SKF NOTE: Let me say upfront I do not own the copyright to this album track. If the copyright owner asks me to remove it, I will.
Concerto for Jazz Drums and Orchestra is a brilliant performance by Joe Morello released on the 1970 Dick Schory album with Gary Burton, Paul Horn, & Joe Morello at Carnegie Hall.
Morello told me this is a much edited version of the Concerto for Jazz Drums and Orchestra performed at Carnegie Hall. Wouldn’t it be great to hear this in an unedited version?
SKF NOTE: My friend, Jason, started a guitar player YouTube channel. As his schedule permits, Jason puts together a comprehensive video, a “how to play” the guitar part, on songs of his choosing.
Recently, Jason’s posted a video guitar lesson for Atlanta Rhythm Section’s 1979 hit song, “Spooky.”
I emailed Jason a tongue-in-cheek note saying the original Classic IV’s 1967 version of “Spooky” was much better than ARS’s remake.
Jason, a well-schooled musician, tells me he is unaware of the Classic IV’s “Spooky.” True to form, and to his credit, Jason gives the the 1967 “Spooky” a listen.
My first reaction is surprise. How could a musician as well-grounded as Jason not know the Classics IV? Or “Spooky?”
I’m reminded of a conversation I had several months ago with a guy who runs a sophisticated internet drum and drumming operation. During our conversation, I assumed this guy knew all of the drummers I knew, and why they were important.
But he didn’t.
On the other hand, Jason and the drum guy mentioned modern drummers and other musicians new to me. Jason, I remember, recommended guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, saxophonist Chris Potter, and Punch Brothers.
So I gave those musicians a listen. I like Rosenwinkel and Potter. But after several listens I’m unsold on Punch Brothers.
The music lesson, I suppose, is that both younger and older musicians have much to offer each other. I suppose that’s always been true and I lost sight of it.
I thank Jason, in particular, for reopening my ears and eyes.
SKF NOTE: As drummer Max Weinberg points out in this April 1981 note, Hal Blaine’s Modern Drummer interview and columns really hit home with MD readers. Drummers, young and old, would write to Blaine through the magazine. MD editors would forward the letters to Blaine. He, in turn, would record his answers on cassettes, which were transcribed and edited for publication by me and other MD editors.
Ultimately, reader questions stopped covering new ground and Blaine’s column was discontinued.
But, Weinberg’s note from Berlin, on tour with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, is a reminder of how valuable was Blaine’s life-and-drumming wisdom, and how generous he was with his time and knowledge.
SKF NOTE: Running my YTD blog stats this morning, visitors and views were up from 2022. Fourteen percent increase in visitors with a 22 percent hike in blog post views. That is, on average, every 2023 visitor looked at two blog posts.
Thank you.
Some of my blog posts, particularly audio posts, are cross-posted on my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages with direct links to my YouTube page. So, while “Neil Peart on Music and Writing Pt. 1” was viewed for the first time in 2023 on my blog 341 times, it was viewed during 2023 on YouTube 74,203 times.
I am pleasantly surprised to see that my friend, Barry Keane, has the #2, #3, and #10 spots among the list of my most viewed blog posts in 2023. Very cool.
Starting in 2024 I will enable the comments function on my blog. That’s one way more I can be in closer touch with people. My only caveat is, if the comments become more of a portal for spammers than for interested blog visitors, I reserve the right to going back to keeping in touch with visitors by email.
SKF NOTE: This is one of my favorite letters from Neil Peart. Written in October 1986 on his two-week old Macintosh computer, it captures many sides of Neil: the writer side, the techno side, the drumming side, the reader side, the songwriter side, the band-member side, the music business side, and the friend side.
I don’t think Neil Peart/Rush fans will have trouble deciphering any parts of Neil’s letter. He was a great man and I miss our corresponding very much.
Scott K Fish 
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