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Joe Morello’s Left Hand

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Joe Morello’s Left Hand

June 15, 2010 by brhythm 2 Comments

In another installment of “Bill’s Youtube Videos He Watches Over and Over,” I bring you Joe Morello:

Joe was Dave Brubeck’s drummer for years and years. Here, Joe takes solo in the Brubeck classic “Take Five.” The original recording is fantastic; one might even say monumental. Like Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue,” Brubeck’s “Time Out” album is a Jazz album for people who aren’t into Jazz. You don’t have to be to dig this album. Anyway, here Joe offers a different solo than the original recording. Dig the one handed roll at about one minute in. Joe is a big proponent of what’s called the “Moeller Technique,” a way of snapping the drumstick and using the stick’s natural rebound to turn your arm into an engine, cranking out hit after hit after hit. Here Joe shows his tremendous finger technique, coupled with Moeller, to give us those super tasty one handed yummies. For non-drummers, it probably doesn’t look like much. No flash flailing, no rolling around tons of toms for days and days. But for those of us who know what he’s doing, well, we can tell you that little one handed drum roll is crazy hard to pull of.

Posted in: Uncategorized, Weekend Wrap Up Tagged: drums and drumming, music

Friday Fill In #176

May 14, 2010 by brhythm 7 Comments

1. I just had a boston kreme donut.
2. Most people don’t know where Kenduskeag is.
3. The third sentence on the 7th page of the book I’m reading: is not available to me right now. (I’m reading the Bible. I do it quite frequently. I start at the front, and read straight through. I’m in Hebrews currently. I hope to finish up this weekend. Page seven would be in Genesis. My guess is it would be something about the flood. Maybe I’ll check later and see how close I came!)
4. Susan tickles my fancy.
5. I was walking down a one way street, just a lookin’ for someone to meet, for a woman who was lookin’ for a man. (Used with permission of Huey Lewis.)
6. Sometimes I can’t believe what comes out of some politicians’ mouths; it almost makes me laugh!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to night one of a two night gig in Kennduskeag, tomorrow my plans include night two of a two night gig in Kennduskeag and Sunday, I want to be helpful to my wife, but I might be too tired!

Posted in: Friday Fill-Ins Tagged: kids, Memes, music, Susan

Groove and the Gadd

March 11, 2010 by brhythm 2 Comments

I was surfing around youtube yesterday at lunch, looking for something to listen to on my lunchbreak. (I frequently use youtube to listen to music–caring not a fiddle for the video portion.) I found this clip of Steve Gadd, Vinnie Coliuta, and Dave Weckl.

Dave Weckl takes the first solo, and opens with those tasty cymbal flourishes. Dave is mostly known as a smooth Jazz/fusion player for the likes of people like Chick Corea. I don’t particularly care for that style of player, but I can tell you Mr. Weckl is a monster player with monster chops. No doubt you can see that here.

Vinny Coliuta. The man does it all. Zappa. Sting. Jeff Beck. ’nuff said? The guy is a freak. He’s got more chops than a meat market. Heck, watch that one handed snare roll with his left hand while is right hand goes all bombastic on the toms.

Gadd is, technically–in my opinion–out of his league here. Steve Gadd is a killer player, no doubt. He outplays me with one hand. He’s got a gazillion records in which his tasty studio studies come to the fore. That great groove from Paul Simon’s “Late in the Evening“? Gadd playing the mozambique with four sticks. How about “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” with that interesting diddling between hihat and snare? Gadd. What about that laid back off beat fill from “Chuck E’s in Love“? (See 1:56 in that last video.) How about Steely Dan’s “Aja,” and all those drum fills? Gadd on the first take! C’mon! But the thing is, technically, they’re not all that hard. It’s the groove that makes them so good!

Back to our clip. 2:45, Gadd comes in. And what does he do? He reaches back to his drum corps days, and pulls our a frickin’ marching cadence so yummy you wanna get up and dance. Man, I LOVE that. I’ll take groove over chops any day of the week. And for me, this clip nails that. Yes, Weckl and Vinny are all over it. They outplay Steve–from a technical standpoint–seven ways to Sunday. And yet it’s Gadd’s portion of the solo I’ve been listening to over and over for the past two days.

Gimme groove! I like it more better.

Posted in: Uncategorized Tagged: drums and drumming, music

Ed Thigpen

January 16, 2010 by brhythm Leave a Comment

Drummer, brush master, and member of the famous Oscar Peterson trio (with Oscar and bassist Ray Brown) is dead. Ed was a true brush master, and the one all the current brush masters (Will Clayton, Jeff Hamilton, Steve Smith, etc.) try to emulate. The Oscar Peterson album “Night Train” is an album I like to call “two sides of taste.” Not a bad cut on the album. It’s one I listen to over and over–not because it’s filled with flash and fireworks, but because it’s filled with great music. You can hear a copy of the title cut here.

Posted in: Uncategorized Tagged: drums and drumming, music

The FAMOUS drummer

December 20, 2009 by brhythm 1 Comment

I was on break last night, having finished set #1 at The Black Bull. Old high school chums Jim Mooney, Maura Manning, and Leslie Tax were there. Maura lives in Australia now, and Leslie lives in New Mexico. (Or was it Arizona?) Jim is in Hallowell–not too far away. Anyway, I was going to sit down with them, when this guy who had been enjoying the music came over to me.

“Is that a Pearl kick drum?” he asked?
“It is,” I said.
“I’ve been looking for a small kick drum. I thought the mounting hardware looked like Pearl, but I didn’t recognize the line.”
“Well, it was a floor tom that I put on its side. I then put the bass hardware on there, and recovered it it pink sparkle.”
“Oh! So it’s been heavily modified?”
“Yeah, it has” I said.
“And what kind of snare is that?” he asked.
“It’s a Pearl too,” I said.
“What line is it?” he asked.
“It’s a Pearl Sensitone Classic. It’s bronze.”
“I like metal snares,” he said. “I have this cheap $80 Tama snare now, but it sounds so good!”
“I like metal snares too,” I said. “That particular snare is my “desert island” snare. It’s sounds good in so many rooms, and it’s so versatile.”
“Well, it sounds really good.”
“Thanks,” I said. And he was right. I had it dialed in, and it was sounding particularly good.
“I had this friend let me try one of his snares,” he told me. “It was a Dunnett. It was cast iron. It sounded really good, but it was soooo heavy.”
“I’m Bill, by the way.”
“I’m Jon. Nice to meet you.”
“Are you from the area?” I asked.
“I live in Lincolnville, but I’ve only been here about five years. I haven’t been playing out too much. I’m still trying to meet musicians.”

At the end of the night, bass player Glen asked me about what the guy said, and whether he said anything about the sound of my drums. I said he did. He said “He hasn’t been playing much.” I said “Jon? You know him?” Glen said:

“That guy is the drummer for Phish.”

!!!!!

I knew Jon Fishman was living in the area. One of my former students, Ian, is a HUGE Phish fan, and went to Jon’s place one day to jam. But I didn’t put two and two together. I just figured Jon, the drummer from Lincolnville, and didn’t even consider “Wait, Phish’s drummer is named Jon and lives in Lincolnville too!” And the cool thing was, he didn’t mention it either. He could’ve said “Oh, I’m the drummer for Phish. I’ve sold a gazillion albums. Maybe you’ve heard of me?” Nope. All low key.

And, he didn’t look anything like he did in his interview with Modern Drummer. He looked like regular ol’ Lincolnville local guy.

Posted in: Uncategorized Tagged: drums and drumming, music

Dreaming of Pastor Dave’s Gig

November 26, 2009 by brhythm Leave a Comment

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I had a strange dream last night that I wanted to get down.

Jim Thompson and I were hanging out in the old Rockland bowling alley. It was totally different on the inside, though. It had been redone as a family fun center. It was bright white inside. There was a cafe that featured live music. There were lots of video games. There were only two bowling lanes, and they weren’t open.

In my dream it was 6:30pm. It was still light outside, so it must’ve been late summer. Jim and I were sitting at a table, enjoying some kind of spritzer drink. Pastor Dave and Josey came through the door. Pastor Dave was carrying a guitar case and one of those singer/songwriter amps. I didn’t know he was going to be there. I got up, and walked over to him, and said “Are you playing a gig here tonight? I didn’t realize that!” He said, rather shortly, “No.” He then went up on stage, set his gear down, and started setting up. His reaction wasn’t typical Pastor Dave. I could tell something was bothering him. I didn’t want to bother him more by talking to him while he was setting up, so I went and sat back down.

When he was done setting his gear up, he came and sat down with Jim and me. He wasn’t playing the gig; he was acting as a roadie for a visiting folk musician. He was renting his gear to that person.  I said something to the effect of “It’s nice to see you. I didn’t have any plans for tonight, so Jim and I came here to see the music.” Pastor Dave replied, “The ladies and I prayed for you tonight.” That’s when it hit me: I was supposed to be at a church prayer service at 6pm!

“I’m sorry, Pastor Dave! I forgot all about it! Honest, I did. You just heard me say I didn’t have any plans… I wouldn’t lie to you. I just forgot all about it.”

“It wasn’t very well attended,” Pastor Dave said. “It was just me and a couple of the older women.” I felt really bad. As a deacon, it’s my responsibility to be at services, to be ready to serve, and to be faithful. I felt like a heel. Pastor Dave got up, and went to the stage. I followed him.

When I got on stage, I could see off in the stage right wings a big envelope. It was one of those kind of plastic-y Priority Mail envelopes. I noticed it was my writing on the envelope. It was addressed to Steve Waterman’s mom! Apparently, the church had collected a bunch of cards for her when she was in the hospital. She had been moved to a long-term care center, and the hospital had returned it to sender. They had thoughtfully included the name and address of the facility where she was now. I fumed a little bit that the Post Office wouldn’t just deliver it to the now corrected address. But you know the Post Office: they want their postage times two! I looked at the date on the envelope. It was March! The envelope was about six months old!

The owner of the club noticed that I was looking at the envelope. He said to me “For some reason, the Post Office returned that here. Since you’re a musician, I figured you’d be playing in here sooner or later, and I’d just give it to you when you played a gig here. I kept forgetting to give it to you.”

Then I woke up.

Posted in: Crazy Dreams Tagged: Chrisitanity, music

Weekend Wrap-Up

September 28, 2009 by brhythm Leave a Comment

Friday. Left the office. Proceeded almost immediately to my gig in Bangor at The Whig and Courier.  We had a typical gig there. It’s a hard room to play in. The stage is small, and in one room. The bar is at the opposite side of the building in another room. So what ends up happening is the patrons sit in the other room, and listen through the opening. The downside is you, as a performer, can’t “feed” of their energy. Yes, they would clap and hoot at the end of songs, but it’s not the same. On the plus side, the people who run the place are very nice, and the food is really good. I stopped at Tim Horton’s on the way home for a sour cream donut and a milk. I think I was home about 2am. Susan was still up, and she was glad when I returned home.

Saturday AM, and Susan got up with the kids. Anyone who reads here knows I love my wife very much. She’s not a morning person, though. So usually I get up with the boys, even on those morning where I have a gig the night before. Saturday, though, Susan got up with them and let me sleep. And sleep I did! I think I slept until almost 10am! I can’t remember the last time I slept so late.  When I woke, Susan had made baked cinnamon donuts and coffee. They were really quite good. There was a work crew at the church in the morning putting in new carpet tiles at the church. I called down there to see if they needed more help. (I figured they would.) They said no, they had enough people, and were about 1/2 way done. I wasn’t needed. I hadn’t planned on that, so I really didn’t know what to do with myself. I ended up taking Julia for lunch, and running a few errands. I think most of the afternoon was spent in the kitchen. I cleaned the floors and washed dishes. I made a creme caramel for supper’s dessert. Supper was a turkey risotto that Susan made. I got an interesting phone call from Dave Clarke just before I left for my gig. It seems he was playing a gig in Rockport, and his drummer forgot his snare drum. He was wondering if he could perhaps borrow one from me. I told him I’d see if I could scrounge one up!

My gig Saturday night went very well. We played at The Myrtle Street Tavern here in town. It’s been around for years; you may know it as The Oasis, The Myrtle House, O’Brann’s, The Ale Yard, or who knows what other names it has been. Supposedly, back in the day, you could “rent” a room upstairs if you needed someplace to, well, take a new found “girlfriend” that could be located at the bar. That doesn’t happen there anymore, but the place is still what you might call a “road house.” Beer, pool tables and darts, and some clientele that wouldn’t mind “taking it outside” if need be. But the crowd really liked the music. The place isn’t that big on the inside, and it was pretty well packed. People danced all night long. This gig was originally conceived as a  jam session, but only about 1/2 a dozen other musicians showed up. So Blind Albert (the house band) finished up the show with about two hours of rock and blues. It was easy to feed off the energy of this crowd. They were having a good time. And, no fights, no falling down drunks. I got home around 1am, and once again, Susan was still up. It’s nice to feel wanted like that! (Not that I want you staying up late after every gig Susan! You need your sleep!)

Sunday morning came, and I got up first this time. We fired up the new eggamuffin toaster for its inaugural run. (Eggamuffin is what my late friend Tim called any breakfast sandwich. It enabled him to talk about such without copyright infringement!) Then it was off to church! Pastor Dave had a very moving and powerful service! God was in the house! We had people at the altar seeking renewal, people asking for healing, and nary a dry eye anywhere. It was great to be there. After several weeks of schedule mess-ups, we were back to the regular routine of lunch at Mom’s house, and Susan made a good lasagna, and an ever better banana cake! Susan wanted to stay at Mom’s house for the afternoon, so she kept the kids with her, and I went home and fixed all the wallpaper where the stupid cat sharpened her claws on the wall. I fell asleep on the couch for 1/2 hour until the phone rang. Then I watched some show on Discovery on how to translate motorcycle gang tattoos. Then back to church for evening service, then home.

Posted in: Weekend Wrap Up Tagged: Chrisitanity, Memes, music, Susan

Friday Fill In #140

September 4, 2009 by brhythm 5 Comments

1. I feel sorta strange.

2. Tickling Nathaniel is always fun.

3. Right now, I can hear these things: an air conditioner. (And, I can only hear it out of my right ear. I’m having a left ear problem right now.)

4. I don’t have a gig on Saturday night, and I’m glad having that time off will let me got to a Sea Dogs game.

5. The last time I had a physical was 2005.

6. It looks like I’m covering the office phones this Labor day weekend.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to gigging with Blind Albert at the Black Bull, tomorrow my plans include a breakfast alone with Susan, and Sunday, I want to start my new Sunday School class: The Faith Cafe!

Posted in: Friday Fill-Ins Tagged: Chrisitanity, Memes, music, Susan

Playing Catch Up

June 2, 2009 by brhythm Leave a Comment

Hey gang! Here’s hoping you’re all well. The southern office of Midcoast Internet Solutions (my employer) moved from Newcastle to Nobleboro last Thursday and Friday. I wasn’t in my office those two days. I’ve spent the last two days trying to dig out, but without much success. You may have noticed the Friday Fill In and the MI-5 didn’t make it up this week. I was just too busy. Here’s hoping I can pull this thing up before too much longer. I’ve got a busy weekend, and then next weekend I’m traveling to Michigan for Jim’s wedding.

And so, right now, I’ve got CSN&Y on the Thorens. I made one little tweak and really opened the sound up. It’s sounds dang good! Finally, something working right today!

Posted in: Uncategorized Tagged: music

The Bobs

May 16, 2009 by brhythm Leave a Comment

I was listening to the comdey station on the XM while I was in the shower this morning, and heard this song called “The Tight Pants Tango.” I thought it was a riot. When I got out of the shower, I hopped online to find out about the group. The Bobs are an a capella comdey music group. Consider combining Bobby McFerin, The Manhattan Transfer, and Wierd Al. Ta-da! The lyrics of The Tight Pants Tango are about trying to answer your cell phone while wearing skin tight pants. I really like their promo video too. If it sounds like something you might like, do check them out.

Posted in: Uncategorized Tagged: music
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