Interestingly, other than Louie and Ed Shaugnessy, I can’t think of any other Jazzers who used two basses. Anyway, here’s to you, Louie.

Thank You Harvey!

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Props going out to my friend Harvey. He called me the other day and asked if I’d heard of the band Breakestra. He described them as “young kids playing James Brown grooves.” I said I hadn’t, and he told me I should check them out. He said they were listening to them on Pandora. I had heard of Pandora, but I never checked it out. It’s great! Free music, and so many artists I haven’t heard! So, while listening to the Breakestra station, I found this band called Poets of Rhythm–a German funk band! Can you believe it? So I downloaded some Breakestra and Poets of Rhythm from iTunes. See–free Internet radio results in music sales! Oh, and Pandora also has an app for the iPod Touch. So I downloaded that, too. So now, I can plug my Touch into my iPod alarm clock, run the Pandora app, and listen to Internet radio as I drift off to sleep. Cool! Thanks a lot, Harv!