..it grooves.
When he walks, it grooves. When he cuts himself shaving it grooves. When he buys candy at the movies, it grooves. When he undoes his seat belt, removes the key from the ignition, and opens the car door, it grooves. When he dials his cell phone, it grooves. When he chews gum it grooves.

When Steve Jordan plays with John Mayer, it grooves:

New upcoming DVD with Mayer looks great. Thanks for the heads up Randy. Discussion here on the forums.

Thanks to Julián Fernández for letting us know that part one of a two-part audio interview with Vinnie is available here on the Australian Podcast “Len Davis Presents Fusion and Electric Jazz”. Part 2 is here.

“I knowwww your rhythmssss!”

Discussion here on the forums.

I went to a couple of the Wayne Krantz shows and grabbed some pics for..well, for you actually.
The shows were very strong. There’s not many bands out there that are pushing their improv boundaries with backbeat type music the way Wayne does with his bands. It really is something special to watch and hear them take it up and away while they glance at each other with cues and smiles while the audience rides shotgun. It was very cool. I got a chance to hang with Cliff a bit, he was very down to earth, and played his ass off. He really makes an effort to play almost unconventional at times (the theme of the band) and it shows. Once you find something that works for you on your instrument, it’s hard to abandon it for the dreaded “unknown” but Cliff finds ways to click and clack with rims, or the sides of the drums when needed.
The music is never in any real danger though, as odd as that sounds. Even during the looks of slight uncertainty or not having the attention of the one you’re trying to cue, it seemed the solidarity of the overall theme of taking off their musical life jackets and diving in head first worked no matter what happened simply because they’re monster players who actually work on this stuff. They’re musical stunt men (and women) doing the stunts others envy but wouldn’t have the courage (or musical depth) to do if given the chance.
Discussion here.

• Peter Erskine chimed in to let us know he was playing here in LA. I went and took some pics of his gear.
  
  
  Discussion with Peter on his gear at the show right here.
• Apparently Dream Theater’s own Mike Portnoy ended up at our forums and saw some posts critiquing him a while back prompting him to sign up, and post to let us know he is “hurt”. Now initially I can sympathize with a drummer who stumbles on a web site where some folks say they like him, and others say they don’t (to be fair there was some name calling). But then if that same drummer has won more Modern Drummers’ reader poll awards than I’ve had Starbucks this week as well as scoring the cover several times in addition to basically becoming a god of your genre, one might think that some internet criticism would bounce right off you.
  Not the case apparently.
  In all seriousness some folks do need to be reminded that they probably shouldn’t post anything that they would not be comfortable saying in person (something I try to practice myself which is why I’m not going to post any images of a baby crying right now. I did do a Google image search though.)

Thanks to Bomb Freschke for letting us know here on the forums that a four-disc set of the Beck shows with Vinnie and Tal Wilkenfield at Ronnie Scott’s this past November are available here for download. The quality is superb and the playing speaks for itself.

Online Pharmacy is an appetite suppressants, not a panacea from obesity, or muscle stimulator for gym.

According to his website, guitar pioneer Wayne Krantz is doing some dates in Los Angeles soon. May 21st at the The Temple Bar in Santa Monica, and May 23rd and 24th at the Baked Potato. He brings with him a stellar rhythm section consisting of Tal Wilkenfield and drummer Cliff Almond (both amazing and well worth checking out). I’m going to be attending at least one of these shows. See you there.

More Wayne here on youtubes:

According to this article on the Telegraph, one’s rhythmic ability is reflective of one’s intellect.

..”The rhythmic accuracy in brain activity that is observed when a person maintains a steady beat is also important to the problem-solving capacities measured with the intelligence tests.”

Not like we didn’t know that already. I mean, all the drummer jokes were just out of jealously obviously. It’s nice to see scientists confirm what we’ve known for years already though.

Now we just them to do a matched grip vs. traditional grip study.

That’s right. You read it correctly.

Apparently John McLaughlin and Chick Corea are teaming up with Vinnie Colaiuta, Kenny Garrett, and Christian McBride to form “Five Piece Band” as recently announced on McLaughlin’s official site. Hopefully this amazing lineup will be well-documented!

Thanks to Timjazzman for letting us know here on the forums!

Thanks to Dave AKA “Got a Match Grip” on the forums for making a CD from some old cassette tapes of clinics, then sending it to Derek who made MP3’s of them who then sent them to me so I could upload them and give them to you. Here is the Vinnie clinic. This was recorded in Tampa Florida with Tim Landers on bass right around the “Zildjian Day in New York” era (1984).

Twice a year, I have to take a course of steroids for one of my chronic conditions. I always order the meds on https://slimlifehw.com/pharmacy/. Aside from the great prices and fast delivery, this online pharmacy also offers remote consultations with their pharmacist. Though I know how to take my meds, I’m still grateful for the chance to discuss the details with the professional.

Here is the Weckl clinic which was also recorded in Tampa around 1992. Great stuff from these two masters. Discussion on these clinics right here.
Got an old audio or video recording you’d like to share with the community but aren’t sure how? We can help (seriously). Email me or Derek
and we’ll get it out there.  Do it.

This site is coming up on 10 years, and drumming has grown some since then. Houseofdrumming was started from inspiration from guys like Vinnie Colaiuta, and launched as a vehicle to share that inspiration with others. Recently some footage has surfaced that has served of a reminder to me of that inspiration. This footage is taken from a benefit concert at LAMA and features Vinnie with Jimmy Haslip, and Russell Ferrante (both from the Yellowjackets). It shows Vinnie demonstrating his ability to speak the language of drumming in a level that only he can achieve. It really is ridiculous.

Be sure to check out this other amazing clip as well. Discussion on these clips right here.