Shiela E: New Book, New Album

Posted on September 7, 2014 by Scott K Fish

Sheila E Marches to ‘The Beat of Her Own Drum’ in New Memoir and Dishes on Santana Romance, Prince Reunion and Biopic
By Melissa Castellanos – Sep 05, 2014 06:01 PM EDT

Grammy Award-nominated singer/songwriter Sheila E., also known as Shelia Escovedo, has lived “The Glamorous Life.” She caught the eye of Prince in the late ’70s, played her heart out on the drums and timbales, launched a solo singing career and became a fierce, world-class drummer and percussionist.

She’s worked alongside some of the best in the business, including Ringo Starr, Marvin Gaye, Prince, Beyoncé, Herbie Hancock, Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, Gloria Estefan and George Duke. An actress, mentor, and philanthropist through her Elevate Hope Foundation, Sheila E. is the daughter of the famous Latin jazz musician Pete Escovedo, the goddaughter of the legendary Latin jazz composer Tito Puente….

[S]he’s sharing her story with her fans with the release of her memoir “The Beat of My Own Drum.”

In addition.., Sheila E. released her first album in 13 years, titled “Icon” (Stilettoflats Music). Her first single is “Mona Lisa.”

“The idea to record another solo album was actually spawned while I was writing the autobiography,” recalled Sheila E. in her official bio. “I realized that some of the experiences I was writing about should be songs. That’s when I also began looking back at songs I’d written several years earlier and forgotten about, but whose themes needed to be talked about in the book. Both fed each other.”

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South Bend Drum Co. Back in Production

Posted on September 4, 2014 by Scott K Fish

South Bend drum shop doesn’t miss a beat
Posted: Thursday, September 4, 2014 6:00 am
By JEFF HARRELL South Bend Tribune

south_bend_drum_shop“The biggest thing about the drums — a lot is custom ordered,” [shop owner Michael William] Janovic says. “We’ll build whatever anybody wants.”

But it’s the custom-made drums and hardware, not to mention the friendly social atmosphere that invites musicians, students and anybody else to hang out amid the ambiance of locally-made instruments on display.

“We’re now a drum manufacturer, we just started that,” he says….

Janovic, a South Bend native who began playing drums at 7 but spent 25 years as a local television producer, also worked in a machine shop “to learn how to make my own hardware; that was the primary goal.”

But the biggest dimension South Bend Drum Company offers, “a lot of the reason I opened up the store,” Janovic says, “is, I had nowhere to sell my drums.

“Now I’m back into production,” he says, “so I’m basically working as fast as I can make them.”

He picks up his red sparkle snare drum and taps it around the rim lightly to fine-tune it.

“I don’t know,” Janovic says about its price. “It’s not like I’ve got a name yet, so I really can’t demand. Probably $400.”

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Remembering Joe Morello

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: Remembering Joe Morello tonight. A bittersweet memory. Joe was a drumming giant. Levon Helm said one afternoon in a restaurant that Joe brought Jascha Heifitz’s violin sensitivity to the drumset. Great analogy.

One evening in New Jersey Joe and his wife, Jean, went to visit some friends in their home. I was with the Morello’s but don’t remember why. What I remember most is the three concrete steps down to the walkway from their friends’ home front door. Joe was legally blind and this night had a wee bit too much to drink. Not a terrible amount, but enough to make him unsteady.

As we approached that first step down he took my arm for support and held it down the steps and walkway — asking me the whole time how close was the next step, how far down would he have to step — until we reached the car.

For me, a 30-something drummer/writer that was a powerful few moments. The contrast in Joe who could find his way around a drumset with blistering speed with Joe who couldn’t find his way down three steps. The grace and utter selflessness with which he just took my arm. And the honor I felt – and still feel – that he trusted me enough to take my arm at that moment.

It still brings tears to my eyes. I don’t know why. I think an argument can be made that the entire, brief incident captures the whole of being human.

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Ringo’s Drumming: Harder Than It Looks

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Scott K Fish

Need to be convinced Ringo was a good drummer? Try playing Beatles music.
By John Kelly Columnist August 31 at 8:23 PM

I’m here to tell you that playing music is harder than it looks. Even playing the drums.

This was driven home recently when I was asked to play drums at a private party for an evening of Beatles music.

But until I tried to play the songs properly, I never realized just how tough it is to duplicate — approximate, even — Ringo’s drumming.

Sure, you know the signature drum figure in “Come Together” — bum bum biddley bop, tapita tapita tapita tap — but do you know how many times it’s played before you go to that bit with the organ/guitar solo? Or how many times in “Birthday” you play quarter notes on the snare after each guitar lick?

Or listen to something that seems fairly simple: “In My Life.” The drumming is so spare that it seems as if Ringo’s hardly doing anything. But get it wrong and the whole thing falls apart.

I survived my Beatles gig, even the fiendishly tricky “Eight Days a Week.” That’s the good thing about music as opposed to, say, brain surgery: Nobody dies if you get it wrong.

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John Densmore: New Book to Preserve The Doors’ Legacy

Posted on August 29, 2014 by Scott K Fish

Doors’ drummer details controversial trial in new book
13 hours ago  •  By Kevin C. Johnson / Pop music critic / kjohnson@post-dispatch.com

[H]is 2013 book “The Doors: Unhinged,” which documents his battle with the estate of Jim Morrison vs. the Doors’ Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger.

Densmore…says he had to write the “The Doors: Unhinged” in response to fans who thought he was trying to ruin the Doors.

“…I was trying to preserve the legacy, not tear it down,” says Densmore….

The hubbub began after the surviving Doors were approached by Cadillac in 2002 with a $15 million contract that would include the use of a Doors song. Manzarek and Kreiger were for it; Densmore wasn’t.

“Jim had a spirit that was incapable of compromise. I couldn’t get Jim’s ghost out of my head,” he says.

Densmore says…it’s not the Doors without Morrison….

Densmore and Krieger are in the process of organizing an all-star show of Doors songs in tribute to Manzarek. The pair also got together about eight months ago for the screening of “Mr. Mojo Risin’: The Making of L.A. Woman,” where they played acoustically for 10 minutes.

“It was so sweet,” Densmore says. “All these years of struggles, and then there’s this music that’s in your blood that you’ve played 1,000 times. It only took us a minute to get back to the core of what it was.”

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