House of Drumming.com

Was just looking over some stuff on the old board and found this thread:

http://www.houseofdrumming.com/forums/v ... ank+briggs

However, it seems that Len Davis site is down now and the podcast is unavailable so I was wondering if someone would be kind enough to share both parts of the interview here for those of us that missed. Much appreciated:

www.filedropper.com is a good sharing website

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/438863/Len_Davi ... Part_1.zip



http://dl.dropbox.com/u/438863/Len_Davi ... Part_2.zip



check in about 30 min. I'll leave it up for a few days.

Thank you deseipel, looking forward to listening to it!

Edit: Wow! I can't believe that Vinnie missed some Steely Dan gigs and a tour to Japan with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter!

What does Vinnie think of the digital revolution and recording his playing?

Session 2 @ 22:22

Much discussion about why he gets "sand in his vag"...listen to the man himself.
This explanation is very consistent as to why he booked like a madman after the
guy video taping him when I saw the Jazz Ministry after a NAMM show years ago.

He's pretty articulate about it and passionate...to say the least. Should put the
"why" to rest. In brief, "it is a lack of respect and depersonalization in a digital society."

Personally I don't see it all being as "dark" as he is. Digitilsation is great IMO. As the crack down on illegal downloads continues on and more sources of getting music downloaded legally such as itunes come online I think that the money will start to flow back in. I agree though that it gives some people the chance to hide and steal stuff but I think looking at the overall picture, facebook/internet/digital video and audio/youtube have done more good than bad.

S.P wrote:I think looking at the overall picture, facebook/internet/digital video and audio/youtube have done more good than bad.

Give it a few more years, and then you'll see the irreparable damage it's done. With fewer ways to earn a living, fewer musicians will devote the time to the craft. You'll see more and more hobbyists and vanity projects, and less groundbreaking visionaries. Even now, everything is pretty much derivative to the extreme. Eventually, everything will just be about nostalgia.

"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice. There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia." - Frank Zappa

S.P wrote:As the crack down on illegal downloads continues on and more sources of getting music downloaded legally such as itunes come online I think that the money will start to flow back in...

Without a doubt, the amount of digital piracy has increased 1,000x fold since the days of the BBS, and really the days of the 'MixTape'. Growing daily, and has NEVER, EVER, been set back, dented or otherwise. It grows, constantly and continually.
Which, don't know if you noticed as well, the "crack down on illegal downloads" has almost all but ceased. The RIAA has never won a case against an individual and has ceased attempting too.

The fact of the matter is, there is MORE money in the music industry then ever before. It's just not necessarily flowing into the corporation's pockets. It's being spread out with the increase in bands realizing they don't need a major label, don't need a company to front them money and don't need to spend $300/hour in a recording studio to crank out a great album. Being spread out though, means the top dogs are going to get less - and the major companies even more so.
NAMM had it's biggest year ever, that doesn't come from a lack of funding.


I respect Vinnie as a player, but some of his views are a bit out there. It's ok for Venue 'A' to video, record, broadcast and re-run footage.. but not Venue 'B'. The only difference being a major corporation was involved in one, and not the other.

It's ok to go play for some chessy, crap, pop artist because they had major money backing and it perpetuates crappy music - but it's NOT ok for someone to record a jazz show, that would otherwise disappear the moment the last note ends....

Not that I blame the guy, I'd be pissed about not making my $2,000 an hour all the time. But that is inevitably what money does to people, however they want to reason it.

Point in case, I highly doubt Vinnie would take a gig for free out of love for the music, despite being a multi-millionaire. I could be wrong, but from what I've heard his hourly rate is, plus the minimum....

YamahaPlayer, apologies for my lack of ability to express what I meant. You are right that piracy is growing with digitalisation. What I was trying to say is that during the days of Kazaa, Napster etc there were no way near as many opportunities to download music legally. I think today a lot more people download music legally than 10 years ago.

I don't mean to sound offensive, but

it's not a problem of opportunity. The expectation has been set with a generation that music should be free and they'll find a way to steal it.

Here's what happened:

10 yrs ago, during the hey day of Napster, you had a specific number of people who stole music. Most of them wouldn't have downloaded it legally even if there was a service to do so. Why should they?

Today, the people downloading music legally are not part of the same group of people who took part in the stealing 10 yrs ago. So the rationalization that more people are buying music online is a weak defense of the digitization of music as a positive economic factor for the music industry. What I mean to say, is that the two demographics (those who stole and those who now buy) are not a valid correlation. Does that make sense?

What the hell is that at 31:08 and beyond? christ.....