Category — Drummers

A lot of rock drummers probably aren’t that familiar with Omar Hakim. Being a drummer and a drumming fan, I knew his name but I really hadn’t really been exposed to his work.

Recently, I took the opportunity to sit down and listen to a sampling of recording’s he’s played on. This guy is a monster talent and can’t really be pinned down to one genre. His work with Weather Report was nothing short of amazing. Although his playing in Weather Report relied heavily on jazz techniques he managed to attract the attention of Sting and Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler as fans, which would lead to future work with both.

His playing on David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” also stands out as being incredibly solid and continued to expose him to numerous other artists. In the 80’s when drum machines and drum programming just started to come into fashion, instead of feeling defeated Hakim went out and learned how to program drum machines and electronics, becoming extremely proficient. He was also one of the first drummers to heavily incorporate an electronic drum set roland built for him, and continues to do endorse Roland electronic drums to this day.

Omar Hakim’s page at Drummerworld.com also has a great qoute from the man himself…

“Sometimes, if people know you from rock, they think of you as a rock drummer and don’t expect you to play anything else. Or, if they know you in jazz, then they typecast you as a jazz drummer,” explains Hakim. “I was conscious of the fact that I didn’t want people to know me as a rock drummer or a jazz drummer, but as a total musician. So I always made sure I let people know that I was about music.”

Source.

Last week when I posted about Neil Peart, I failed to mention the upcoming release of Rush’s new live DVD. The “Snakes & Arrows” DVD is set for release on November 25th. The whole package includes three discs, also available as a Blu-Ray, and features a lengthy live set by the band, filmed over two nights in October 2007 at the Netherlands’ Ahoy Rotterdam Arena during the tour for the “Snakes & Arrows” album.

Besides featuring a whole disc of bonus material the DVD has different camera angles and other goodies, most notably this…

“Cameras follow bassist and vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart closely, capturing not only their playing note for note, but also the intimacy they share on stage.”

This is a great opportunity to get yet another chance to check out Neil Peart’s playing up close. Yes, of course his playing has been analyzed to death, but then again maybe not enough cause I haven’t seen anyone play the way he does yet.

Also, while I’ve seen a lot of footage of him playing live, I haven’t seen much footage of him since he has started to drum roland, with that huge V-Drum kit behind him.

Tracklisting is as follows, follow the source link for footage of “Far Cry”…

“Snakes & Arrows Live” DVD track listing:

Disc 1:

01. Limelight
02. Digital Man
03. Entre Nous
04. Mission
05. Freewill
06. The Main Monkey Business
07. The Larger Bowl
08. Secret Touch
09. Circumstances
10. Between the Wheels
11. Dreamline

Extras:

01. What’s That Smell (DVD Content)
02. 2007 Tour Outtakes
03. What’s That Smell Outtakes
04. Far Cry (Alternate cut featuring rear screen footage)
05. The Way the Wind Blows (Alternate cut featuring rear screen footage)
06. Red Sector A from the R30 Tour

Disc 2:

01. Far Cry
02. Workin’ Them Angels
03. Armor and Sword
04. Spindrift
05. The Way the Wind Blows
06. Subdivisions
07. Natural Science
08. Witch Hunt
09. Malignant Narcissism - De Slagwerker
10. Hope
11. Distant Early Warning
12. The Spirit of Radio
13. Tom Sawyer
Encore:
14. One Little Victory
15. A Passage to Bangkok
16. YYZ

Disc 3:

Oh, Atlanta - The Authorized Bootlegs

01. Ghost of a Chance
02. Red Barchetta
03. The Trees
04. 2112/The Temples of Syrinx

Source.

Zildjian, which in Armenian translates to ‘son of a cymbal maker,’ is the largest cymbal manufacturing company worldwide. The company recently announced ‘The Zildjian Drummers Achievement Awards’ to celebrated their 385th year anniversary. The awards will take place on Sunday 7 December 2008 at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire.

The Zildjian event, which will honor individuals who have made “extraordinary contributions to the art of drum set playing and to music” will be acknowledging Ginger Baker, former drummer of Cream and Blind Faith. The drumming legend will be joined by former Tony Allen as well as Cream bandmate, Jack Bruce. Many more drummers and special guests will be announced in the coming weeks.

Aside from Cream, Ginger Baker has worked with many notable artists, including Paul McCartney and Wings for Band On The Run and Hawkwind’s 1984 release This Is Hawkwind, Do Not Panic. Though I’m not a Wings fan, Band On The Run holds a special place in my heart and I wouldn’t be surprised if Baker’s drumming gave it some of the charm I am so drawn to. As for Hawkwind, the music speaks for itself (in it’s own language). I stumbled upon their live album Space Ritual after bringing home a 92-cent used Tom Petty record from Record Surplus in Los Angeles (best record store in the area). Within two seconds, I knew it was A) not Tom Petty and B) something I definitely needed to listen to regardless. So when I saw that Ginger Baker played with Hawkwind, it sort of felt like I had come full circle on discovering a decent band from the past.

Congratulations to Ginger Baker for awesome drumming and a successful career.

For more information on the award show, go to www.zildjian385.com
For tickets: www.shepherds-bush-empire.co.uk

In case you haven’t noticed I created a new page on this blog entitled “Halloween Costume Ideas.” I thought drummers/musicians would find this useful when brainstorming costume ideas this year. It’s pretty hard to come up with ideas that are centered around drumming or drummers.

On that page I gave an example for the ladies of dressing up like Meg White of The White Stripes. For guys though, another great example I thought of would be Tre Cool of Green Day. Now, I don’t expect you to lug around an entire set of Ludwig drums but a Tre Cool costume is relatively easy.

First of all, you’ll need to spike up your hair, if it’s not long enough you can choose from any number of Halloween wigs. Make sure they’re not too long though (you’re going for the look in the pic above). As far as clothes, any t-shirt will do but preferably a Green Day t-shirt, grab a pair of drumsticks and you’re ready to go. Since Green Day released “American Idiot” and that album was huge, a lot of younger kids will recognize this costume and besides the wig and drumsticks, there is little you have to spend money on.

Pretty much every drummer worth their salt knows who Neil Peart is, the drummer of Rush has topped musician polls for over 2 decades now. I’ve been into Neil Peart’s drumming and Rush for a while now, but recently I picked up a vinyl copy of their classic “Moving Pictures” album and it stands out even more to me now.

I don’t know if it’s because I have a really nice turntable and speakers, but his drumming and drum sound is pretty much perfect on this album, at least to my ears. Now, maybe a lot of other drummers out there are thinking “duh” but I’m a younger guy and didn’t have the chance to get into the album when it was first released (as I was one year away from being born).

I’ve heard almost every Rush release, and while they all have something unique to offer, I’d consider their best work to be either “Moving Pictures” or “2112″. It’s a hard decision to make, but I’m going to go out on a limb and put my vote in for “Moving Pictures” just because of the strength and hooks so many of the songs possess. I did some digging around online and found a great picture of the band in the studio from this era (above). If anyone reading this knows, around what era did Neil Peart start using roland drums? I know he is a roland drums endorser and used Simmons early on.

Recently Brian “Head” Welch, formerly the guitarist of hugely successful metal band Korn spoke to Fox News (of all places) about leaving Korn and his latest album. The album is entitled “Save Me From Myself” and features none other than studio-great Josh Freese as well as bassist Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, David Bowie).

Blabbermouth.com has a link to the Fox News interview with Head. And while his album is already out and has debuted on the Billboard Top 200, I still haven’t heard it. Even though I was never into Korn, I’m interested to hear it just for Josh Freese’s drumming. I admit that he does a lot of projects, but I’m also wanting to hear the interplay between him and Tony Levin. Also, Josh Freese has long been a DW Drums endorser and I’ve never been disappointed by the drum sounds he manages to get, of course he does have access to some of the best drum tech’s, mics and gear in the world.

I will do my best to check out the album and post my thoughts here.

Source.

Modern Drummer has a new feature on their website called “Drum Gods” where they re-print older interviews and basically do a profile of the chosen drummer(s). The first installment is on Dave Grohl, they re-visit the first interview they ever conducted with him in 1992. In it, he offers plenty of insightful tips and knowledge on drumming and the way he approaches it.

Some choice excerpts are…

“The drums have to propel everything.” That’s an important element. Whether the drums stand out to people or not isn’t what’s really important. That it sounds like a big bomb going off is.” He also believed that louder is usually better, often hitting two toms or two cymbals at once and focusing his energy on powerful playing with less notes. However, he also understands how to use dynamics and does so very effectively.

Regarding “Bass Drum Technique”

Grohl’s bass drum technique is all about optimum transfer of power: “I don’t put my heel down when I play my kick drum, I kind of pounce on it with the ball of my foot. That way I can hit harder and put more weight into it. Also, by sitting very low—I sit as low as possible—I can put a lot more weight into it because I’m pushing forward.”

These are great tips but I thought the most profound excerpt was this…

Dave believes it’s very important for drummers to think like songwriters, “Composition and songwriting should be just as important to a drummer as they are to a singer,” he went on. “There are hooks in songwriting, those moments that catch you and stick in your brain. Drumming should be the same way.”

Overall a very insightful read. I’ve always been a huge fan of Dave Grohl as you can probably tell by this site, but I’ve never seen this interview before. Also, it doesn’t mention anything about the specifics of his kit at the time, but I know he was a Tama drums and Zildjian Cymbals endorsee and that his Nirvana-era kits were an Artstar Customs.

Source.

Oasis have announced a chunk of arena shows in major US cities for most of December. After a crazy fan attacked Noel Gallagher in Toronto, earlier this month, the band canceled a number of shows.

The tour also sports opener Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, who will play through the whole tour which starts in Oakland, CA on December 3rd and ends on December 20th in Fairfax, VA.

Although Oasis hasn’t really had too high of a profile in America since the mid 90’s, the band has remained huge in it’s native UK. A lot of news surrounding Noel Gallagher has brought them into the press more, and may even be helping to promote their new album. Also, while nothing complicated is ever played on their records drum-wise, Zak-Starkey (Ringo Starr’s son) can teach you a thing or two about playing for the song. He also has really nice custom DW Drums with a custom British flag paint job.

Oasis Tour Dates:

12/3, Oakland, CA (Oracle Arena)
12/4, Los Angeles, CA (Staples Center)
12/6, Las Vegas, NV (The Pearl)
12/8, Denver, CO (Broomfield Events Center)
12/10, Minneapolis, MN (Target Center)
12/12, Chicago, IL (Allstate Arena)
12/13, Detroit, MI (Palace of Auburn Hills)
12/15, London, Ontario (John LaBatt Centre)
12/17, New York, NY (Madison Square Garden)
12/19, Camden, NJ (Susquehanna Center)
12/20, Washington, DC (GMU Patriot Center)

Source.

Mogwai has cancelled the rest of their North American tour dates after drummer Martin Bulloch’s pacemaker broke last Sunday following their final song at the All Tomorrows Parties Festival in New York. After a trip to the emergency room, Bulloch decided he must return home to Scotland immediately to see his cardiologist. Dates that have been cancelled include shows in Boston, Montreal, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Pontiac, MI (where?! yes, I am from California…). Those east of the Atlantic will not be affected by this news, as Mogwai plans to keep their dates in Europe and Japan beginning in October.

Remaining Tour Dates:
10-21 Edinburgh, Scotland - Corn Exchange
10-23 Manchester, England - Academy
10-24 London, England - Hammersmith Apollo
10-27 Luxembourg, Luxembourg - Rockhal
10-28 Paris, France - Casino de Paris
10-29 Cologne, Germany - Live Music Hall
11-02 Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega
11-03 Lund, Sweden - Mejeriet
11-04 Stockholm, Sweden - Cirkus
11-06 Berlin, Germany - Huxleys
11-08 Hamburg, Germany - Grosse Freiheit
11-10 Frankfurt, Germany - Mousonturm
11-11 Dresden, Germany - Alter Schlachthof
11-12 Munich, Germany - Backstage-Werk
11-14 Vienna, Austria - Wuk
11-17 Fribourg, Switzerland - Fri Son
11-18 Zurich, Switzerland - Rote Fabrik

On Mogwai’s official site Bulloch tries to explain the situation to disappointed North American fans (like me):

“I’m really bummed about having to go home,” Bulloch wrote, “but I can honestly say it would be almost impossible for me to carry on at this point as my pacemaker has broken skin and the surrounding area has become infected.” Ok, ok Martin! We get the point, and we forgive you. Even though we have to wait until next year for you guys to come back to America. We hope you get better soon.

SABIAN has announced that it is an official sponsor for “The Big Beat,” an event which will be the “largest gathering of drummers ever assembled for a simultaneous drumming experience.” The company is collaborating with the Five-Star Drum Shops, an organization of 37 American independently owned drum stores, to put organize “The Big Beat,” which is set to take place on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2008 and will benefit The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation. SABIAN will contribute approximately $2,500 worth prizes to be raffled off, including drum related items and even artist support to each participating store.

According to the vice president of marketing at SABIAN, Stacey Montgomery-Clark, “It’s a privilege for SABIAN to be connected with ‘The Big Beat,’ this year. We relish opportunities like this in which we can support the percussion industry and in particular the drummer consumer and independent retailer.”

Their goal is to break the Guinness world record for the most drummers playing the same beat at one time and drummers of all skill-levels are encouraged to contact one of these seven participating drum stores:

• Just Drums - Toronto, Ontario, CA - justdrums.com
• Resurrection Drums - Hollywood, FL. - rezdrums.com
• Buffalo Drum Outlet - Depew, NY - buffalodrumoutlet.com
• Columbus Percussion - Columbus, OH - columbuspercussion.com
• Stebal Drums - Willowick, OH - stebaldrums.com
• Drum World - Tulsa, OK - drumdaytulsa.com
• Memphis Drum Shop - Memphis,TN - memphisdrumshop.com
• Percussion Center - Houston, TX - percussiononline.com
• Donn Bennett Drum Studio - Bellevue, WA - bennettdrums.com

What I wanna know is, why are there two in Ohio?!

For more information, check out their web site at www.sabian.com. And while you’re there, check out their report on the Modern Drummer Festival.