Sunday, October 15, 2006

What's in the car this week

1. Grant Chamberlain - Colombo Beast.

I bought this in Colombo. It's got my latest drum hero, Shiraaz Nooramith, on drums. Great Jazz album with top quality musicianship all round. The kind of drumming that makes me smile.



2. Mimosa's unmixed 3 track demo

Because I love it. It's not mixed yet, hence the "unmixed" bit, but it's just wicked. If I could record it again there's a couple of things I'd change in my playing, but overall it's something I'm dead chuffed with.

3. Alun Harries - Back to front

My first good drum teacher's album. I don't know what it's like yet, I only got it today.

4. Dawn Penn - No, no, no.

I got a phone call the other day from a brilliant local singer. The band she fronted for a long time has split and she's looking for a drummer for a one off gig in December. Afterwards there may be other stuff too, depending on the outcome and how the band gets on. It's a mixture of originals and covers and the song "No, no, no" is one of the covers she mentioned. I read that the album features, and is produced by Sly and Robbie, one of the best rhythm sections of all time, so I thought I should revisit it.

5. Bernard Purdie - Master drummers Volume 1

This is 12 tracks of funky drum grooves meant for DJs and samplers to use in their work. It takes a special breed of person to be able to listen to a whole album's worth of just drum kit, nothing else. That breed of person is a total drum bore and that total drum bore is me.

6. Various - Prestige funky beats

A compilation of old funky songs played by old funky drummers. From "Shaft" by Bernard Purdie (see above) to "Super Bad" by Idris Muhammad you just know from the titles and names that there aren't going to be many white geezers on this Mutha.

Groove on down and say "owww".

10 comments:

Rhythmic Diaspora said...

Naz - Billy Cobham is someone that I haven't studied as much as I should have. I missed last year's WOMAD drum thing in CMB by about a week and was gutted! He's playing here in London next weekend at a drum show so I might get along and see that if I can. You've prompted me now to order some Mahavishnu Orchestra stuff. Nice to meet you at last!

Anonymous said...

Wait...Billy was in Colombo last year? Am I reading this right or have I totally gone insane? If he was, then I didn't recognise him at all. Jesus Christ..how could my drumming God be in front of me and I miss him?

Anyways, if you need some Mahavishnu Orchestra I could upload it for you to check. The first three albums were with Billy; the rest with someone whose name I can't recall at the moment (but was just as good).

-Theena

Rhythmic Diaspora said...

Theena - Good God mate, where were you? He played all over the place in the Womad festival of drums, including that big show on Galle Face Green. I can't believe you missed it, but then again, neither can you! I think the other drummer you are talking about is Jan Hammer. He went on to produce and compose but is still a great drummer.

Anonymous said...

Nah..Hammer was a part of the original lineup on keyboards. It was either Narada Michael Walden or Danny Gottlieb .

Anyway, I was retarded to miss Cobham while he was right in front of me.

Rhythmic Diaspora said...

Theena - You're right, my mistake. It was Narada Michale Walden not Jan Hammer. I don't think Danny Gottlieb ever played with them though. Didn't you get to see any of WOMAD?

Anonymous said...

Luckily, I saw most of the second day. There was a techo band from UK called The Bays who cooked up quite a trippy atmosphere. Basic setup: Drummer, bassist, keyboard and a guy on laptop handling samples. They are pretty unique. From UK too. You should really check them out cause they are brilliant live.

The grand finish for the whole festival was on another level though. They brought drummers from around the world - Kandyan, Carnatic, two drum kit players (I am guessing one of them may have been Billy Cobham), African drummers, drummers from Asia Pacific. All in all, for someone who loves fusion music - and I do - it was mindblowing.

Rhythmic Diaspora said...

Naz - I need to ask you a question about a drummer that my parenst saw playing at Barefoot.

Anonymous said...

http://www.billycobham.com/pg/pg.php?gallery=WOMAD
Check this out, guys. So I did see him. Just didn't realize it was him.

Rhythmic Diaspora said...

There you go Theena - It all turned out ok!

Rhythmic Diaspora said...

Naz - Can I email you because it's quite a long question? Yes there is a kind of family connection between Dom and me. Can I get your email address, I promise not to publish it