Traps Magazine Cues Up Lenny White’s Return To Forever; Historic Hit Man Drum Battles; Progressive Percussionists Of The 70’s; Moments with Miles Davis Discography And Much More

San Jose, Calif., — Enter Music Publishing, publishers of hip, drum/percussion magazines worldwide, today released its Summer Issue of Traps Magazine. Committed to covering “The Art of Drumming”, this issue of Traps extensively explores the history of jazz-fusion drumming through the pioneering players of these highly related genres in 90 pages.

Traps editor, Andy Doerschuk, in his “Entrance” Editor Column, best summarizes this compelling issue of Traps. As he notes: “Our cover stories continue to be the most expert and in-depth drumming coverage you can find, while other stories (covering jazz and fusion) remain focused on pertinent information for the discerning drummer, who wants to learn about the legends, their sound, techniques and gear.”

Lenny White: Reunited With Return To Forever, By Any Means Necessary
Lenny White, without a doubt, is one of the most well respected drummers of jazz and fusion. His incendiary contributions with Return To Forever ignited the fusion era, fusing rock rhythms with jazz harmonies. The passion and zeal with which he attacked the drums in his early days has never dimmed. When Return to Forever decided recently to reunite, White he met up with the other members of the band to rehearse for their upcoming summer tour, even though he was suffering from a broken shoulder and hadn’t actively drummed for nearly four months. As he says in the cover story, “I couldn’t play for 30 seconds on a pad it (the pain) was so bad.” Yet his band mates – keyboardist Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke and guitarist Al Di Meola didn’t notice any difference is his ability to pull of the precision playing necessary to hold down the throne. Bill Milkowski takes the reader on a journey through White’s impressive career, particularly his contributions to Miles Davis’ seminal fusion recording, Bitches Brew, which also included drumming legends Jack DeJohnette and Billy Cobham.

Is the winner Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson or Elvin Jones?
While drum battles are rare today, they were a popular publicity gimmick in the 50’s and 60’s, challenging g the drummers and tantalizing audiences who had the opportunity to witness some of the greatest jazz drummers in history. Writer, Bruce Klauber, takes the reader on a historic tour of these exciting drumming moments. One of the highlights of this story is the ongoing series of drum battles between Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. The battles between these drummers were not meant to be boxing matches for the two rivals had tremendous respect for each other: As Krupa commented, “Anyone that goes up against Buddy in these (battle) situations is going to get blown away.” A discography of rare battles is included.

Brian Blade In A Q & A
During this intriguing article, Blade is asked about how and why Joni Mitchell is one of his heroes. In his response, Blade explains how two of her recordings, Hejira and Mingus, have been influential to his ability to write well-crafted songs, “particularly the harmonic aspects of Hejira,” which continues to impact his writing style.

Six Progressive Percussionists – Miles Camp, Weather Report Syndicate Or Both
These six percussionists – Moreira, Alias, Mtume, Un Romao, Acuna and Badrena – were active participants in the fusion revolution. Generally speaking, they all had “Latin-tinged styles and did stints with Miles, Weather Report, or both. Traps explores the impact of each of these artists and how they’re contributions stand up three decades later.

125 Years Strong – Gretsch Drums
The Gretsch drum company has been building drums in pretty much the same way for 125 years. Played by legends from Tony Williams to Phil Collins, Gretsch remains one of the world’s leading brands. TRAPS photo star Robert Downs and writer Jared Cobb take readers on a photo-essay tour of the Gretsch factory. One thing is quite clear from this story; Gretsch drums will outlive any drummer, based on the fine crafting of these special sounding drums.

Epilogue: A Definitive Miles Davis Discography
As previously discussed, many of the drummers written about in this issue of Traps played at some time in their career with Miles Davis. In a thoughtful introduction to this discography, which is part 2 of an overview of the drummers who worked with Miles, Phil Hood, publisher of Traps, writes, “There is no way to quickly characterize Miles or his music, for he was always in transition.” This discography takes readers through all the musicians who played on his important recordings from 1961-75

Traps Issue Six is now available on newsstands, in music equipment stores and at Borders, Barnes & Noble and other chains in North America and selected foreign outlets.

About Enter Music Publishing
Founded in San Jose, CA in 1992, Enter Music Publishing, Inc. is a leading publisher of drum/percussion magazines, with distribution in 40 countries. DRUM! is the flagship publication of Enter Music Publishing, Inc. and continues to set the industry standard for editorial quality and innovation. In addition to DRUM! And DRUM! Digital, the company publishes TRAPS and HOW TO PLAY DRUMS. Additional information about the company can be found at: drummagazine.com.

Here we go again. Halfway through the slush pile, tossing ‘em aside like pancakes at a Little League fundraiser, and allofasudden whoooaaa Nellie. Hang on, we got us a keeper.

Peter Bloom is a singer-songwriter who learned all the right lessons from John, George, Ringo and especially Paul - not to mention Elton John and John (Five For Fighting) Ondrasik. This is simply gorgeous piano/orchestral-based pop, carried to the next level by Bloom’s insightful lyrics and full-bodied melodic sensibilities.

“Let It Go” is a knockout opener, a mid-tempo plea for resolution whose jangly guitar, thrumming organ and keening string accents help Bloom build to a soaring, affecting climax that sums up everything a good ballad should be.

The orchestral flourishes that open and color the fringes of “Walls” could have been lifted from Revolver, but weren’t; these are original confections using familiar musical parts, every bit as refreshing-yet-familiar as anything fellow Beatlemaniacs like the Redwalls or Fastball have produced.

Not that everything here is that derivative; “Careful” has more of an alt-rock sound, with a stronger guitar line and vocals that remind a bit of Mr. retro-alt-brilliance himself, Brendan Benson. “Afraid” mixes love and politics cleverly, reminding that decisions made from fear are rarely good ones. And “Haven’t Hit The Floor Yet” ditches the piano for acoustic guitar and strings as Bloom plumbs and conquers the depths of despair.

Every song on this disc is solid and smartly crafted, multi-part harmonies (all sung by Bloom) meshing beautifully with appealing arrangements. Further highlights along the way include the rousing gospel-blues thumper “Helping Hand,” the rather Queen-flavored ballad “Please,” and the magnificent, sing-along-inspiring “A Little More Love,” in which Bloom twists Bono lyrics into new shapes (”our hearts bleed as one”) while channeling McCartney’s vocals from “Hey Jude.”

The punchline here comes in the form of Bloom’s one-sheet, which narrates musical tribulations of Dickensian proportions. Starting out in the 90s as the singer/drummer for Montreal alt-rock band The Elementals, Bloom hung in through that group’s metamorphosis into the more traditionalist (and more successful) rock band Furious Styles, even as he battled serious health issues. What’s the worst possible thing that could happen to a singer? Bloom developed a chronic voice disorder (muscle tension dysphoria, or MTD) which prevented him from singing for any significant length of time. As his condition worsened, Bloom sank into a severe depression, eventually losing almost all the hair on his head, face and body.

After a move to Toronto and a career change to radio and voice-over work, Bloom eventually found a voice therapist who was able to help him recover his voice, and with it, his confidence. It’s a tale that might lead you to anticipate overwrought, over-precious and/or oversold music when you put this disc in, but none of those adjectives apply. Bloom has his feet planted firmly on the ground and the only tool he needs to impress here is pure musical talent, gloriously unleashed at last.

Random Thoughts (from a paralyzed mind) is a winning combination of classic pop-rock craftsmanship and genuine, heartfelt performance. Highly recommended.

Rating: A-

https://www.peterbloomband.com
https://www.myspace.com/peterbloommusic

While you are visiting stay a while longer and check out our reviews of Judy Wexler’s jazz standards CD and jazz vocalist Sylvia Bennett’s new album.

Riveting Riffs is, ‘Your Voice For Today’s Music’

When we last left John Corda, in the guise of drum ‘n’ bass superhero Mashed Buddha, on his full-length CD subdue your mind, he was adding elements, musical elements, to a genre that doesn’t go much past mechanical repetition in rhythm and bleating electro sounds for tunes. To this, he added ideas such as composing songs - with themes that are developed, different levels of sound density, build ups and break downs - and adding elements of funk, rare groove, and heavy bass. Mashed Buddha conceives of his songs and his entire records in compositional terms. In other words, on Zen Conspiracy he keeps things moving like in any good story.

The title track has a stately intro and then the jungle groove kicks in like the opening credit sequence of the coolest noir romance. The relentless, ecstatic drum beat undergirds soulful piano, skittering synth sounds, and deep bass that rumbles with syncopation like dub reggae on ecstasy. The break down adds the earthiness of Afro-Cuban drums and percussion and Latin piano loops that evoke noir mystery. The song’s elements mix, match, swoop down and buildup to unexpected plateaus of resolution. Like his preview EP Four Keys to Zen, this record brings in the element of jazz improvisation. Corda plays a solo that jazzes out but in the soul/blues styles of Ramsey Lewis or Stevie Wonder. This organic, earthbound element offers a nice contrast to the electronica, pumping more blood into the music.

Simplicity returns with the brief interlude “Laz” . Based on a simple funky lick and clocking in at about 90 seconds, it still has a verse and chorus, played on rich sounding keyboards and a skittish percussive track over a phat drum beat, which makes this an actual song. This leads to the next cut, “Temptation” . This song has an easy groove that invites sampling for a rapper, but only one that is having an early ’90s flashback. The multiple tracks of clavinet-sounding keyboards are simply fresh. Corda’s solo has an unfettered joy in its tap dancing rhythms and dense melodic runs. The shifting harmonies keep the music from getting static, and the orchestration of the various melodies and sounds, all building off of one simple riff, are a lesson is how to write a killer track. The keyboard runs drop out, multiply, layer over, and move away from each other. Mashed Buddha always has something happening in his songs.

“Hype” shows how much nuanced feeling can be communicated through electronica. The beat, a bouncy soul rock groove that is mixed with a recurring sound of reverse echoes or a camera shutter - hype, ya heard? - and low end synth licks, is perfect for the psychedelic vogueing that is going on… in my mind. Over top of this rolling river of sound are mysterioso vocals of a self-help nature by the mind-bender Uri Geller; who mutters phrases like, “part three stay positive, relaxed and confident” and “part one clearing your mind” that also cleverly herald another instrumental layer or counter melody from the keyboard. Each element added is not only complementary, but of a different texture. After the break down, previously heard parts of the song - Fender Rhodes chords, wailing synthesizers - come back, but in a developed or altered state. The synth gets edgier, the hype shutter sound gets denser, the low end blasts forth with a nasty fuzzzzz sound.

Just when you thought he would wane a bit from the killin’ ideas and playing, he picks up the pace and not only gets more intense, but weirder. “Tryst” is perhaps the quintessential song on the CD. The beat is jungle drum ‘n’ bass at its most frenzied. The keyboard lick is a combination of chords and melody filtered through the densest white noise. The drum beat is mixed with percussive ghosts of sound that flit around like insects. A counter melody plays with a sound like the spectral organ of Mike Ratledge of the Soft Machine. The piece builds like a hiker climbing a slope to the level peak, resting, then climbing the next hill. In the middle of the song, there is the almost traditional electronica break down. But unlike the cliched break with a bleating mechanoid pulse or a wannabe Latin keyboard riff, here the song rolls into a swirling tsunami of electronic and percussive sounds. The crashing of the waves slides into a heavenly cloud of soulful jazz. Here, Corda takes a piano solo that rocks one soulful statement after the other, bringing that old time freedom jazz feeling to end of the musical journey.

“Arcane Persuasion” ends the CD with a slow, stately, Gothic finale. A pipe organ opens, then the bleating mechanoid sound I dissed earlier comes in, but morphs in and out of demented glockenspiel notes and fuzzy tubular bells.

Let’s be clear: I wouldn’t say I’m an electronica fan by any stretch. Most of it is boring and soulless and uninspired. It says a lot about an artist when he can take parts of a style of music one hates and make music one likes. It’s like turning s%$t into gold. His next record should be called The Alchemist.

https://www.mashedbuddha.com
https://www.myspace.com/mashedbuddha

Raya Yarbrough — reshaping jazz an alternative jazz artist

Adrienne Pierce — an alternative pop artist, read Adrienne’s blog and our interview coming later in the week

China Forbes — lead singer for Pink Martini.

Adrienne and Raya are on the front page now, and China will join them by the end of the week.

Riveting Riffs Is Your Voice For Today’s Music

www.rivetingriffs.com

San Jose, Calif., — Enter Music Publishing, publishers of diverse, hip drum/percussion magazine worldwide, has made available its January 2008 Issue of DRUM! In its interactive edition at www.drumdigital.com. The January Issue features the second-line strut of New Orleans drummer, Stanton Moore, hot licks of Mitch Mitchell and four emerging Cowboy drummers, Myron Howell of Jake Owen’s band; Tommy Bales of Flynnville Train, Steve Sinatra of Halfway to Hazard, and Jared Pope of Whiskey Falls.

Stanton Moore could be, as the old adage goes, the hardest-working drummer in the industry these days. As DRUM! Interactive thoroughly investigates, Moore has a rare ability to make virtually any kind of groove “strut.” He has a strong command of the traditional New Orleans style and can acclimate it to any style, from the steady grooves that propel Galactic to his solo albums where he swings poetic. As he says succintly, “Music is a conversation. It just is.”

Moving the meter back in time in “Hot Licks,” Mitch Mitchell, like Moore, has that rare ability to fuse virtually any kind of drum style and make it swing. Perhaps the first drummer to play jazz style in a rock context, DRUM! Interactive focuses on some of his trademark tracks with Hendrix, such as “Voodoo Chile” and “Fire”. Writer, Brad Schlueter, notes that Mitchell’s contributions were essential to the drum vocabulary. Indeed.

“This issue of DRUM! Interactive may be our most diverse to date,” said Phil Hood, publisher of Enter Music Publishing. “While we always try to provide editorial for drummers of all styles, I think we’ve really accomplished that in this issue. Of course, there’s one factor that unites all of these drummers: they have a true command of their respective style.”

Additional features in this issue include: “Experiment In Extemporization,” which describes how an impromptu jazz session led by studio star Luis Conte became his latest greatest. And several others that are really hip, such as “Cowboys Without Hats”. Check out The “Features” section of DRUM! Interactive for additional drumming edge editorial.

Other sections of this issue of DRUM! Interactive include SoundLab, which reviews DW’s Accent CS Custom Elite Drums. The review is highly positive considering the high quality of these drums for a mid-priced kit, according to Schlueter. Meinl’s Roped Tuned Djembes and Dream Cymbals are reviewed as well. (Pages 122-126).

The issue ends as strongly as it opens with Practice Pad, highlighted by great lessons and tips, focusing on the innovative use of the paraddidle. Read on for more classic instruction.

About Enter Music Publishing
Founded in San Jose, CA in 1992, Enter Music Publishing, Inc. is a leading publisher of drum/percussion magazines, with distribution in 40 countries. DRUM! is the flagship publication of Enter Music Publishing, Inc. and continues to set the industry standard for editorial quality and innovation. In addition to DRUM! and DRUM! Interactive, the company publishes TRAPS and HOW TO PLAY DRUMS. Additional information about the company can be found at: drummagazine.com, and drumdigital.com.

These interviews and many more, including a review of blues artist Marcia Ball’s outstanding performance at The Triple Door, are waiting for you at Riveting Riffs (www.rivetingriffs.com), and the best part is you can access the website for free!! Dial in to the magazine that brings you exclusive up close and personal interviews with some of the leading solo acts and bands in the music industry today.

Coming soon: China Forbes the former lead singer with Pink Martini speaks to Riveting Riffs and alternative jazz artist Raya Yarbrough talks about her unique approach to jazz.

www.rivetingriffs.com

Your Voice For Today’s Music