music

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.

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.

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.