Dillon Harrison: Young Drummer of the Year Finalist

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: I found Dillon Harrison YouTube drum videos starting when he was 8-years old. This is the only one I’ve seen with Dillion on electric drums, and on a 4-piece kit. He’s making good progress. Still playing lots of notes, but fewer than when he was younger. He plays with confidence, and his time is good.

http://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk
Drummer on a roll as he gets to major final
A talented young musician has reached the finals of a prestigious drumming competition.

Dillon Harrison, 12, will go head to head with nine other competitors in the Young Drummer of the Year finals in February.

He beat more than 300 other entrants to win a place in the first shortlist of 40, which was then whittled down to the final ten.

The North Halifax Grammar School pupil began drumming when he was just six years old and now attends the Halifax Drum School, Crossley Street.

The competition…is a chance to give the country’s young drumming talent a national and international platform to kickstart their musical career.

Martin Davis, head tutor at the Halifax Drum School, added: “I’m so proud of Dillon, he really deserves it.

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Antonio Sanchez: Always Communicate with the Audience

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Scott K Fish

Birdman cinematographer, Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki: “We had the drum-driven score going, because the drums were like the heartbeat of the character — it helped the actors get in the mood and the camera to get the rhythm.”

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In Conversation With Jazz Drummer and Composer Antonio Sánchez
Adriana Teresa Letorney, Co-founder & Creative Director of FotoVisura, Inc
Posted: 12/30/2014

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AT: The Oscars disqualified your film score for Birdman. Why?

Sánchez: Their explanation is that the licensed or incidental classical music “dilutes” my original score enough that it deemed disqualification.

AT: What is your perspective on the disqualification?

Sánchez: Basically, …the Academy is saying…the classical music takes so much away from my score that it is ineligible. [T]he score has been getting a lot of praise for something…I performed…by myself on drums — an instrument…many might not consider worthy of producing emotion the way a symphonic orchestra would. I have been playing drums for over 38 years and composing for over 20. [M]y main goal is always to communicate with the audience, and say something meaningful with my instrument.

Nobody walks out of that movie raving about the classical music. Instead, everybody talks about my score because it is very unique, new and powerful and it has never been done like that for a film.

My main issue with the disqualification is…it takes away from the artistic risk, innovation and originality…we put into the film score. [I]t sets a bad precedent for other composers that will want to take risks and do something innovative.

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Sherlock Holmes on the Power of Music

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Scott K Fish
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Sherlock Holmes’s creator and author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

SKF NOTE: In Arthur Conan Doyle’s story The Cardboard Box, it transpires that Sherlock Holmes owns and plays a violin made by Antonio Stradivarius himself.

Sherlock Holmes: “Do you remember what Darwin says about music? He claims that the power of producing and appreciating it existed among the human race long before the power of speech was arrived at. Perhaps that is why we are so subtly influenced by it. There are vague memories in our souls of those misty centuries when the world was in its childhood.”

Source: Doyle, Arthur Conan; Books, Maplewood (2014-05-15). Sherlock Holmes: The Ultimate Collection.

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Discovering Buford Oliver

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Scott K Fish

bern_buford3SKF NOTE: Listening this morning to tenor saxophonist Don Byas‘s CD Riffin’ and Jivin’. Mr. Byas is one of those great musicians I haven’t listened to much. Last night, combing through a large box of my CD’s, I came across Riffin’ and Jivin’, and decided I would dig deeper into Don Byas’s jazz contributions.

With the CD playing softly in the background, and me at work on my computer, a cool drum solo on the song, Rosetta, grabs my total attention. The drummer is Buford Oliver – a name brand new to me. Great! I love discovering drummers. Looking forward to learning about, and hearing more, from Buford Oliver.

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Herbie Hancock: How I Became Friends with Tony Williams

Posted on December 28, 2014 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: I received a copy of Herbie Hancock’s autobiography, “Possibilities,” for Christmas. It is a great read. Here’s a segment, in Herbie’s own words, on how he first met Tony Williams.

tonywilliams009Herbie Hancock: Tony had just turned seventeen, but…he was the hottest jazz drummer around. I had met him in late 1962, when he was living in Boston and I was gigging there with Eric Dolphy, but I didn’t get to hear him play…. [H]e moved…to New York in early 1963, [and] called me…. Well, what was I supposed to do with a teenage drummer? Hang out? …I just kind of put him off. About a week later I got a call from…Jackie McLean. Jackie was putting together a group for a gig.., and he asked me to play. “Who’s on the gig?” I asked. [H]e said, “Eddie Khan on bass, Woody Shaw on trumpet, and Tony Williams on drums.”

“Look, Jackie, I asked, “can Tony really play? Or does he just sound good for a seventeen-year-old kid?”

Jackie answered. “Just make the gig, and find out for yourself.”

So I did. We didn’t have any kind of rehearsal, but we were doing…stuff we all knew. When Jackie counted off the first tune, I play the opening chord – and then Tony started playing some amazing rhythm I’d never heard before. I took my hands off the piano and turned around to look at him, my mouth just hanging open. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing…! I had no idea how he was conceiving such rhythms, and it took me a couple of choruses before I could actually collect myself and play anything.

Tony had absolutely mind-blowing talent. He could play drums like no one else I’d ever seen, and even at that young age he had complete confidence in his abilities. Some musicians seem as if they were born playing their instrument, and Tony was one of those guys. He was magical to watch and listen to, because energy and creativity just flowed out of him. [T]he day after the gig I called him and said, “Hey, man, what’s happening? You doing anything? Can I come over?” And that’s how I became friends with Tony Williams.

Source: Possibilities, by Herbie Hancock with Lisa Dickey, Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 2014

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