Carlos Vega

[Rudy_Ment]

Some footage I just came across of Carlos in a studio in Amsterdam with James Taylor for some Dutch TV show.
Impeccable time as usual! He was the master of 60 to 80 bpm, which was just as well since James Taylor had a lot of slow songs. Everything here is with JT as I haven't found any footage outside of him or Dave Grusin.

Note the lack of moustache.

Fire & Rain

Millworker

Copperline

More footage. Something so distinctive about his drums was his gorgeous warm, fat tom sound.

From a 1988 concert.

Montreux 1988

Johnny Carson show 1988, 2 songs.

Rare footage of a recording session and Carlos talking!

On cajon

[Pocketplayer]

carlos really nails this feel...impeccable time and relaxed feel!
huge open tom fills perfectly crafted...love how he represents
those original recordings. man, that carson performance was
studio perfect by all...love those late 80's toms!!! Sklar is
smooth as glass along with JJ

watching that studio footage...man, how many session cats
were the "composers/arrangers" of so many hits w/o writing
credit? like the space/downtime when uncertain.

cannot not comment on how carlos nails that porcaro shuffle feel
on sweet potato pie...a feel we just dont hear much anymore

read some great bios on the Canyon years here in So Cal...a bastion of
folk artists gathered in one place around 1966-71

[langmick]

Carlos is the man...but James Taylor...that syrupy sweet weirdness, it's like eating too many jujyfruits.

This is a bit less syrupy... I wish I could play that effortlessly and in the pocket. Those toms are nuts.






Electric jazz in the 70s.



Just found out he passed the night before he was to be on the Oprah show with Taylor...awful.

[Pocketplayer]

Passing it on...just caught Seth Rauche with Keith Urban on the new Ripcord tour....
WOW...very deep pocket. His favorite drummer? Carlos Vega! He reminded me
of Herman Matthews and Abe Jr...can make an 8th note groove feel so full and
deep. The Vega influence is obvious...also a fan of Rick Marotta, Russ Kunkel...
musical family dug JT growing up.

Jim: And of course your favorite, Carlos Vega.

Seth: Yes. The first time I heard Carlos, it just spoke to me. I’d always be scoping
record jackets, trying to figure out who everyone was, and any time I heard Carlos
on those records I knew that was what I wanted to sound like as a player. After he
died in 1998, I wanted to find everything I could that he’d played on. It never mattered
what he was playing—from Latin to country and everything in between, his feel was
impeccable. I felt like every musical situation I heard him in was a lesson in itself.

https://www.moderndrummer.com/article/j ... it-record/

[Odd-Arne Oseberg]

Love Carlos's playing. The Burning Water stuff is just crazy and that's everybody. Mike's tones and feel is just on a different level, too. Singer too. Perfection.

Now, I'm not always a fan of everything. I understand that it's what so many people think is great, but pushing the back beat all that way back like Gadd does sometimes too, is to me sometimes a bit to far for me. Some bass players do that as almost a general thing too and it's a cool concept, but to me it's often fighting just a bit to much.


The guilty pleasure song. The song you must hear several times when you first put it on because it's too short. "What is and what should never be is like that for me, as well."

[Odd-Arne Oseberg]

Man, did I spend a lot of time listeneing to these guys.

Only takes a simple groove like this to tell Carlos was special. When it comes to time a feel this whole band was.