Katrina Chester Seeking Gary Chester Memorabilia for Documentary

Posted on April 14, 2017 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: I am happy to pass along this SOS from Gary Chester’s daughter, Katrina, who is working on a Gary Chester documentary with Tony Cruz. Here’s the original post from the offical Gary Chester Facebook page.

chester_garyDear Friends, Family, and Students

This August 17th will signify the 30-year death anniversary of the great studio drummer, teacher, guru, etc., Gary Chester.

His playing was innovative and has laid the foundation for thousands of hit records of a bygone era of beautiful music that spans three decades! Equally impressive is the fact that his book, The New Breed, is still one of the top-selling books of all time! His teachings are equally innovative, and like no other! Students around the world continue to try to dissect his systems.

Those who have met, studied, and/or worked with Gary can still close their eyes and feel the unforgettable force and love – even through the cloud of smoke & cursing. His wonderful sense of humor and no-bullshit attitude carried many through some of the hardest times of their lives, while creating hard times for many others, too! It is quite difficult to describe Gary to someone who didn’t meet him, but that’s about to change!

For 20+ years, Gary’s youngest daughter, Katrina, has carefully and skillfully managed and maintained her father’s works from a place of honor and integrity. She has also been approached by many filmmakers interested in making a documentary on Gary, but each time her sharp, savvy business acumen (undoubtedly planted and nurtured by her father, and her own business ventures) led her to respectfully decline. That changed six months ago when one of her father’s long-time students called her out of the blue! He came with intimate personal experience of Gary, no desire to trade Gary’s integrity for a Hollywood dream, only to carry honor and love for his teacher and family.

We are excited and proud to announce this documentary partnership between a very special long-time Gary Chester student, Tony Cruz and Katrina Chester!

With no expectations and much grace, our initial talks yielded many ideas, but this project quickly developed a soul of its own. We have begun an incredible emotional and life-changing journey that has surpassed anything that we could have imagined!

We’re asking for your help in making this the ultimate tribute to one of the greatest drummers/teachers of all time! Here’s how!

Please look through your collection of memorabilia that involves Gary!

We are looking for the following:

Any audio, video, and/or pictures that include Gary; Gary with students; or his family, including – interviews, cassette lessons, voice mail messages, playing examples Gary may have done for a student or peer, Gary giving someone shit, etc. Nothing is too small or insignificant! When put in the context of the documentary, it has the potential to be powerful! And if you have anything “not-so-flattering” of Gary, PLEASE share that with us too – it is equally welcomed; stories or memorabilia you can share; letters Gary may have written to you or cards he had sent – personal and business related.

We realize this may take a little digging or a few storage wars, but we’re hoping someone out there must have footage and/or audio we have NOT yet seen/heard! Someone must have snuck a “tape” recorder or a camcorder into a lesson, or a fishing trip, or one of the parties?

*All memorabilia will be safely returned and not be used without your signed consent.

*You may also indicate if your share is for the Chester family only and not for use in the documentary

*Please note: We already have the only two live clinics we know of. Inquire within if you feel you have others we do not know about!

Formats accepted: We can digitize and share the updated version with you (when we send you back your original) – Cassette tapes, DV8 camcorder video tapes, VHS tapes, micro cassette tapes. Email if another format.

**Regarding all shared audio and video it is best if we have the original so we are digitizing from a first generation source – for big screen.

Ways to Share:

Free-internet storage and transfer up to 2 GB – “wetranser.com”, “dropbox”, gmail drive, to name a few & email directly to: GCDoc.Memories@gmail.com

Mail to: (make sure to include your return address for your return!)

Garuji Productions, LLC
17412 Ventura Blvd. # 269
Encino, CA 91316 (packages of any size are welcome, Fed Ex, UPS, and USPS)

Record your story and upload to one of the above sources to email. You may also write the story to email, or snail mail to the address in #2.

Stay tuned for more as it develops right here on Gary’s Facebook! Thank you to everyone for the help with Stage 2 of this incredible and humbling project. Please share this invite on Facebook with anyone else that may also be able to contribute!

With Love, Tony and Katrina @ Garuji Productions, LLC.

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Elvin Jones Session Photo (1963)

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Scott K Fish

Elvin_Jones

SKF NOTE: Nice Charles Stewart photo of Elvin Jones during an October 1963 recording session for Johnny Hartman’s I Just Dropped By To Say Hello album.

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Max Roach and Scott Robinson Drum Battle (1977)

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: This drum battle between Max Roach and ten-year old Scott Robinson was recorded at the Charlie Parker Foundation, Kansas City, Missouri by KCUR-FM on Sept. 17, 1977. My best guess: this cassette was mailed to me when I was Modern Drummer managing editor (1980-1983).

Max Roach here is 53-years old. How he treats Scott Robinson, Max’s remarks to the audience, and, of course, the drumming — it’s all good listening, all good to have in the public square.

Max Roach: “You know, one of the most rewarding things to me, being involved to perform up here is that it is an expression of true democracy. And I’ll tell you why I say that. Every individual, when they get on a bandstand here to play, has his say; do exactly what is supposed to happen.

“We play a little line and all of us participate. We all say what we want to say: harmonium. And further, I’d like to say that this great music, that is really an expression of the United States of America, also expresses, I think, the American dream and its democratic process by the way it is played, and the way it is approached, and the way everybody gets a chance to really do something when they get on this stage.

“And I think it’s a wonderful expression of the American experience. I do believe that. And I want to thank especially you folks here in Kansas City because this is the only…as a community center or an institution, or foundation that attempts, and does, teach young people so that we can preserve and perpetuate the things that were laid down by the great Louis Armstrongs, and Baby Lovetts, and Charles Parkers, and so forth.

So, I just want to give you all a hand.”

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Michael Shrieve: The Making of Santana’s ‘Promise of a Fisherman’ (1983)

Posted on April 6, 2017 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: I found this phone conversation tonight while digitizing interview audiocassettes. The voices are Scott K Fish and Michael Shrieve. This is no doubt me, as Modern Drummer managing editor, asking Michael an MD reader’s question for the “Ask a Pro” column.

Michael has excellent recall of the Gretsch drum and Paiste cymbal setup he used nine years earlier on Santana’s “Borboletta” album.

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Freddie Gruber Has No Recordings; How Do We Know He Can Teach?

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: If there are no band or performance recordings of drum teachers — how do we know if what they’re teaching is valid?

Rafik Mankarios (or someone able to post under Mr. Mankarios’s “RM Drums” YouTube account) listened to this Freddie Gruber audio excerpt on my YouTube page, Freddie Gruber: Learning, Teaching Awareness of Rhythm, Melody, Harmony in Drumming, and posted this response:

Unbelievable how even the legends have fallen in the overblown, over exaggerated, overdramatized myth of Freddie Gruber…of whom you will not find a SINGLE DRUM TRACK, audio or video of his SUPPOSED playing! He’s never gotten further in his ”lessons” than how to hold sticks, and a philosophy on life!!! Sheeps following the piper…?

In the early 1980s, when preparing to interview Freddie for Modern Drummer, I faced the same lack of Freddie Gruber recorded material. Rather than dismiss Freddie’s teaching, I took a different approach, speaking with respected drummers who saw and heard Freddie when he was an active drummer. Also, I read the famous 1947 Metronome The Shapes of Drums to Come column about Freddie by one the most respected jazz writers, Barry Ulanov.

An interview with Freddie was first suggested to me, I believe, by Jim Keltner. The interview took place in Buddy Rich’s NYC apartment – one of Freddie’s closest friends. Around the same time period I celebrated Mel Lewis’s birthday in Mel’s NYC apartment with Freddie and Adam Nussbaum.

When I spoke with Jim Chapin, author of the famous Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer book, he had high praise for Freddie Gruber. Mr. Chapin, during our phone conversation, actually mouthed an example of how Freddie Gruber’s drum solos sounded, because that was easier than trying to put that sound into words.

Neil Peart met and studied with Freddie and, after Freddie’s death, Neil provided the biographical tribute on The Official Site of Freddie Guber.

And, during my interview of Freddie Gruber, he helped me solve a nagging physical question of mine which I wrote about here.

I’ve learned my whole life from drummers, from non-drummer musicians, without knowing or caring if they had ever cut a record. And I’ve heard stories praising local drummers — like Gaetan Caviola — who I did hear on two albums. But based strictly on those two albums, I would not have put Mr. Caviola in the same class as Louis Bellson, as did musicians I met in Iowa and Illinois who knew Caviola personally.

Fair enough if one drum teacher’s methods don’t hit home with us. But as far as dismissing Freddie Gruber as a teacher I close with my favorite Sherlock Holmes admonition: “How dangerous it always is to reason from insufficient data.”

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