'Secrets' reissue

[Paul Marangoni]

You're not fan of his work with Corea Electric Band II ?

[Pocketplayer]

WOW never saw this before of Gary...insane raw power. Talk about a snare tuned high.
Looks super cool as well.

[Gaddabout]

WOW never saw this before of Gary...insane raw power. Talk about a snare tuned high.
Looks super cool as well.

Novak always plays like somebody drank the last beer back stage -- angry. I love it.

[Yussuf]

Novak solos compiled..

[willyz]

Love Novak with AH.

Miss Dave Carpenter though... such a monster. Beautiful player.

[Steve Holmes]

I listened to CCEEBII Paint the World a TON - love that recording. It's been interesting watching Novak evolve over the years. I took a lesson with him years back, it was just a casual hang really. We didn't any drumming, just listened to a CD of me, then I pegged him with questions for a while. He was super nice and had some interesting things to say.

I asked about the switch to Sonor back in the day - he said he did a gig with Chick at a jazz fest and there was no Yamaha rental kit available, so he used Sonor. After the show he liked the kit but Chick actually mentioned to him that the Sonor kit sounded better with his stye, that it was more "his sound" (if I recall the story correctly). Proprietary hardware and lugs plus lack of tour support ended up being a deal breaker for him ultimately (again my recollection of this from years ago - take with a grain of salt).

The "Time Warp" CD got heavy rotation for about year straight - that recorded heavily influenced my straight ahead playing. More specifically, playing phrases a 16th after the downbeat during swing time playing. He does that a lot on that CD (and now I do too). I should get over that. There was an import japanese VHS of Time Warp that was alt takes (I noticed right away on first viewing it was not the same takes than the CD). The CD has better takes but the video seas still cool to see back then. I'm sure it's on YT now.

[Gaddabout]

I listened to CCEEBII Paint the World a TON - love that recording. It's been interesting watching Novak evolve over the years. I took a lesson with him years back, it was just a casual hang really. We didn't any drumming, just listened to a CD of me, then I pegged him with questions for a while. He was super nice and had some interesting things to say.

It's always amazing to me when great players still love discussing their trade. More often than not, you run into guys who've achieved a certain level of skill, play all the time, and all the want to talk about is golf or sports or something. You hear stories like yours and it's good for the soul.