RE: Concert Review: Terry Bozzio

["greg williams" <gregorwilliams@comcast.net>]

Thanks Ted. 

 >I particularly dig the gamelan-like "Gilak Slendro" but the whole disc 
 >is great.

The reason I was lurking around the percussion festival is that the Gamelan
I play with, Gamelan Dharma Santi, played a piece (a lot of gear shlepping
for a whopping 7 minutes of performance). I'll be recording some more
Gamelan-inspired stuff beginning in January, along with some other stuff.
Same format, acoustic guitar and looping. Although after the Bozzio clinic
I've been beating my hands raw practicing "guitar percussion solos", so 
I'll
probably include a little of that as well. I was also really inpired by 
some
of the tone mangling that went on in Santa Cruz, but I don't know how that
will fit into my thing yet.

When are you going to record a new one man? I dig Flux the Flaxen Bear ;)

I'm really glad you enjoy the disc Ted. Take care.
~Greg 

-----Original Message-----
From: tEd R KiLLiAn [mailto:tedkillian@charter.net] 
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2007 5:46 PM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: Re: Concert Review: Terry Bozzio

Thanks for sharing Greg.

Cool folks like that never come to Medford.

BTW, I continue to lisen to and enjoy your CD "Circle of Hidden 
Intentions."

It's in regular rotation on my iTunes at work.

I particularly dig the gamelan-like "Gilak Slendro" but the whole disc 
is great.

Cheers,

Ted (the voice of the bear) Killian

On Dec 3, 2007, at 10:20 AM, greg williams wrote:

> Hello folks,
>
> I had the great pleasure of attending an inspiring Terry Bozzio solo 
> drumset
> performance/clinic last night at CSU Sacramento as part of the schools
> annual "day of percussion" event.
>
> I assume most of you are aware who Terry is and some of the people he 
> has
> played with, including Zappa, Jeff Beck, etc.
>
> I watched his crew setting up his kit (which took three hours!), and 
> if you
> haven't seen it, this thing is a monstrous mutant alien creation 
> consisting
> of chromatically and diatonically tuned toms, 8 diatonically tuned bass
> drums (going down I believe to a low E three octaves below middle C), 
> gongs,
> various world percussion stuff, and tons of stacked cymbals, sorta 
> pitched,
> in layers from low in pitch to high in pitch. Oh, and a snare drum 
> thrown in
> for good measure.
>
> He played pitched solo compositions (with perhaps a little improv) 
> that were
> virtuosic and orchestral in nature, with thought to form, harmony, 
> melody,
> texture, drama and dynamics. At first I looked at the kit and thought, 
> "wow,
> this is overkill", but by the end of his first orchestration, I 
> changed that
> view completely.
>
> It was totally inspiring, and I got a lot of great ideas from both his
> performance and his "chat" with the audience. Something he does is 
> that when
> he wants a sustained note, he rolls the tom very fast. That sounds 
> like a
> normal human thing to do, but in addition, he also performs sustained 
> slurs
> between specific notes in a melody by overlapping his rolls on two 
> different
> toms when transitioning between those specific notes. He also performs
> harmony (four notes total, plus a hi-hat, as he has pedals set up which
> simultaneously play a bass drum AND hi-hat). He does all kinds of
> polyrhythmic stuff with ostinatos, and to boot he is a very dynamic,
> enthralling performer. I caught a couple of Stravinsky and Zappa 
> quotes, and
> he played an excellent orchestration of Ravel's main "Bolero" theme - 
> on a
> freaking drum set!
>
> The concert was totally packed and the buzz afterward was positive in 
> the
> extreme. Check his stuff out when you get a chance. Apparently, he has 
> an
> instructional DVD with the whole shebang included.
>
> Oh, by the way, I am not a drummer.
>
> ~Greg
>