Barry Keane’s Onstage Drumset for Gordon Lightfoot

Posted on May 23, 2017 by Scott K Fish
Photo by Eileen Heidrich
Photo by Eileen Heidrich
L-R: Scott K Fish & Barry Keane

SKF NOTE: I’ve known Barry Keane more than half my life — since 1980 or 1981 when we met for his feature interview with Modern Drummer. Last April we caught up after Gordon Lightfoot’s concert in Orono, Maine. I wrote here about the unique role Barry and the other Lightfoot band members have in supporting the singer songwriter.

I also wrote about Barry’s drumset — which he was playing back in 1980-81, last year in Orono, and again when we said hello at Gordon Lightfoot’s May 17th show this year in Portland, Maine. Barry Keane has his drums and percussion instruments sounding just the way he likes them — right down to the cotton towel with “Do Not Remove” written on it taped vertically over the left side of his snare drum. When something works — you stick with it.

Here are a few photos of Barry’s drums onstage at the Merrill Auditorium.

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Gary Chester – Teaching as a Way of Life

Posted on May 21, 2017 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: This is an excerpt from my Sept. 18, 1982 with Gary Chester which I transcribed, edited, and published as a Modern Drummer feature interview. Other than a few of my Mm-hm‘s — useless mouth sounds I’ve since learned to avoid while taping interviews — this excerpt is intact.

The language is colorful in spots. [Minors be advised.] But it’s Gary Chester straight, no chaser.

Gary’s daughter, Katrina, and Tony Cruz — a former Gary Chester student — are working on a Gary Chester documentary. I’m publishing this excerpt, hoping it attracts the attention of former students, studio musicians, recording industry people, who knew Gary, and who are willing to speak about it with Tony and Katrina. You can email them.

Here’s a link to the real Gary Chester Facebook page.

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Artimus Pyle: Copying Other Drummers’ Licks is the Hardest

Posted on May 17, 2017 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: In this excerpt from Artimus Pyle’s June 23, 1982 interview for Modern Drummer, Artimus talks about how hard it was having to learn Bob Burns‘s Lynyrd Skynyrd drum parts note for note. But it was also helpful.

The photo of Artimus seated behind his yellow drumset was taken the day of this interview.

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Buddy Rich Taking Care to Be Even More Precise (1978)

Posted on May 13, 2017 by Scott K Fish

782803_db_buddyrich_review

SKF NOTE: A March 28, 1978 Down Beat news item capturing one reporter’s eyewitness (and earwitness) account of Buddy Rich and his band at NYC’s The Bottom Line. Buddy packed the place with “patrons…young and old, …mostly drummers.

“And Rich hasn’t lost a stroke to Father Time, either. In fact, he seems to be taking care to be even more precise, if that’s possible,” writes the DB reporter. That’s a quote a biographer might grab to illustrate Buddy’s playing at this point in his life from an educated source.

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Frankie Dunlop: Playing With Monk Was The Greatest Challenge Of My Melodic Drumming

Posted on May 10, 2017 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: This excerpt begins right where my earlier excerpt, Frankie Dunlop: Monk’s Lesson on Slow vs Fast Playing, ends. Here Frankie talks more about developing his melodic drumming with Monk. This segment ends with Frankie citing his greatest drumming challenges for power, and also, stamina.

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