The Friday Morning Listen: Terry Bozzio - Solo Drum Music
Published November 16, 2007
A music store not far from me used to put on clinics featuring various rock musicians. It was really a great deal, because your ten dollar ticket could be redeemed for store merchandise. At the time, I was playing in a band and was going through a couple of sets of guitar strings each week. At separate clinics, for slightly more than the price of two packs of Ernie Ball Regular Slinky's, I got to see Blues Saraceno, Carl Palmer, and Terry Bozzio.
Bozzio was by far my favorite.
I knew who he was (that he'd played in Missing Persons and also with Zappa) but wasn't all that familiar with anything he'd done. He walked out onto the stage, a slight man dressed in black, and sat behind his large kit. After twenty seconds or so he took a breath, exhaled, and attacked the drums. It was a little scary, as he seemed to gather up and then release a huge amount of energy. The solo he played contained more melodic elements than any drummer I'd ever seen: tuned drums, ringing rototom castings, China boy cymbals exploding into showers of white noise. He was definitely keeping time, but was also playing music.
During the Q&A session afterwards, somebody asked him to relate his Frank Zappa audition experience. This story is the stuff of legends. Zappa had two kits set up on state at their rehearsal space. As one drummer tried out, the next would be setting up and getting acclimated to the kit. Bozzio said that the tryout involved some scary sight-reading as well as an exercise where he would listen to a minute of Zappa and his band playing a bit of music before having to take over the drummer's role and attempt to repeat that segment with the band. The song Frank chose was "Approximate." Go ahead and listen to Zappa's You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. II. It seems impossible to me that somebody could ingest that music in sixty seconds. The story ends with Zappa saying that he'd like to hear Terry play again after all of the other guys are done... except that after hearing Terry's audition, all of the other prospective drummers walked out!
Bozzio has gone on to play with a long list of pop, rock, and jazz musicians. Though I love his work with Polytown (Mick Karn, David Torn), my favorite Bozzio collaboration was with Tony Hymas and Jeff Beck on Beck's Guitar Shop. If you don't have that CD, you should order it today. No, right now!
This solo record illustrates how Bozzio is able to fit melodic patterns over an ostinato. It's not an easy task to make drum music interesting to the average listener. Terry Bozzio has the chops and imagination to make it seem completely natural.
Mark Saleski is a writer and music obsessive based out of the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. On his best day, he hopes to channel the ghosts of Lester Bangs and Jack Kerouac. He spends the hours of 9:32PM to 1:37AM carving out music reviews and essays for Jazz.com, Blogcritics.org and other publications.
- The Friday Morning Listen: Terry Bozzio - Solo Drum Music
- Published: November 16, 2007
- Type: Review
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Jazz, Music: Pop, Music: Rock
- Part of a feature: Friday Morning Listen
- Writer: Mark Saleski
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Comments on this articleComments
yeah, his four-limb independence was truly freakish. it almost made me uncomfortable watching it.
nice bit, Mark...
/golfclap
but i've always liked this bit better - with Zappa
enjoy...
Excelsior?
that's a good solo gonzo. the one i picked is there to illustrate his melodic side.
for the Zappa stuff, also gotta put a word in for The Black Page.
Terry Bozzio and Vinnie Colaiuta = the great drummers of their era. Terry gets bonus points for having a fucking hot wife. :-)
Black Page is awesome...
but this one is what turned me on to Bozzio, way back when...
top drummers to me, in no particular order
Bozzio (Zappa)
Peart (Rush)
Danny Carrey (Tool)
Tim Alexander (Primus)
honorable mentions to Chad Wackerman, Bill Bruford, and Vinnie Paul
your mileage may vary...
Excelsior?
Let's not forget real talent when being a drummer meant just 3 or 4 skins and more speed than the human body could handle.
Dave
dave, i sat here thinking for a few minutes...."is his link gonna be Buddy Rich or Gene Krupa...Rich...Krupa....?"
ok, i guessed wrong!
you're right though, Krupa was amazing.
Bozzio did a couple of records with Tony Levin and Steve Stephens which to me are most notable for that "melodic" drumming you speak of and pretty little subtleties galore. Levin and Stephens take a back seat to him on these records and it's not like those guys are slouches, either.
I gotta give Mr.Bozzio his due credit! I love the Calypso style he's got on that youtube video...Gene Krupa & Buddy Rich are absolutely amazing.
Unfortunately, the drummer that ruined it for me was Akira Jimbo. That man is devastating & innovating with 4-limb independence. He is truly a one man band.
This one is just for fun...
that drum duet thing is really cool. love it when they lay back and just play kick and sticks.
i think the best "drum" solo i ever saw was done by Roy Haynes. Roy Haynes and his high-hat. that was it. really incredible.
I'd have to say my personal favorites are:
Akira Jimbo(Casiopea,Solo)
Mike Portnoy(DT,Liquid..)
Gene Hoglan(Dark Angel,Death,SYL)
Asgeir Mickelson(Spiral Architect)
Martin Lopez(Amon Amarth,Opeth)
Tim Alexander(But,not w/Primus..I like his work w/Attention Deficit)
Marcel Dissantos(Atheist - Elements[CD])
interesting. i liked Alexander with Primus, even if he did sound a little "Neil-like".
Yea, that's why i like his work outside of Primus. He's got the chops not to be pigeonholed & a style all his own...Rock/Jazz fusion.
Vic Stevens has a similar style...
hey, you need to email me that link you posted somewhere a while ago that had examples of your drumming.
Now, don't go comparing it to these Gods of Drum but I like it because it was all completely improv recorded straight to CD. This was only the second time we jammed together.
The Improv Project
ok..it's a poor clip, but the only one...
my former guitar and drummer, in their current band
a Thousand Knives of Fire
as i said, a poor clip...does them NO justice, and what they are playing now is far different than what we were doing 10 years ago...but if you listen for the drums...you can get a small taste of Dr. Dan's awesomeness
they are on MySpace..and worth a night out if the come around to your part of the world ...
Excelsior?
Kenny G has gone off to help the cyclone victims of Bangladesh, so I have been allowed five minutes of free time to surf the internet on my own.
I have always been partial to Greg "Gigi" Gonaway on this
track. His subtlety, his timing, his cymbal work, all very impressive.
i could have sworn the g man's drummer was named "casio".
you'd better have been talking about Kenny G-man
heh
Excelsior?
Lots of good stuff and clips. As for melodic drummers-check out Kofi Baker. Learned a lot of stuff from his dad (Ginger Baker-Cream) but takes technique and phrasing up a notch...or two.
I've seen Kofi a few times in a band called with OHM with Robertino 'Pags' Pagliari on 6-string fretless bass and Chris Poland, formerly of Megadeth, on guitar. They will blow your mind, especially Pags. You can't take your eyes off him when he plays
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That is insane. Absolutely insane. The independence and dexterity needed to do what he's doing just boggles my mind and I'm not even a drummer.
As much as I love Guitar Shop, the two Bozzio Levin Stevens discs and Polytown are right up there with it. It's one thing to watch this guy solo and another to hear how he manages to fit this kind of style into a band sound. Whatever it is, it winds up coming out exotic sounding.