Loss of a giant

I just learned of the passing of Jim Chapin, the man who wrote the book on coordinated independence. I have to say that his book is the seminal work on drumset indentendant coordination. I discovered it in the early '70's and begged my teacher to walk me through it. Surprisingly, I introduced a student to this wonderful text only yesterday! Mr. Chapin's book is one of the finest drum books ever published and he is one of the most inspirational figures in drumset music. He is a shining example that you don't have to be a recording or performing star to be a profound and moving force in music. I don't have a single recording of Jim Chapin playing, however his book is one of the single most memorable and influential works in my library!

Contradictions

You know, I was thinking about my favorites and I realized that I'm a mass of contradictions! Check it out:

My favorite composers are J. S. Bach and Frank Zappa.
My favorite painters are Francisco Goya and Max Beckmann.
My favorite writers are Stephen King and William Faulkner.
My favorite playwrites are William Shakespeare and David Mamet.
My favorite sculptors are Michellangelo and Claes Oldenberg.
My favorite film directors are Alfred Hitchcok and Quentin Tarentino.
My favorite drummers are Ringo Starr and Terry Bozzio.
My favorite printmakers are Albrecht Durer and . E. L. Kirchener
My favorite illustrators are Gustav Dore and Robert Crumb.

I'm sure I could continue but it's 1;30 AM. I'm tired, good night.

Stupid Cat

I like my last triptych so I started stretching canvases for another. My cat Fedora thinks that anything I'm working on is a good surface for resting her lazy butt. I cut the canvas, laid down the bars and stepped away. When I looked back she had her butt planted right in my work. Good kitty.

Oh of course I'm well aware that the phrase "stupid cat" is redundant.

Resolution

Hey there, here's my first post of the new year. I don't know about you but it seems to me that the world is being overrun by Jerks. A Jerk has been running our country, invading others, and eroding our civil liberties for the last eight years. In fact, Jerks in power in almost every country on the globe have acted in similar fashion. Jerks in business and industry have been systematically destroying the world economy with predatory lending practices, by taking outrageous perks and bonuses, and by lying, cheating, and stealing every chance they get. Religious Jerks from every sect and denomination on Earth have amped arrogance, ignorance, bigotry, and hatred to new astounding levels. The media in all it's myriad facets from vitriolic talk radio to insipid network news has sunk to mudslinging, innuendo, and slimy ridicule as a primary export. In addition to politics, business, religion, and the media, the general population has donned jerkness as it's new mantle. The Jerk zeitgeist pervades all aspects of human endeavor. Read the comments below any video on YouTube and you'll know what I mean. Our trains and buses have signs asking us to turn our music down and give up our seats to the elderly and disabled because we're such Jerks we have to be reminded of what common courtesy is. Jerkness is so prevalent that I could list examples ad infinitum. I've been a Jerk and you've been a Jerk. In the words of the inimitable Frank Zappa, "Jesus thinks you're a jerk!". There is only one solution: don't be a Jerk. As long as one person isn't a jerk there's hope. You can be that person and so can I.

Happy New Year!

Well, here it is... last post of the year (gotta get this in before midnight). It's been a mighty eventful year. I quit my factory job and became a high school teacher. I did a clinic for Po' Boy Drums and premiered a new fugue for an audience of drummers (got some amazing new gear too). I learned The Black Page (plyed that in a bar :-) All in all I'm quite satisfied. Especially when you consider that I adore my family. It's been a great year and I know the next will be wonderful too. I wish you all the best.

Mind Maps and The Black Page

Okay, so I loaded google/analytics and I look around at who's visiting my blog and why. It turns out the two most common searches that hit my blog are "mindmap" and "Black Page". I get hits on both of these from all over the world... from China to Finland... from Australia to Venesuela. It's interesting because those are two relatively esoteric topics and yet there really is quite a bit of interest. I wonder if there's any shared interest between the drummers and the mappers.

Metallica

I saw Metallica on the opening night of their concert tour for the new CD Death Magnetic. Let me say right up front that I am not a Metallica fan, although I do like a few songs. I have a policy, however, that I will go hear any band, no matter how bizarre or outside my sphere, if you buy the ticket (my Sister in Law bought this one). If they suck, I will drink a beer. If they still suck, I will drink another beer, until such time as either they sound good, or I am drunk (in the case of Primus I just ended up drunk). This policy has served me well. I saw Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (a show I thought I would hate) and, low and behold, I had a blast! Additionally, I saw Velvet Revolver on someone elses dime and I was pleasantly surprised. Conversely, I saw Bon Jovi when a friend bought the ticket and I later wished she hadn't wasted her money. That said, let's return to Metallica.

As I said, I am not a Metallica fan but I do like a few songs. I was, however, again pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed the performance. I thought they were very polished and they put on a very energetic show. They had laser beams, flames, and coffin shaped lighting fixtures which I thought were fun (albeit campy). For me, the high point was when they performed Master Of Puppets. The audience knew every word and sang louder than the band. That's pretty cool no matter what genre. It was also a very good rendition. My only real complaint is that the sound engineering was truely bad... literally atrocious. The distortion was so bad that your couldn't make out words even when they were speaking directly to the audience. Lars' double bass drum riffs just sounded like a dull roar and sixteenth notes were indistinguishable in every lead guitar solo. From an entertainment standpoint, the show was great. From a technical audio engineering stand point, the show was an utter failure. I'm still glad I went. Somebody else paid and I had a great time.

Halloween Fun

I read to my kids every night. We just finished the last two Harry Potter books and I read them a short story by pulp science fiction writer Fredric Brown. You might know the FB story Arena - it was reworked into a Star Trek episode of the same name (big lizard guy called a Gorn) - classic SF. Well, in honor of Halloween I'm reading them a story by my cheesey horror hero H. P. Lovecraft. Those who know me know I love Lovecraft. I know the stories are corney, but somehow they're effective. The good ones really are creepy. I'm reading them one of my favorites: The Colour Out Of Space. They haven't really been exposed to horror fiction so this is quite a change of pace. So far, their attention is rapt. They keep saying things like, "Dad, that's freaky!". At some point I should show them a picture of 'ol H. P... that's freaky! He looks like a character from one of his own stories.

On Halloween we're going to watch the campy old Vincent Price film The Abominable Dr. Phibes. I think they're going to love it. My favorite is the part where Dr. Phibes locks the frog mask on his victim's head at the masquerade party and it slowly clicks tighter and tighter until the poor creep's head explodes, spewing blood all over the transparent eyeballs of the mask. Of course the scumbag deserves it! Hooray for campy horror, hooray! Vincent and H. P., true kings of cheese!

The Latest

Okay, so I haven't made a post for a while. Here's the deal: my new job as a high school art and music teacher is just plain overwhelming. On top of that, my band is loosing it's bass player. Yup, it's true. Eliot is leaving us to go to seminary college. Maybe at some point in the future we'll release a CD listing "Reverend Eliot" on bass. In the interim, however, we're looking for someone to fill his very big shoes (shoes of the fisherman?). Hopefully we'll get to do at least one more show before Eliot goes. Stay tuned, I'll let you know.

Writing

For some reason Frank decided to put this on his web site. It's me going over a transcription of one of our songs. I look very musical counting measures, don't you think?

Way Back Stage

Here's something people don't often post: the rest room at the last place you gigged (maybe I'll make it a regular feature). Yes, this is the Men's Room at The Toad Tavern. Right there on the entrance to the stall is a poster for the Po' Boy Show! I was good enough to take the picture when nobody was actually using the restroom.

Yet Another Prog Drum Pic

Yes, this is Bill Bruford, another of the drummers who had a profound impact on me. Of course this is the cover photo from his disc Master Strokes. Great pic. Stylish white tee-shirt. You can see the Simmons Drums in there. Wish I hadn't had such a bad experience with Simmons Drums! Oh well. I had a bad experience with a Bill Bruford "Drum God" clinic too. Whatever. The guy has created some of my favorite music. None the less, this is a great prog drum pic. You know, if you look at my collection of prog drum pics, you'll start to get an idea of who my favorite drummers are.

Prog Drum Map

Okay, obviously there's much more that could be here. I'm not even remotely saying this is it. This is just a brain storm. I said, "what can I think of off the top of my head" and this is what hit the page. I think it's interesting. I do think that Prog is to Rock what Fusion is to Jazz. Both Prog and Fusion sought to integrate multiple influences into a hybrid or aggregate with rock as a key element. Certainly there are phenomenal bands/drummers who are an integral part of the Progressive/Fusion movements that I have not mentioned. Again, this is just a brain storm, i.e. what comes to mind first. That's probably considerably influenced by my personal preferences.

Yes, Another Mind Map!

Okay, again, I know this has nothing to do with prog drumming but this is my blog and I get to do what I want here. This is a mind map about my favorite film director. This map explores Alfred Hitchcok, some of his techniques, themes, and characteristics. If you know Hitchcock, some of these things will jump right out at you. If you don't, some of this won't make sense. The point is, it makes sense to me. The puropose of the mind map is to organize my thoughts... to depict what I know with reminders and esoteric references that will enhance my recall through a pictorial representation

New Fugue (with ostinato) 2.

Okay, so how do you write one of these things for the drumset (or the piano for that matter)?. Here's what I've done. I created a melodic phrase. Then I figured out a number of variations on it, i.e. inversion, retrograde, augmentation, diminution, and stretto. I put it on top of an ostinato. I played it in one voice. Then I played it in another voice and stuck some counterpoint against it. All of that is in my last post. Then (as you can see on this page) I just played the ostinato for a couple of measures. I'll improv over those measures later. Then, at measure five on this page, I wrote the fugal subject in the primary voice as an augmentation. In this case I doubled the note values, so the phrase that previously took only four measures to complete now takes eight. That subject is played entirely with the right hand, so I've started to put some counter point against it with the left hand on the upper staff. You can see where that starts up at measure five. I will continue this process - writing a few bars of ostinato to solo over, then re-introducing the fugal subject in one variation or another and putting some counterpoint against it. At some point I will probably introduce stretto, where one voice will introduce the subject and before it's finished, the other voice will jump in on top of it. Sooner or later all of those empty measures will be filled in but, for now, I will just concentrate on the occurrences of the fugal subject and the counterpoint I Will play against them.

New fugue (with ostinato) 1.

Follow the process. Whatcha' got here is yer exposition in two voices.

Bottom line=double bass drums/pedal. Bottom stave = right hand: floor tom, low tom, snare drum (snares off). Upper
stave = left hand: low tom, mid tom, hi tom.

If you click on the picture it will open in a larger window and will be easier to read. Note the use of a form of contrary motion in measures 10, 11, and 12. Who else invites you in to watch like this, huh? Enjoy.

Fugue Map

I get bored and I doodle. There are sharpies and hi-lighters at my desk. This subject has been on my mind a lot lately. The ed-psych class I've been taking has talked a lot about mind maps. Andy said he enjoys these. If you mix purple, green, and blue you get brown (sheesh, you'ld think a guy with an art degree would know that, eh?). If you misspell the word clavichord with a sharpie, you can't fix it. Yes, more composers than Bach, Pachelbel, Buxtahude, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven have written canons and fugues... I just like them. That's a little hard to read over there so if you click on it, it will appear in a larger window.

Outstanding DVD

In the history of music, I have two favorite composers: Bach and Zappa, not necessarily in that order. Bach died before the invention of video, Zappa died before the invention of this video. You need to see this video before you die. Scheila Gonzalez's saxaphone solo on Eat That Question is mind boggleing. Aaron Arntz is a keyboard madman. Billy Hulting is a fantastic percussionist. I could see this whole band being a Zappa band. Hooray for Dweezil. If one of my kids did something like this for me, I would probably need a beach towel to wipe my eyes.

RTF Romantic Warrior

I've been listening to Prog and Fusion since they were invented and (don't laugh now) somehow I missed this album for 30 years. My guitar player, Frank D'Angelo, turned me on to it just this week and it's all I've been listening to. It's not like I don't know the band or the musicians. I saw Chic Corea play with Mirislav Vitous and Roy Haynes. I saw Al Di Meola play with John Mclaughlin, Paco De Lucia and Steve Morse. I saw Al Di Meola open up for Jean Luc Ponty. I've seen Stanley Clarke play with Ponty. I have RTF "No Mystery" and "Light As a Feather". I have Di Meola, Chic Corea, Lenny White, and Stanley Clarke solo records. Somehow, I just never heard this one until this week. All I can say is OMG! This disc is amazing. It's very jazz, but it's also very Prog. The first tune Medieval Overture feels a lot like what Gentle Giant was doing in the day. The last track Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant is epic. Of course it's very jazz fusion, but it's also very Prog. Towards the end it breaks down into a pseudo-baroque counterpoint (again, very GGish) and the conclusion sounds like it's in the same key and uses the same synth patch as a piece by Kansas. It might be Icarus: Bourne On Wings of Steel. Whatever, this disc is a must. Great stuff, glad I found it after all these years. Thanks Frank. Oh by the way, Lenny White's drumming on this disc is phenomenal.

Another Mind Map

Well, I can't begin to express how much I love this concept. I actually should give credit where it's due and thank Professor Virginia Kraus for introducing me to it. I know this has nothing to do with prog drumming, however it has a great deal to do with education so I'm posting it. This is a Mind Map, a graphic depiction of a concept. In this case it's important print makers, their movements, and continents. I just want to post this because I think it's a brilliant way to organize data and really personalize it. I don't necesarily think sequentially. Sometimes this kind of organization works best for me. If you do this with a topic you're passionate about, it helps you to visualize and personalize the data, and that will help you remember it. Love it. Thanks Virginia,