Modern Drummer Weekend

Modern Drummer Weekend
12/11/2006 9:37:03 PM

MD Weekend - September 16, 2006

For the second year in a row I decided to treat myself to the Modern Drummer festival; a weekend event in a beautiful theater in Newark, New Jersey, of all places. The program features about six different demonstrations or performances on each day. Since he’s trying to take drumming seriously, I decided to bring my son, Jamie, with me. The program starts at 1:00 on both days, so we drove up on Saturday morning. Like last year, the performances were simply incredible. So much so, that I walked away thoroughly depressed, wondering ‘what the hell am I doing.’ Coming two weeks after I’d vainly tried to keep up with my ‘ol drumming buddy Dan Van Schindel at the Neighborhood Picnic, I became so disenchanted with my abilities I’ve only just now picked up the sticks again – if just to entertain myself.

Anyway, the show. One of the great features of the program is the wide variety of styles. One of the first acts was four tremendous ‘gospel’ drummers; who also play funk, R&B and pop music. Teddy Campbell, Gerald Heyward, Aaron Spears and Marvin McQuitty played together to start out – each did a solo demonstration – and then played together again.

Jason McGerr did a performance that began simply with a snare drum and while he built on his theme, his drum tech ‘built’ a kit around him. Though he plays with Death Cab for Cutie, he is renowned as a teacher. And that became clear when he explained his approach with students. He gave an insightful little lesson on flam combinations.

One of the more unique performances was by Glenn Kotche who plays with Wilco (a Chicago band!) He played a bizarre kit with peeled cymbals, guitar strings pulled through bolts anchored IN his snare, a series of bells and even cricket sounds. This accompanied an animated movie about an Indian king who sought the return of his kidnapped daughter with a monkey army. VERY avant garde and bizarre – but very imaginative.

Another performance I really looked forward to was with Thomas Lang, who was teaming up with Luis Conte one of the world’s best latin percussionists. Lang is considered one of the best in technique. And just blistering fast and powerful. A tour de force! It would seem an odd combination, but it turns out they’re neighbors in LA and had become friends. Their session was a creative combination and really marked two true professional talents – they’d actually never played together or rehearsed any of the session.

The final performance of the day was by Stewart Copeland, former drummer with The Police. His new band was very good, though after seeing the knockout technique throughout the day, didn’t seem like anything special. And since Jamie and I were wiped out, we left early to check into our hotel.

On Sunday…….

The first act of the day was Dave DiCenso and he was tremendous. Probably my favorite revelation of the weekend. He played to tracks and combined great technique with a really creative style. I’d run into a salesman from the DrumPad in Palatine before the performance and he had great things to say about this guy.

Brann Dailor who plays with Mastadon was next. The heavy metal representative. After seeing some of the other wonderful technique, this was pretty disappointing. Good in his own right – but nothing special. And he confirmed that by talking about how he never took lessons and doesn’t really practice in any disciplined way. I wasn’t going to say anything, but Jamie, in fact, whispered, ‘well, I guess he’s good in what he does.’

A really interesting – and amusing – session was with Mike Mangini. He’s holds records as ‘the world’s fastest drummer’ with something like 900 bpm. He had two kits set up – right and left-handed. A teacher at Berklee in Boston, he gave some great instruction on playing in different styles. He was also obviously gay, very chatty and entertaining. (Mentioned he grew up listening to the band Boston, now he gets to play with them “and look at their butts all night!”). He demonstrated some of his incredible speed – and jaws dropped – and then ended his session playing on the left hand kit to several classic Led Zeppelin tunes --- with every Bonham nuance just perfect.

Without a doubt the last two sessions were the best. The first was Danny Seraphine, former drummer with Chicago. His new band is CTA (California Transit Authority) and they completely rocked the house. With a singer from Tower of Power and a stellar guitar player they did some Chicago tunes (25 or 6 to 4) and a couple interesting originals. Go to CTAtheband for a listen. Jamie was even up from his seat cheering. Most of the audience was aware of the story behind Danny. Dropped by Chicago because of some controversial and bitter differences, he’d stopped playing for 15 years. He was finally coaxed back into drumming by Steve Smith, who he worked with privately to get his chops back. (Those would have been some great sessions to listen to!) He thanked everyone for their faith and support. It was very moving.

And the last act was, in fact, Steve Smith, and a new group he has together called Jazz Legacy. They’re piano, two horns, bass and Steve. He is one of my favorite drummers and one of the most versatile and skilled out there. They played some classics (Two Bass Hit) and gave new meaning to ‘driving swing.’ Jamie even leaned over and said. ‘Dad, these guys are REALLY good!’ Yeah. I’m glad he had the opportunity to see some incredibly talented musicians in styles he’d never ordinarily listen to. But that didn’t stop him from yanking me out the door before it was over so we could beat the traffic heading back to Virginia. As it was, we didn’t get home until after midnight.

Can’t wait for the DVD to come out in February!