SKF NOTE: Son Jason Bonham sharing the famous Led Zeppelin Moby Dick drum solo with his father, John? What a great use of technology. But what an emotional experience it will be.
With help from dad, Jason Bonham drums up a true Led Zeppelin Experience
Ian Gassman December 3, 2015
Q. Beyond thoughtful setlists and well-crafted renditions, what surprises do you have in store for these upcoming gigs?
A. The weirdest thing was dad, at home, never had his own kit. We had the room, but the only drum kit he ever played would be my small one, so we never got to play together. With technology, I said, “I will get a chance to do that.” I edited part of a video from the Royal Albert Hall “Moby Dick” drum solo. When we get to do the solo together it’s a standing ovation no matter what.
I’m going to be 50 next year and I’ve been around this for a long time, but you know what, on certain songs, it still gets to you. It’s very dear to my heart. Every time I play, I imagine him sitting in the corner of the room like he used to going, “Alright, get it better,” with a little nod and a smile.
SKF NOTE: Rare photo of 12-year old drummer, Denardo Coleman, on stage with his father, Ornette Coleman’s, Quartet. It is from a September 1968 Down Beat Caught in the Act review written by Michael Cuscuna. Mr. Cuscuna is probably best known as founder of Mosaic Records and leading discographer for Blue Note Records.
Coleman’s young son, Denardo, is developing very well. Although he could hardly be considered in the same class as his predecessors (Billy Higgins, Ed Blackwell, and Charles Moffett), he does have a natural feeling for his instrument and for his father’s music that makes his contributions worthwhile. In fact, his work on Buddha Blues was original and very much an asset to the tune. His three drum solos at this concert were fairly well executed and well received, though not very inventive. Musical aspects aside, it is beautiful to see a father and son working together under such conditions.
SKF NOTE: In 1989 I sat with Neil Peart, played him a few of my favorite drummer records without telling him anything about the song or the drummer. Our exchanges were meant for a music publication Chip Stern was creating. Here is the back story.
Caveat: In this exchange, Neil, talking about playing time, says, In the same terms that we were just discussing…. He is referring to part of our conversation about Joe Morello’s Shortin’ Bread.
Song Title: Dogs Part Two. Drummer: Keith Moon. 45 RPM: Flip side to Pinball Wizard single. (Not released on any LP) The Who. Decca 732465. Released: 1969
SKF: Well, maybe in Canada it was released differently. I think you’re the only person I’ve run into who has heard Dogs Part Two.
NP: I told you what a big Who fan I was. When that song first started, I didn’t recognize it. It’s been probably 20 years since I’ve heard it. I thought, “Who’s around that can play like that?” I was really knocked out. Then the answer became clear. Of course. It was Keith Moon.
SKF: He wrote the song.
NP: Yeah, well…. (laughs). It’s one of the craziest songs known to man. So that doesn’t surprise me.
SKF: What can you say about that?
NP: It’s just Keith. No other superlatives apply.
SKF: If he was just hitting the scene today, do you think he could get away with playing like that? Would there be a venue for his style of playing?
NP: Yeah. He proved it later on with the Who’s Next album, for instance, where he had to play with sequencers. He was playing to true metronomic time, but he was able to average himself over it. In the same terms that we were just discussing, he could play all around that metronomic time and still be bound by it.
I think he would have adapted easily. Somehow, when he felt like being disciplined, he could be. That’s one of the misconceptions about him. If you listen to his more restrained or more controlled work — like the Tommy album — his drumming is excellent. And it’s very controlled and very sparsely distributed. His fills are all very logically placed. Being a logical sort of guy it’s one of my favorite pieces of his drumming because it all makes sense.
He has his moments of craziness. Certainly. And there are some beautifully crazy fills in some songs. But they are still in the right place. They are the right thing at the right time.
I guess Who’s Next was his zenith point; the height of his still being very vibrant and exciting, but learning to be more discriminate. So I think he would have adapted to today’s music. He would have been exciting enough to liven it all up. If he were allowed to.
Most modern sessions — they would have kicked him right out. You can’t play that fill! You can’t do that! Just shut up and play the beat! — is the unfortunate thing that might happen to a rising Keith Moon today if he got in the wrong band or didn’t have the character sense to stick to it and say, “This is the way I play. I’m going to play that way.”
If he wasn’t that stubborn and convicted of his own values, then he might get swallowed up. As many a good musician has.
Vancouver drummer finds jazz, musical freedom on rise in China
By Scott Hewitt, Columbian Arts & Features Reporter
Published: November 28, 2015, 5:56 PM
Gary Hobbs
Things ain’t what they used to be in East Asia, and especially in urban centers such as Beijing and Hong Kong, according to jazz drummer Gary Hobbs.
You might actually hear that sly Duke Ellington standard pouring from the doorway of a nightclub or conservatory these days — in a civilization that used to consider jazz music subversive, even pornographic, and definitely anti-communist.
…Hobbs, 67, …on his fourth teaching-and-performing junket to China, Taiwan and Hong Kong in late October. The centerpiece of the trip was the third annual China Drum Summit, hosted by the Beijing Contemporary Music Academy.
Hobbs was…“totally shocked,” he said, at the masses of Chinese music students displaying real talent and fire about this essentially American art form. Hobbs…found “massive conservatories full of all these brazen virtuosos” who are practicing the instruments…like their lives depend on it.
“I’m not sure why all of a sudden jazz is cool there,” he said, “but it is urgent.”
Fun and freedom
Hobbs’s 10-day October trip was packed full of concerts, classes and one-on-one clinics where he got to be the admired master. But he felt exactly like a nervous young student upon learning that he’d be teaching alongside…Billy Cobham…. “He’s a god to me,” said Hobbs, who started practicing for four hours a day after he heard he’d be meeting Cobham.
In China, where culture was long frozen as a matter of national policy, music of all sorts is now catching up.., Hobbs said. Everybody is deep into jazz.
“They really dig it, all these skinny young kids,” Hobbs said. “They really come out and support this music.”
What’s hooked them, he said, is what they were denied before: Freedom.
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