randissimo

WHY I OUGHTA!!

My suggestion is to go to a store with a fairly large inventory and test out pedals (and you should be sitting when testing the pedals. ) It works best if you can hook up the pedal you're checking out to a bass drum.

That stinks. I love how musicians are always suppose to make the gig, no matter what...sickness, ect. However, club owners can cancel the gig up until the point you've already loaded in. I picked up a nice payday and a pretty cool gig on New Year's Eve (w/Bob Stewart playing drums, remember him Jsngry) up in Ft. Worth. Other than about 3 dates I landed in Dec., my gig calender still bites and my sudden income drop isn't pretty. I haven't hit the pavement yet, and won't really get a good chance until after the holidays, so I'll be picking up all those sweet Jan./Feb. gigs (you know how great a time of year that is!) Because the gig scene is so unreliable, I do lessons 2 - 3 days a week.. It really at times, is a pain in the arse but definately takes the angst and worry out of those unpredictable periods of "gig droughts"... I charge $20. a half hour and most of my lessons are beginners with parents who make sure they show up every week and lessons are payed at the beginning of every calendar month..

That's f*ckin' brilliant!

It takes a good man who is capable of endless RODOMONTADES to know when it's time to let go. In short: CLASP !! DEEP WHY I OUGHTA!!!!

Space is the Place DVD This came out on DVD a few weeks ago. edited for spelling. Gotta have it!

Hey Lazaro, I've got 2 new tunes I'm sending out to my dad, who will be doing a live recording session at the Light House in Hermosa Beach, Ca. in February.. One is a cool minor blues in G I'm calling "Razzle Bazzle", The other is blues in F entitled, "Runnin' At The Mouth".. I had Paul Keller help me arrange them..

I wonder if the tenor on that session is the one my pops (Arno Marsh) is playing on now? Last year my father inherited a 1952 Selmer Mark VI, originally owned by Stan Getz, from a horn collector who, before passing away from a severe accident or illness, willed the horn to him. My dad says it's the best playin' horn he's ever had!

Last night I played a jazz club in Ann Arbor and used the house drums, basically a somewhat abused Pearl workhorse with most of the cymbal washers gone, on one of the cymbal stands the cymbal mount rod had stripped out and was loose, and the throw off mechanism on the snare drum had been doctored up with a hair tie back.. However, the kit sounded pretty nice. Though several of the tension rod claws were bending out from metal fatigue stress and barely holding tension and right at the edge of popping off the hoop, I especially liked the sound of that bass drum, which had a closed front head on it and a lovely tone which blended very well with the acoustic bass. Right now I have the typical 22' bass drum with a 10" cut out on the front head and a pillow in the drum.. For the funk and commercial gigs this works great.. However, for jazz I really like the open tone sound.. Ideally I would like to put a closed head on the front and baffle the drum somehow so I can get a short but rich tone from the bass drum that would be compatible with the funk & commercial gigs. I am interested in suggestions

Tim has also won the "Rock Star Lottery" .. If you didn't know, he's been touring with The Rolling Stones as their sax player! B)

Interesting you should mention Tim Ries. He is also from Michigan. I played with Tim back in 1984 at the Bird of Paradise in Ann Arbor.. He is in fact a good friend of Rick Margitza, and back in '86 they were both playin' their asses off with Maynard Ferguson's band..

I played a jazz club back in '76 in Munich, Germany called the Jazz Domicile. The club owner (Arnst was his name) got really drunk and came up onstage to sing some or some nonsense, tripped over the mic cord and fell backwards, trashing the face and bridge on a half size Czech bass, and took down almost my whole drumkit! It was the ugliest sounds I've ever heard!! Arnst was profusely apologetic after it happened and offered to pay for our rooms and any damaged incurred... The next day he didn't remember any of the night before and flatly refused to pay for anything! The bass player took the matter into some kind of International Court and I don't think he ever got re-imbursed for extensive repairs he had to have done....

That Yamaha Beech custom kit was great! I hardly even had to tweek the tuning on the heads which had many dents.. I look forward to the in ear system.. I'm pretty burned out on the wedge style monotors...

One of the biggest problems is dealing with sound techs who obviously are into metal bands and pop and think they have to mike the drums real close and they'll mix heavy on the subwoofers with almost no high end. So consequently, the listeners hear no high end in the mix and the bass drum ends up being the loudest component in the drum mix.. I asked this moron one time while he was setting up the mikes, "Aren't you going to mike the cymbals with overheads"? ,, He looked at me and belligerently just said " Why??"..

Wow! Red Prysock and Tiny Bradshaw! That must have been pretty funky... I have ear protection I try and remember to keep at all times in my stick bag.. I do a lot of quieter acoustic Jazz gigs but occasionally Organissimo plays lounges that attract a young Jam band type of crowd so we go into "funk mode," or I get one nighters with blues bands or backing pop singers and this means playing louder! "TAKE CARE OF YER GODDAM EARS!!! ..you only get one set and its really easy to screw them up". Thanks for your concern.. I'll be sure to be more mindful and try to keep better track of those ear protectors... I am also looking into the possibility of in ear monitors..

p.s. CHRISTIERN, PEEK-A-BOO we can see you. You just can't ignore my posts. See if B-3er might deputize you. Am I being politically correct on this thread (for which you should have absolutely *NO* interest whatsoever)...DUH!! Wingy, Let's keep this strictly a "Drummers Discussion Thread" You yourself said last night I should not be discussing music on the "Jazzmobile Wet Dream" thread.. Hence, the "Drummer's Corner"... R-R-L-R-L-L-R-L and then we'll flam the doubles!

CJ, Nice post! I loved the approach Tony Williams had in those early days with Jackie McLean and later Miles.. He went through a big transformation when he left Miles. He went from the small Gretsch kit tuned fairly high, with the dark K's & what I believe were probably rough coat ambassador heads, to the larger sizes with black dot heads and drums tuned much lower. Being one of the early pioneers of Fusion, he developed a different touch that had to compete with the electric instruments and amps.. I think this forever changed his touch from the lighter and dynamic touch he had in his early years. Even when he would go back and do acoustic jazz gigs his touch was more heavy handed. The first time I saw Tony was in 1975 when he was touring with Alan Holdsworth and the "Believe It" band. The last time I saw Tony was at Yoshi's in Oakland, Ca in 1988 and he had a 24 inch bass drum with 12 & 13 inch toms on top and 3 floor toms.. His cymbals were very bright, and he opened the set with his incredibly fast and smooth single strokes, morphing into a dramatic climax with Swiss Army Triplet combinations off the drums and cymbals... Though there are many many others old and new I love to listen to, I think Jack DeJohnette is for me, the most inspirational drummer of them all. He has an incredible sense of composition, creative phrasing, and a wide range of dynamics when he plays. I can relate to the loss of hearing. I have lost about 25 - 30 % in my left ear. I first noticed it back in 91 when I was laying on my right side with the window opened and could not hear the birds chattering outside. I think this effects the way I hear my cymbals as well as the choices I make when I pick out cymbals. Right now I'm using an 20" Istanbul Mel Lewis ride w/ a rivet, a 16" Paiste 602 flat ride, a 21" Larry London Sabian for rock gigs, a 16" Paiste signature fast crash, and 13" Newbeat Zildjians w/ a riveted bottom cymbal for the hihat.. My drums right now are Yamamaha Stage Custom with 10", 12", 13". and !6" x 16" tom sizes. The bass drum is a 14" x 22" and I often use the 16" x 16" in a frame mount as a bass drum..

I've known Rick since he was a kid around Detroit.. I've had a chance to play with him on a few occasions. The last time we played together back in March '97 I was driving from Ann Arbor to the gig with Rick in Grand Rapids in one of the worst ice storms of the decade! I made it somehow with only 15 minutes to set up for a gig that was being broadcast live on a local radio station.. I'm frantically trying to get my drums set up and poor Rick is trying to go over the charts and set list with me! After a couple of tunes, we all managed to get into the "groove zone" When the gig was over, I went out and found an inch of ice covering my entire car! Rick is a great player! --Randy

What you're doing sounds very interesting... It certainly does open up a different world of possibilities... Especially the opportunities of jammin' on the PC with people on the other side of the globe!..

Though I have fooled around with electronic drums I am pretty much an old fashioned advocate of the acoustic "trapset" or "drumkit" ..

I have some of my students playing the Swiss Army Triplet instead of the Flam Accent #1. I find they can get greater speed, and can more easily play brighter tempos.. I've heard Tony Williams play them in a number of combinations.. One I like is the right flam on floor tom & snare, 3rd stroke w/ bass drum & right hand on cymbal... I obviously like the Single Flam Mill also, and see it as the 1st cousin of the Swiss Army Triplet. After all, you're just adding one extra stoke... Swing a ding ding!

Ok.... Here it is.... A place where drummers or anybody interested in drumming can share concepts, questions, ideas, etc...

FUNNY YOU WOULD BRING THAT UP, RANDALL. That "SWISS TRIPLET" (actually it's the SWISS ARMY TRIPLET may have saved my life. It was 1965 and my draft number was coming up. My father owned a bar and the recruiting Sergeants were getting drunk in there on a daily basis. One of them knew I was gonna get called up and suggested I audition for the band. Now back in '65 the Swiss Army Rudiments were not that well known. I took a taped audition for the New York Army band and when it came time to play the the flam accent #2 I segued into that Swiss Army Triplet. I was accepted immediately into the New York Army Band, thus avoiding the infantry and probably Vietnam....and possibly DEATH!! Hmmmmmm.....I wonder how CHRISTIERN avoided military service? WINGY 'Sticking' with the subject of Rudiments (pun intended) ... I have some of my students playing the Swiss Army Triplet instead of the Flam Accent #1. I find they can get greater speed, and can more easily play brighter tempos.. I also find the Single Flam Mill to be much more efficient, can be played at greater speeds, and definately flows better than the archaic Single Flam Paradiddle. By turning the basic Paradiddle sticking around so It's R-R-L-R-L-L-R-L, this eliminates the problem of 3 strokes on each hand when the flams are applied .. I've got some cool exercises I've created in 16ths that apply accented combinations of Swiss Army Triplets & Single Flam Mills. I'm going to write some other variations in a 12/8 feel...

B, I'm with you but......."LET'S KEEP IT GREAZY" WING Yeah.... Let's talk about different ways one can improvise the "Swiss Triplet" or the "Single Flam Mill"...