being an all round player

[peter c]

Pedro is the man, down there.
Make no mistake. We just know
little about him, up here.

The same is true for Alex, in
Germany. I'm serious - Touch
his hand and your's burns!

These guys are WANTED! We're
fortunate to know them, here.

[img]smile.gif[/img]

[Randy walker]

Yes it was Spyro Gyra.

The band ended up hiring an unknown cat named Ludwig Alfonso, big in the latin circle of NY/Florida.

This was such a killer experience for me, it was by invitation only, 17 guys were asked to audition for the band and they were such great cats to hang with. Of all the acts and or auditions I have done this was the most laid back, very nice guys to be around.

I flew up to Newark and drove up to Jay Beckensteins place in Suffern, about 45 minutes on the Jersey turnpike. Beautiful studio, a converted old stone barn in the countryside.
http://www.beartracks.com/lodging.html

I arrived in plenty of time even after going into Manhattan by mistake and turning around and getting back on the right highway. geez, pays to have friends everywhere, a good friend and great player in NY saved my ass and lead me back to the GW bridge.
Anyway, I was greeted by Phil Brennan the bands manager and was taken upstairs into the studio, Tom was the first guy I meant and was just waking up, really nice cat. I then met Jay, Scott and Julio.
Very laid back audition, we jumped into playing "Africa" an older tune from the Eli Konikoff era, then we played "SouthBeach", this tune has NO drums, just perc. This was the tune that took skills to a new level.
I was then dropped a new tune to play, something they do live which toggles between latin and swing. Something should be pointed out, we never discussed 'endings' or form. So we played tis tune and Tom played a figure which to me sounded as if we were ending the tune, turned out it's where they wanted me to solo. Duh.........
Out of all the tunes we ended spot on excpet for this one for I had know idea what we were doing and or going with it, oh well. Next we played "Cape Town Love" from the latest cd Original Cinema, again latin feel.
Matter fact all the tunes except Africa were of Latin groove and this is how I knew where they really wanted to go with the band and if you look at the geniology of the band........Eli Konikoff, groove based, Ritchie Morales, groove/light latin, Joel, groove/ more latin. This next cat is heavier than Joel in the Latin stuff. Look for kewl things from him.

"After an exhaustive search and many auditions, Spyro Gyra has found the drummer for the next phase of its recording and touring history. Ludwig Afonso, born in Cuba and raised in Miami, will make his performing debut with the band at the famed Blue Note in Manhattan in April. Ludwig also makes his recording debut with Spyro Gyra on The Deep End, scheduled for release in late May."

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 20, 2004 12:07 PM: Message edited by: Randy Walker ]</font>

[beat Hit]

I'll attempt a meaningful response, myself not being a "Working Drummer".

How far do you go you ask? Hard to say... How much practicing time do you have?

I guess you have to know your limits as to what you can and can't do, being comfortable playing such and such styles. Then strive your very best to be the very best you can be within your own sphere of expertise. Your name will go round with a reputation attached to it. I.E: Great groove player, great site reader, great Latin player, great All Around.

As we all know, very few drummers have the luxury of making a living being a one dimensional drummer like Neil Pert (that's relative to what you're financially comfortable with of course).

I am gonna state the obvious here, if you wanna play for a living, the bottom line is a financial one. So you can only help yourself in working on as much different styles as possible. Making a living playing in a Rock band can take you only so far. Dave Weckl had mentionned in a recent Clinic (or was it in a Drum Mag I got it from?), that he's got friends that restricted themselves playing Rock and they're now making a living selling cars. Nothing wrong with selling cars, but if your original intention was to play music for a living, you setting yourself up for a big surprise.

[Randy walker]

I agree 100% . I got lost somewhere in my ramblings, was trying to say something and it got garbled.
My playing was enough to get noticed by the band and any other gig I have had and or have curently and I feel very lucky to make a living playing drums. I'm not Vinnie or Weckl but that's ok.

[beat Hit]

Just read your reply Randy...

I think it is of great significance for your name to be on the list of selected few!!! As far as you having a reputation as a working drummer, being on the Spyro Gyra list speaks loud and clear, happy for you bro! Keep it up, you're definitly doing something right... [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

[quitou]

heck, even getting a chance to audition with Spyro Gyra is a big deal...I think that alone says alot about how you play the drums...you have to be good and doing something right to get noticed by a band like that [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

[peter c]

Randy,

Great on getting invited. You don't
get invited to do this gig, unless
you can bring something to table.

There are types of music that can
bring out more in the player and at
the same time demand the essentials.
I think Latin is one of those.

I know that I'm preaching to the
choir, in Tombo.

It helps to be comfortable, with
all types of music - even if in
it's just a cursory level, trying
to have patterns ready for what-
ever may be needed. Of course,
these have to be layered over
very well established grooves...

...and remembering that there is
more than one way to skin a cat!

Again, well done, Randy!

[img]cool.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 20, 2004 01:01 PM: Message edited by: peter c ]</font>

[quitou]

Speaking of Russ Miller...I know I have mentioned this before, but his Drum Set Crash Course Series is stellar for learning how to play different styles...I have both the book and DVD and they are both great...he basically takes the most important aspects of each style and shows how to play them...obviously his book just kinda scratches the surface and doesn't go as in depth into, for example latin drumming as a book only dedicated to that style would, but it shows enough to get the job done...if you can play everything in that book, you'll basically be able to sit in playing any kind of music in a convincing fashion.

[editamelc]

there is no way to bring the cuban dances to the drumset if you don't know how to play the different dances on the original instruments!
A cuban drumset player not just plays a clave
with the left foot but can incorporate any melody from any instrument involved in the particular dance - e.g. he plays the bassline on the toms,
a bata hit on the kick, a few accents from a
bongo line and at same time fakes a bell with the left hand. He's even capable of playing
short and long notes on any skined drums as well on the metalstuff.
Not even talking about the temperament one needs to bring it alive...

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 21, 2004 10:36 AM: Message edited by: AngeloClematide ]</font>

[PocketPlayer]

This has been posted, but it's a good read with a lot of experiencial advice from Russ

Russ Miller