Zach Danziger in Los Angeles

[Derek DeFields]

Hasn't happened yet; it's this weekend.

[yamdrums]

Another great record to check out with Zach is "Closer to the Light" by Leni Stern. Especially considering Zach was 16 years old when the recording was made. It's half Dennis Chambers and half Zach, great playing.

[bryan v]

oops... I need to start reading more carefully!
BV [img]graemlins/sleepy.gif[/img]

[ladanny]

So, how was the show???

I want a full report!

Danny

[sjj123]

Not to change the subject but Dereck....man I just stumbled onto your website....great drumming great music and nice web design too. You sure got those Gretsch sounding sweet...wondered if you could hit me with an email...I've got a couple questons

[Randy walker]

Derek is da bomb!

[Derek DeFields]

hah, thanks. I sent you an email and removed your post with your address so you don't get spammed all to hell.

Re: the gig. Yes, Steve and I went. I'll leave him to his own review.

I really enjoyed it. We came into the BP to see a Yamaha Rydeen 4 piece, I think it was 12, 14, 22. Ride on right, crash on left and hats. That's it. All budget line hardware. Clear batters on toms and kick, nothing in the kick.

Scott Kinsey, keyboardist for Tribal Tech was the leader for the gig so most tunes started out with ambient synth patches. (keyboard players and their patches, don't get me started.)

As they kicked into the first tune, you could see immediately that this was no longer the early 20's Zach of the Wayne Krantz days. He was playing WAY loose (Steve pointed out the obvious Elvin influence) and actually somewhat in the vein of Keith Carlock IMO. Tons of ride/snare interplay, most fills done within the context of the time keeping. (phrasing within the ride cymbal/snare patterns) Music was Jazz/Funk, with Zach leaning hard in the Jazz direction and Jimmy Earl on bass going hard in the funk direction. Jimmy sounded about the best I've ever heard him.

Some tunes were done along to sequences being run off Scott's G5 (he had his 23" Studio Display with him too) and Zach had some small Sony earbuds for monitoring.

Highlight was Zach's "comedy interlude" where he put on a wig and sunglasses to address the crowd about the fact that, "there are some problems moving some of these baked potatos, particularly #15 (hot dogs with sauerkraut if I remember correctly) and #13. (this one escapes me) Reverb and delay were added to good effect. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Overall, I thought it was a GREAT gig and very unlike most you see here. The vibe was much more NY and it was a nice hang.

[Steve Holmes]

It was a pleasure seeing Zach, I had not seen him before. The thing I liked the most about his playing was not so much what he was playing, but where he played stuff. He seemed to put phrases in unusual spots, and avoided big downbeats. The was always a nice pulse on the cymbal but never a steady backbeat really. He was making a lot of effort to play loose and sloppy, but the time was never affected. He kept switching from traditional to matched and back again.
He didn't seem very concerned with the tuning of his toms.
He occasionally placed his wallet on his snare drum to give it a different muffled sound. That was cool.
Jimmy Earl is one of my favorite bass players, he's so fun to watch with his intense facial expressions.

[PocketPlayer]

#13 Baked Potato & Corn w/Ham......$8.50

[ladanny]

So, we all know the BP makes drums sound like ass. So how did the cheap drums sound?

I'm bummed I couldn't join you guys! [img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img]

Danny