It may come as no surprise to
many of you reading this (if you know my drumming icon preferences from
visiting the shop) that this review may be somewhat biased towards the
drummer in question. I make no apologies for this. He is (and proved
himself to be yet again) a fantastically gifted drummer with an
extremely studied, yet natural approach to the kit. But I’m getting
ahead of myself…
The night’s proceedings were got
underway by a very apprehensive but outwardly confident Tony Cox, one
of Yamaha’s regional managers who briefly outlined how all of this was
going to go down, before waxing lyrical about Yamaha’s new high end kit.
The kit in question is the PHX
(or Phoenix) series - a totally new hybrid shell concept delivering a
rich and full drum sound with, as Mr Weckl described it, ‘more highs
and more lows’ (and if you had a chance to get a little closer to the
kit on the stage, I think you’d agree that it didn’t look to shabby
either – the video screens that were provided by Yamaha went some way
to giving you that birds eye view though!).
So yes, the kit was absolutely
stunning (I got the chance to get a bit more up close and personal with
it during the afternoon and I can safely say the kit sounded
acoustically brilliant, coupled with being an absolute joy to look at)
and really there was only one man to step up to the plate, give it a
good going over and give us all an idea of it’s potential.
That man is Dave Weckl, one of
the most well respected drummers around today (in fact he’s just been
inducted into the Modern Drummer hall of fame).
It is quite rare these days with
all of the resource that we command at our fingertips to be able to see
a drummer of his calibre up close and personal. He is a very busy
clinician yes, but he is a busier musician (and now producer) and is
very hard to pin down for these sorts of things, a fact that wasn’t
lost on all of the attendees tonight. The air of anticipation was
palpable and Dave wasn’t ready to give in to us just yet as he too took
us on a short tour of his wonderful kit (well, OK, this one was
actually Yamaha’s, Dave is still waiting for his). It is rare too for a
musician of his calibre to show real excitement and enthusiasm for gear
(believe me most of the guys out there just play it because it’s in
front of them), but he did in spades and he should be applauded for it.
Ultimately, we all wanted to see
him play, so he gently brought us in using hands and rods to set up a
beautifully understated and funky vibe which re-enforced the singing
tone and real bite of the kit, washed down with the bright and complex
tones of his cymbal set up (drawn from his signature Sabian Evolution
and Legacy lines). Moving from the rods to sticks brought more of the
kit sound to the fore and the one thing that struck you was the sheer
body of tone produced by the kit.
His skilful use of stick damping
on toms to fragment the grooves he set up, together with his considered
use of his Flying Dragon double pedal meshed in a very natural and
fluid way (echoing the overall relaxed but controlled approach that he
has now). It was like he was playing with a light jazzy ‘DeJohnette’
top underpinned with ‘Bonhamesque’ heavy but swinging feet.
Triplet figures were thrown in as
fills for good measure (bringing many a smile to the seated hordes) and
with a flourish he’d brought it all back down to earth again, edging
the cymbals with his sticks to find an end.
And all this with Remo coated Ambassadors on the whole of his kit, yes, even the bass drums! The man is a tuning god!
Kit ‘preparation’ was then the
name of the game as Dave talked about how he gets the sound that he
does and why (tuning for the mic or tuning for the acoustic only gig).
And this led on to him touching on some of the products he’s had a
hand in developing with the guys at Remo (that being the bass drum and
snare drum dampers) to help him get what he wants (nice, simple, but
very effective devices).
One particular nugget of
information that was imparted that really stuck with me concerned
detuning a lug on a snare drum mid gig to give it a fatter, lower sound
for a particular song. A great trick and superb in its result. And then
it was onto his sticks (he has two signature models, both made by Vic
Firth) and his percussion bits (he used a LP timbale cowbell on the
clinic).
There is no doubt that Dave is a
naturally gifted player who has worked hard during his career to get to
where he is today. And over the years he has used many teachers and
gained invaluable help from every one of them. But the most significant
of all his teachers in recent years is Mr Freddie Gruber who has helped
him ‘naturalise’ his playing style and approach (even to the point of
changing his whole kit layout) and given him, via the ‘Moeller’
technique (see the JoJo Mayer DVD ‘Secret Weapons for the Modern
Drummer’ for a detailed explanation) a much more relaxed, flowing take
on playing drums. As he said, ‘I had to take me out of the way’.
He then ‘Got to It’ (sic) via a
Gary Meek (his sax player in the Dave Weckl band) penned tune (‘Get to
It’) and showed how to nail a track to the wall, in a very natural way
of course!
And with brief foray into some
enlightened Q & A (covering practicing, why he started playing,
being a session drummer, poly rhythms and drumming as an art form and
not a competitive sport (amongst other things!)) his time was
up. However, that wasn’t before he’d given everyone a ‘foundation’
exercise to work on stressing the need to think melody when you’re
going for a fill.
Thanks Dave, that was one of the bits I really will go home and work on…
Cue lots of applause and much whooping and whistling (and repeat). What a great night….
Thanks must again go to Glen,
Lorraine and all the Staff at the Willows, the ever wonderful Arthur
and Clive on Sound and AV, Simon making sure the kit didn’t fall over,
Felicity for looking after Dave and Tony for making it all ticktey-boo.
Until next time, that’s all folks….
Another half baked attempt by Gareth Makin
Lessons now available during the day for those who work shifts.
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JOJO MAYER CLINIC 
AND MASTERCLASS........
Jojo Mayer - Secret Weapons For The Modern Drummer UK Tour - Manchester
Tuesday 2nd September 2008
This was an excellent drum clinic nice to see so many of you there Jo Jo was an amazing cool drummer, not the best communicator. the young drummer of the year brilliant.
An Excellent Clinic on the 22nd of July - Russ Miller - Glad to see quite a few of you there for this event. An excellent in sight into the world of the professional drummer, and what a player!
