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THE B
LACK
PAGE
JANUARY 2010
Denny SeiwellThe Timeless Art of Responsibility
THE BLACK PAGEJANUARY 2010
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Sean Mitchell PublisherJill Schettler Editor in ChiefJayson Brinkworth WriterRyan Carver Writer
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Denny Seiwell:by Sean Mitchell
Inspiration:by Jayson Brinkworth
Back To Basics:by Ryan Carver
Global Educators Database
The Final Word
Solo drums, beautiful drums, warm drum tones and full-on exhilarating drums. In this double CD, master-mu-sician David Jones has allowed the drums to shine in all their acoustic glory. Not since Gene Krupa in the 1940s or Sandy Nelson in the 1960s have drums been this far out front.
David Jones has long been famous for his utilisation of every conceivable percussive instrument – yes, even the kitchen sink – to make interesting soundscapes and rhythmic flourishes that leave an indelible mark on the heart and soul of his listeners.
Click below to visit www.davidjonesdrums.com.au
For international sales outsideAustralia please click HERE.
May 22 - 23, 2010Savoy Theatre
Glace Bay, Nova ScotiaCanada
Click below to visit www.capebretoninternationaldrumfestival.com
Feature ArtistsChad WackermanMichael Shrieve
Scott AtkinsSkip Hadden Pete Lockett
Danny SeraphineLiberty DeVittoBernard PurdieJerry Mercer
Asani, Ed Mann & Bruce AitkenPaul Wertico
Dylan Mombourquette Chris Sutherland
Roxy Petrucci Carmine Appice Denny SeiwellBill Cobham Virgil DonatiAlan White
John MorrisonSteve Wilton
Dom Famularo
Special Guest StarsSean Mitchell, Ben Ross, Moe Hashie, Mark Marshall, Todd Mercer, and The Pete Lockett Cape Breton Percussion Ensemble.
Legends Award 2010Carmine Appice, Alan White, Jerry Mercer, Roxy Petrucci, Virgil Donati
2010THE YEAR OF THE LEGENDS
A number of years ago, a young drummer, paying his musical dues in the concrete wilds of New York
City, attended an audition that would lead him into the history books. That drummer was Denny Seiwell, and the band was to be called Wings.
Now more than 30 years after the fact, the phone continues to ring off the hook for the in-demand drummer. What keeps the Pennsylvania native busy is well be-yond his incredible skill and technique. Denny maintains a responsibility for the music he creates and the industry in which he flourishes. Not only does he respect his jazz roots and the catalogue of music he has contributed to in days gone by, Denny also keeps his feet well grounded in the present, as a technologi-cal savvy session and studio player.
Denny truly is the stuff legends are made of--99% hard work and a dash of opportunity. In talking with Denny, it is clear now that it is what you do with the opportunity that really counts; for many a player has been content to rest on laurels of past fame and glory. Denny, however, has so much more to give to the music world.
What a great relief to know that Denny still has students. In the age of Pro Tools, Seiwell holds only himself and his musi-cality responsible on any project, for his are the philosophies that will bridge the gap between the old school and the new.
by Sean Mitchell
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Denny, tell me about your dad. He must have been a big influence in your life be-ing that he got you into drumming.
He was a great drummer. He even played a little bit with Tommy Dorsey in the begin-ning. They lived very close to us and they started in Lansford, Pennsylvania—we were from Lehighton, Pennsylvania. My dad was playing with the local big bands; it was a very musical town in those days. He kind of gave it up when I was born. When kids started coming along (I was the oldest), he got a regular job and knuckled down and just worked weekends with the guys [in the band] once in awhile. He put music on the backburner and tried to provide for the fam-ily.
When I was three years old I was hearing him play with the big bands up at the Flag-staff. He talked about how I’d be there in my baby walker. So I grew up with big band mu-sic right off the bat. He played great brushes and just had a real good feel.
When he’d leave the house to go run an errand or something, he’d come home and
I’d be playing on the drums, and he’d say, “Get off my drums, dangit!”
He wouldn’t let me play them but enrolled me in this boy’s band association, and that’s how I started taking lessons when I was seven.
He passed away unfortunately in Septem-ber, 1973. In August I’d left Paul [McCartney] and my dad passed away from a massive heart attack September 28th 1973—just sit-ting at the Friday night high school football game with my mom.
If the Denny of today could give the Den-ny of 20 years ago a piece of advice what would it be?
Well, I guess I would have said learn a little bit more about the business side of the busi-ness. That would have been a good piece of advice to have. You always think that if you fall into a good situation that it’s going to be fair, everything will be taken care of, and you take people for their word. Soon as you start bringing money and music together there’s
something evil that comes up. I wish I would have spent a little more time at understand-ing and knowing how to work all that [busi-ness] stuff—a few costly mistakes.
At one time, you actually surprised Paul McCartney by showing up to a Wings session with the Ludwig kit Ringo used at Shea Stadium. How the heck did you manage to come into possession of that?
Frank Ippolito’s Pro Drum in New York. Frank had called me one day and he said, “I heard that the Museum of Famous People is going out of business in New York and they’re having an auction of the stuff they had on display.”
One of the things they had on display sup-posedly (I’m not even certain if this is true or not) was the kit that Ringo Starr used at
Shea Stadium. He said, “Would you be interested?” I said, “Yeah, man, go for
it.” He calls me a couple days later and he says, “I went to the auc-
tion and guess what? I got the damn kit!” I said, “Great, how much?” He said, “Well, I’m keeping the snare but you can have the bass drum and the two toms for three hun-dred bucks.” I used them on the Ram album. When Paul showed up in the studio he
did a double take because I left the Beatles head on it.
(laughs)
Do you still have Ringo’s kit?
No, I sold it back to the drum shop that procured it for me.
As a player who has not only played for a number of big names, but someone who has been a founding member of a band like Wings, how do you overcome nerves, whether it be onstage or off?
I really don’t get nerves. What I get is a sense of responsibility. You’re not there by accident. You’re not playing with these peo-ple just because of some weird coincidence. You’re there because you’ve earned the re-spect of these people that call you to work with them. After that it just becomes a re-sponsibility that you’re going to do whatever is necessary. You’re going to draw upon the musical reservoir that you have to just do what has to be done.
There’s no time to get nervous; it’s time to get your stuff together. That’s really the bot-tom line. I have to use all my musical sensi-bilities, I have to stay out of the way of the
vocals, and I have to lay down a good solid groove. I want to make the perfect drum part for the song and then play it with incredible virtuosity.
Did you always know that you would end up at this level in the industry, or do you feel you just sort of got lucky? Right place at the right time sort of thing?
There is a bit of luck involved. I was play-ing in a show band up in the Poconos when I first got out of the service. I knew I was good, but I was playing with singers, dance teams, and comedians six nights a week. They were bringing the guys from New York City up on the weekend to augment the band, and some of the top players in the world were brought up to this resort. So they would hear me play. I’d get a lot of compli-ments from the guys, so I felt really good about that.
One day one of the contractors in the city subbed for our bass player and he said, “Man, you gotta get into the city. I’ll get you some recording work.” So that really boost-ed my ego, and I thought, geez these guys say I can be one of the guys that does that kind of work. So I just waited ‘til the oppor-tunity was right. What happened was an-other friend of mine Dave Frishberg (piano
player) told me that Zoot Sims and Al Cohn were going to have an audition for a drum-mer because their regular guy at the Half Note was leaving to go on the road. I went down and played with them—sat in and got
the gig. By having that gig, that’s where you kind of meet everybody in town. They come down to see Al and Zoot on a Sunday night and word goes out that there’s a new kid in town and kid plays his ass off. That’s how it happened for me. So there is a degree of luck.
Then one of the hot cats in town, Joe Beck, heard me playing and started calling me for little projects of his. Pretty soon I was in with some of the cream of the crop guys, and I was just getting more work and better work every month it seemed.
In those days it was easy too because there was so much work there were a lot of guys in the same boat. That’s how I met Paul [McCartney]. I just happened to be one of the top ten guys that was doing all the best work in town. When he came to town [to record] Ram, he said, ”Who are the top guys doing the sessions?” My name was in that batch.
Fair to say, it takes a little luck, but a lot of hard work and being prepared as well.
Oh yeah, you have to come in with your ass through the door. You really have to come in [the studio] with a degree of confidence, knowing what to do and knowing what not to do as well. Recording is different than play-ing live. You gotta really edit yourself; boil it down to the meat and potatoes. Sometimes there’s no room for anything but laying down a groove for the music to happen. Knowing what not to play is almost more important than knowing what to play.
It still amazes me today when I hear Steve Gadd or listen to the old recordings of Jeff Porcaro--the space that he used to leave in the tracks that he recorded. He still blows me away.
Being that you were a collaborative force in Wings, can you tell me, in your opin-ion, what is it about Paul McCartney that keeps him so relevant generation after
generation? Why do they keep coming back for more?
It’s magic. (laughs) I’ve played with some of the heavyweights of our time, but McCart-ney has a gift—whether he’s picking up an acoustic guitar and just noodling around, or sitting at the piano, or playing a bass part. Whatever he does is just so unique. When he’s performing, playing, singing or writing, he’s just in a place of his own. I’ve yet to see that kind of talent in anyone that I have run across. That’s why people keep coming back. Today, if you listen to the songs that
inspired a generation, or more than a generation, they’re still as meaningful as they were thirty or forty years ago. Granted some of the newer stuff doesn’t have the weight that it did, but I can’t imagine many songwriters of anytime that have a body of work to be as proud of as him.
What was the pro-cess in the studio for drum parts?
Paul wrote the songs. He would come in with the songs, and he’d
play it for us, and then we’d start learning a part that would fit
the song. The only time I remember Paul ever giving me any ideas was during Ram, like “Uncle Albert” or something. He didn’t tell me not to play certain things, but he’d say, “You know, that part you’re playing, I wish it could find something that wasn’t so
much a regular drum part. Can you find something a little different that went along with the melody?” And I said, “Oh, yeah okay!” So he just told me to find something a little more different, and that was great fun for me. If you listen to the drum track for “Uncle Albert” it’s some goofy stuff that
really works. And his music allowed me to get out of that capsule of just being a “drum-mer.” There’s only a handful of beats that get used on every record you’ve ever heard, and so, to come up with some creative new stuff was beyond fun.
There you are, not just a young guy play-ing with Paul McCartney, but a drummer creating history. That must have been a fairly heavy realization when you landed the gig.
Very much so. During the Ram album, ev-eryday [McCartney would] come in and he’d play us the song we were going to work on that day. Hugh McCracken or [David] Spi-nozza and I were the only other guys on the record, and we’d just look at each other af-
ter hearing the song and say, “This music is serious.” You know, we’re doing records every couple of days—we’re doing another record in the studio with James Brown or John Denver—but this was like so much deeper than what we were used to. So we knew it was going to be timeless right then
and there. That sets you up for what’s to come, you know. You just really say, “Okay, man, this song is going to be heard for 50 years or more. I’d better come up with a re-ally bitchin’ drum part.” There’s that respon-sibility thing that I was talking about earlier.
Denny, what is your take on reunion tours? Is there a feeling that maybe some bands shouldn’t do reunions and some should, or should everyone have a crack at it?
There are some bands—I won’t mention them—but there are some bands that don’t need to do a reunion. But I love to see these guys get out there and do it if it still works. I think it’s just marvelous because the busi-ness [of today] has changed so much, the
Photo: Alex Solca - www.alexsolca.com
musical taste has changed so much, what gets played on the radio has changed so much. I don’t think the kids get a fair shake. They don’t have a wealth of music like we did when we were growing up to draw from. I think the teenagers of today are getting short changed by the music industry—and technology as it’s gone.
From your experience, where do you see technology headed in the music indus-try? Are we in need of an industry over-haul?
We really are. You know, I teach a lot of young students, and I really want to inspire them to go and make records and teach them how to get into that head of being a studio musician—learn what to play the first time and be able to perform that. But to tell you the truth, I don’t know if those days are ever going to be back again. I just put in a Pro Tools home studio. I miss playing with the bands, where you’re all together in the same studio, you know, playing off of each other, bouncing ideas off of each other. Now
it’s all done at somebody’s home studio track by track. Then when they get around to the drums they’ll put a machine on it and they’ll send it over to me. I’ll wipe the ma-chine off of it and try to put live drums on it and try to ignore the click to really make it feel like a human feel, even though they’ve got it narrowed down to a perfect tempo us-ing a click track to record it. I’ll try to make that breathe a little bit. It’s not nearly as re-warding, but that’s the way it’s gotta be done these days.
Big studios are going out of business, and people don’t spend that kind of money on records anymore. Everybody’s got a home studio, a computer and Pro Tools. It’s like isolation booths for musicians. You don’t really get that magic that happens. That’s why I still play jazz. I need to get that thing that happens that we can’t put a name on—when you’re playing and somebody plays something that makes you play something else. You play off of each other and every-body inspires everybody else. God, there’s nothing better than that.
If you could put to-gether an all star band of players past and present, who would you invite along?
Well, you’d have to make McCartney the piano player and singer in that case. I’d have my buddy Chuck Di Monaco be the bass player. I don’t know. If I had to do a tour of the music that I really wanted to do maybe there would be some-one like John Coltrane on sax and Bill Evans on piano and Chuck Di Monaco on bass. It cer-tainly wouldn’t be pop music with those kinds of people. Even Miles Davis. I’m sorry that I missed a chance to play with Miles. I’m from that school. The first record I made was a jazz re-cord and I’m still partial to that. I’m still partial to the Brazilian music, the Samba stuff. [The sing-er] in that band might be Astrud Gilberto who I used to work with years ago.
Tell me about your DVD “Performance and Legends Award Ceremony”.
I was up at the [Cape Breton Internation-al Drum festival] two times. The first time I was up, Bruce [Aitken] had a local cable com-pany film it. They filmed everybody’s clinic at the festival that year. Some of it was good, but it had a lot of problems to it. Then the second time I was up for the Legends award, they filmed it again and this time it was a little bet-ter so I just put the two years together and took pieces from each one and turned that into a clinic if you will. There’s some jazz tracks, there’s some big band stuff, there’s an orches-tral piece that I do. The DVD opens up with “Live and Let Die”--I’m just playing along with the original tracks. I just picked the best pieces out of these two years performances, put it to-gether and Drum Work-shop helped me edit it down and put some bells and whistles on it and that’s the DVD.
What is some ad-vice you can give to younger players in the industry to be more business savvy?
New from DW DVD,The Love Project Journey.
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There’s no better holiday gift for a drummer than pure inspiration. DW DVDs are not the
instructional videos of the past, they’re a look inside a drummer’s head, their dreams,
their story, their life. Get your favorite drummer what they really want this holiday
season, get them a DW DVD.
Well, anytime you’re entering into a situa-tion that’s going to yield some money, it’s just nice to have it in writing, whether it’s a letter of agreement or an actual contract or something. So much of it when I was doing the thing was all done on a handshake and there was actually no documentation. It’s just not a good thing.
Even if you’re writing a song with some-body, you might not do anything with the song for ten years, then all of a sudden that song might be the perfect song for some artist. And if you didn’t have an agreement with your partner, you might loose a friend-ship over who wrote this thing—How come you’re getting all the money from it? Pay at-tention to these little things as life roles along and make sure that everybody is covered.
What do you have coming up in the next few months?
May 15th and 16th, I’m going to be perform-ing in Chicago at the Chicago Drum Show. I’ll be doing the clinic there. The following weekend the 22nd and 23rd I’ll be performing up at the Cape Breton International Drum Festival. During the time between now and May I have my compliment of students that I work with. I’m always looking to record my jazz trio with a young fellow by the name of Joe Bagg and John Cudini the guitar player. We had a regular gig there for a little while, so I’m looking to do some more of that. I want to record that trio so I have some of that stuff to play with in these new clinics that are up and coming. I’ve got a whole bunch of tracks from people all over the place that have heard about my drum room and their sending me tracks to put drums on. Going to keep me very busy. c
Denny’s Legends Award
Performance DVDis available
online.Click HERE to
purchasethe DVD.
INSPIRATIONby Jayson Brinkworth
W elcome to 2010. I am proclaim-ing this coming year to be the year of great inspiration. What
does this mean exactly? How can I make this statement so early in the year? Have I had a little too much holi-day cheer?
I believe that as a musician we should always surround ourselves with music and musicians that inspire us to do our very best all of the time. I know this isn’t always possible, but we should aspire to it as much as we can.
But music is not the only strong force of inspiration. Inspiration can come from other areas such as family, friends, a good book, a great movie, and the list can go on and on. When we feel inspired, it seems as though the sky is the limit (which it always is anyhow), and nothing can get in the way of us working towards our goals and dreams. When I am asked who has inspired me as a drummer, the answer can go on for days: Jeff Porcaro, John Bonham, Billy Ward, Buddy Rich, Steve Gadd, Manu Katche, Shannon Forrest, Kenny Aronoff, Vinnie Colaiuta and about a hundred more. Although the work of these brilliant musicians will always inspire me to be a better player, sometimes I feel that the daily inspiration that I am directly connected to has as much, if not more, impact on my playing. I have split my forms of inspiration into the two following categories: indirect and direct. Just note that one is not better than the other. We need both to be inspired to always do our best.
I N D I -R E C T I N S P I -RATION
Indirect inspiration is made up of the music we listen to, musicians we look up to, gear we wish we had, books we read and much more. I know people will argue that the music we listen to can also be direct, but unless we wrote it or participated in the piece, I view it as indirect.
This inspiration is the one that most of us acknowledge and look at as our driving force. We will obviously be inspired by the great music out there: Steely Dan, Toto, John Coltrane, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, James Brown, Motown, Jeff Buckley, The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac—this list goes on for days.
Listening to this music and studying the great players is a must and should push us to new heights in our own music. It would be unbelievable if we had a direct connection to this inspiration—a lunch date with Ringo, see a Stones show in the evening and drinks later on with Mick Fleetwood. I am sure there are only about five people in the world that could have this as their direct
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inspiration. For the rest of us, it remains an inspiration but on the indirect side—but it is still an inspiration. Some of my recent indirect inspirations have come from really listening to Steve Jordan’s playing, reading Paul Shaffer’s book “ We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives”, listening to the latest Jay-Z CD and the latest CD by Them Cooked Vultures (you all need this, by the way).
DIRECT INSPIRATION
I view direct inspiration as the elements around me that I have contact with on a daily basis. These include my wife, who is a great musician in her own right—she won’t let me pull any ego or BS about the music industry. My kids, who work their butts of at school and try their very best at all they do. My dad, who is the hardest working man I have ever known and has a heart the size of Canada. My students, who put up with my nagging and constant pushing to make them better drummers and discover their talents.
This list can go on for a while, but you get the idea. Our direct inspiration has a great effect on us, as it is in contact with our emotions everyday. I know, for myself, that when I am away playing and I know that my kids are happy, I can play my very best.
Also knowing that my heart is in a good place with my wife by my side inspires me to push beyond my limits. As well, working my hardest and trying my best is my gift back to my parents who taught me these important lessons.
Here is an exercise for you to try. Make a list of five people or things that can be a direct inspiration to you. These don’t have to just inspire you musically; they can be on a spiritual level as well (this also affects our music). Once you have your list, beside each inspiration write down as many ways that this person or object directly inspires you. It can be a good friend who comes out to every show you do, who is willing to help you pack up at the end of a gig and who keeps you honest and grounded in this crazy music industry.
Some of my recent direct inspiration has come from my dad, my Black Beauty snare drum, killer tunes I played on in a December session, watching my kids play hockey, hearing my wife sing and play piano, and our cats.
As I stated before, neither category of inspiration is better then the other. In fact, they both need to work together for us to all reach our potential. The idea is for us to understand what inspires us and to gravitate and aspire to this all of the time in 2010 and beyond. c
Jayson Brinkworth is an accomplished drummer, percussionist, vocalist, educator and writer. Click on the link below to visit him online.
www.jaysonbrinkworth.com
www.carverdrums.com
Back To Basics: by Ryan CarverI decided to throw a curveball out here. You can easily say I can play these and ignore the lesson here, or you can take the challenge and see what you can do with them. Almost every drummer has a hard time laying back. First, you have to want to lay back. I play in alot of groups, and I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills if I did not enjoy playing these grooves and putting my all into making them feel good. Try to play each one for a couple minutes straight without budging. Try to swing each one. Then try to groove on each one and slowly start to embelish on it. Be true to the challenge because you will only be hurting yourself. I can name hundrds of songs that use these drumbeat and take almost any comples pattern and break it down to one of these. Think of this as your foundation in drumming. Enjoy this exercise. It is what you make of it. All of the true masters of the drumset have a mastery of the basics. Enjoy. Let me know how you do.
Ryan Carver is a world reknown educator with a private practice based out of Brick, New Jersey. Click on the link below to visit him on the web or to email Ryan your questions and groove re-quests. For videos of Ryan’s lessons click on his Youtube link.
Dan SlaterMelbourne, VictoriaContact Info:[email protected]
Bruce AitkenMarion Bridge, Nova ScotiaContact Info:[email protected]
Jayson BrinkworthRegina, SaskatchewanContact Info:[email protected]
Adam HayToronto, OntarioContact Info:[email protected]
Sean Jesseau: Music WorkshopThunder Bay, OntarioContact Info:[email protected]
Hand drumming/kit drumming
THE BLACK PAGE WANTS YOU
The Black Page is looking for a few good educators. The Global Educa-tors Database is published every month in The Black Page. To submit your contact info to our database, email Sean at: [email protected]
Listing is free for all pro/semi-pro educators. Please provide reference material to be considered.
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Mike MichalkowVancouver, BCContact Info:[email protected]
Randy RossWoodstock, New BrunswickContact Info:[email protected]
Chris BrienKowloon, Hong KongContact Info:[email protected]
Stefano AshbridgeLos Angeles, CaliforniaContact Info:[email protected]
Jake BurtonNashville, TennesseeContact Info:[email protected]
Ryan CarverBrick, New JerseyContact Info:[email protected]
Chris DeRosaNew York, New YorkContact Info:[email protected]
Dom FamularoNew York, New YorkContact Info:www.domfamularo.com
Sean J. KennedyAmbler, PennsylvaniaContact Info:[email protected]
CHINA
USA
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Intermediate to Pro Level
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Click below to visit www.drummerconnection.com
The most complete online drum community.
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Best wishes from everyone at THE BLACK PAGE.
