My love affair with odd meters started back when I was in high school. Sparks flew the first time I heard “The Inner Mounting Flame” by The Mahavishnu Orchestra. Billy Cobham’s drumming was the perfect combination of technique, musicality and intensity. I was fifteen years old and immediately became fascinated with learning how to play in time signatures like 7/8, 5/4 and 9/8. Suddenly, all of those INXS albums seemed so boring.
Billy Cobham
I went out and bought the subsequent Mahavishnu albums including “Birds of Fire” and “Between Nothingness and Eternity”, but it was Billy Cobham’s 1973 solo album, “Spectrum”, that ultimately made the biggest impression on me. From the album’s opening track, “Quardrant 4″ (a double bass shuffle that makes the intro to “Hot for Teacher” seem like a walk in the park), to the ultra laid back closer, “Red Baron”, Spectrum is the ultimate study in fusion drumming. Billy’s playing is both both virtuosic and inspiring, while always remaining musical.
Loop #24
Big Hats
In honor of Billy, here’s my first odd meter loop (in 7/8). For this very special occasion, I decided to pull out my “big” hi hats, which are essentially a 17″ K dark crash on the top and an A Custom on the bottom. The sheer size of these cymbals tend to add some extra weight to the feel, while the hand hammered tonalities of the K keep things nice and dark. I invited Jan Hammer to come jam on some keytar but unfortunately, he was already hangin’ with Crockett and Tubs. Maybe next time?
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Ryan
A big thank you. Way cool site!
You are rockin the number one slot as my first RSS read in the AM. A daily soulful refreshment.
And thanks for the link to Matt’s PT tutorials… way nicely done. Do you know of any similar L8 free tutorial sites? I am always looking for a new tip.
Look me up if you are in LA. Would love to hang.
-gg
oh… and by the way… hit us with an Al Jackson mallet-on -the-conga on two and four groove. Great for the love song writers.
Hey Gary,
Thanks for the kind words. Glad you’re digging the site. Unfortunately, I’m not aware of any L8 tutorial blogs like Matt’s. This is probably while I just keep turning knobs, clicking on random plug-ins and moving stuff around until it sounds half way decent.
I’ll definitely let you know when I’m back in LA. Drinks are one me…. as long as you promise to tell me some Tony Williams stories! There are more than a few Tony-inspired loops in the pipeline.
-RG
thanks Ryan. The first edition of this group was terrifying live, they harnessed Hendrix to Trane. Beck’s Blow by Blow always gets the raves from that period, but he was in kindergarten next to these men.
I know I am sounding like the oldster I so obviously am..but there was a period when the MO, the first two Weather Report versions (pre Jaco, especially with Al Johnson), Miles with Pete Cosey and Reggie Lucas, Herbie with Paul Jackson and Mike Clarke and Return to Forever (with Bill Connors, not Al) were making amazing, boundary breaking music every gig. This was before “fusion” became a dirty word, before it became the chops fest competition of the later 70′s..It burned out quickly, but it was spectacular to hear ANY of these groups live then. Something you looked forward to, bought tickets in advance for.
Strange too that the 1st MO album (with the Noonward Race, one of my faves) actually got to about 85 on the POP charts in 1972.
One of the oddest bills I ever saw (beside Weather Report opening for The New Riders of the Purple Sage…) was Aerosmith opening for the 1st version Mahavisnu Orch at the old Kinetic Playground in Chicago. Embarrassing Baby Boomers give a lot of twaddle time to Harold Smith, but back than, if you had a brain in your head, you could hear what music was supposed to sound like, and what dumbed down ‘merika thought it should sound like, ie a Rolling Stones tribute band. Billy Cobham and Jan Hammer especially..could rock harder without breaking a sweat than those clowns ever could.
hey john,
where are these bootlegs?? didn’t you sneak your zoom h4 into the show? I missed out.
-rg
Actually, I used to sneak my Telefahnkin’ wire recorder into the shows, but I always ran out of wire spools 1/2 way through Chick doing “Intergalactic Scientology Handjob Maidens of the 9th Nebula”, so, you know. It was also pretty hard as the machine is 6 feet by 4 feet and weighs 2 tons. Sometimes I could do it by dressing it up real purty, refer to it as “my date” and paying an extra cover. or two.
However..I DO have some boots of Miles from ’71 to ’75 that would kick yer young impertinent yet humorous and talented whippersnapper butt all the way to the 9th Nebula… if you would like them..just ax, baby. The ones from Lennies on the Turnpike with Jack D and the guy who keeps muttering when he plays the “fender rhodes” are pretty.. good.
Gary & Ryan –
If it’s Logic Pro 8 you’re referring to, I have 2 great sites to visit which will tutorialize your life for the next 3 months:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=SFLogicNinja&view=videos
http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials
Enjoy!
BR
[...] installment of my loop of the week series. This is not wholly my creation. I took the loop from Ryan Gruss’ daily drum loops and added the bass and [...]
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