Joe Wong: How Do Drummers Navigate Through Life?

SKF NOTE: I tip my hat to Joe Wong for his podcast series, “The Trap Set.” I’ve listened only to Mr. Wong’s Sheila E interview and some of his John “Drumbo” French interview. The production is first-class and what I’ve heard so far are interesting, knowledgeable exchanges between Wong and the drummers.

Plus, I think his goal with these drummer podcasts is right on: “[T]he craft of drumming is irrelevant to the show. I wanted to know answers to how people navigate through life.”

Reporter Piet Levy’s “No one interviews the drummers” statement is completely wrong, but we should not hold that against Joe Wong. I look forward to listening to more of “The Trap Set.”

Local Beat
Musician Joe Wong’s podcast gets drummers talking
By Piet Levy

Joe Wong

Joe Wong

No one interviews the drummers. Practically the only time they’re prominently featured in an article is when the drummer is the frontman, like Ringo Starr or Don Henley.

…”The Trap Set” isn’t shoptalk.

“Drummers have an interesting temperament I can relate to, but the craft of drumming is irrelevant to the show,” Wong said. “We address issues I tend to think about, like how to raise a family when touring all the time. I didn’t want to believe that being great in the arts has to come with the exclusion of anything else that makes you a person. I wanted to know answers to how people navigate through life.”

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D.J. Fontana, W.S.Holland, Richie Albright Receive Legends Series Award

Nashville honor set for local drummer
John Andrew Prime, jprime@gannett.com 2:27 p.m. CDT July 9, 2015

D.J. Fontana

D.J. Fontana

D.J. Fontana, a Shreveporter and one of the rock world’s legendary drummers, will be honored in Nashville this weekend.

Fontana, who was drummer for rock legend Elvis Presley during the singer’s pioneer years, will be honored Saturday with the Church’s Chicken Legends Series Award.

Fontana will be one of three top drummers honored at the Music City Center during the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants)/World’s Fastest Drummer World Finals. Those drummers are W.S. Holland, who played with Johnny Cash, and Richie Albright, who worked with Waylon Jennings.

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Mickey Hart Invites Fans to Play in the Band

SKF NOTE: What an uplifting video from Mickey Hart. Great idea. Well done!

Mickey Hart Drums Along With Fan-Made Playing In The Band

Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart has shared a special video featuring a collaborative take on the band’s classic Bob Weir-lead song “Playing In The Band.” Hart recruited Deadheads from across the globe to contribute to the video montage.

Published on Jul 3, 2015

“Without the fans there would be no us.” – Mickey Hart

To celebrate the extraordinary “long strange trip” so many of us have taken with the Grateful Dead over the years, Mickey Hart wanted to “give thanks” by inviting Deadheads everywhere to “play in the band.”

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Scott K Fish On the Road Today, 7/6/15

I am traveling today, by car and by air, on a mission that could be life changing. I am okay. But I welcome prayers and good thoughts from those inclined to give them.

Thank you.

Scott K Fish

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Elvin Jones: The Drumset is a Musical Instrument

SKF NOTE: Rick Mattingly was Modern Drummer‘s Features Editor when I was at the magazine. He was/is also publications editor for the Percussive Arts Society, and drum/percussion editor for Hal Leonard Corporation. 

Rick did many good interviews for MD, including the cover story with Elvin Jones in December 1982. I remember Rick telling me Elvin had just one condition for this interview. He didn’t want to be asked about his time with John Coltrane. If memory serves, Rick told me Elvin’s was reacting to several writers who asked Elvin for an interview, when really, they were less interested in Elvin than in learning about John Coltrane.

Rick agreed to Elvin’s condidition. After their interview was in progress, and Elvin understood Rick is, among other things, a serious music journalist, the two men did talk about Elvin’s work with John Coltrane after all.

Elvin Jones

Elvin Jones

Rick Mattingly: There seems to be an emphasis with drummers to be more concerned with technique than musicality. Why are drummers so prone to this?

Elvin Jones: That is a problem. I think students get the notion that they have to prove something, and they have to show progress. They have to justify the time they have spent with some kin of a display: “Look. I’ve been practicing for two years and I can now play 2,000 paradiddles in five minutes.”

There are a thousand book out showing you how to stengthen this, and build that, and if you do this exercise you’ll be able to play these speed beats, and if you do this you’ll be able to sound like Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa and everybody rolled into one! It’s kind of an exhibitionist attitude that prevails, and people get completely away from what drumming is really about.

Rick Mattingly

Rick Mattingly

The drums should be as musically supportive of a composition as the rest of the instruments. And this should be normal – this shouldn’t be something exceptional. When you hear a drummer playing musically, you shouldn’t say, “Oh my! Isn’t that unusual?” It should be normal.

It’s a musical instrument, playing with other musical instruments. It should all be one, big, happy, musical thing. But for some reason, it isn’t. For some reason, a lot of drummers are turned away from the natural course of things.

– end –

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