Drum World

DRUM WORLD 6

HOT NEW PRODUCTS FRESH OUT OF THE FACTORY

Life lessons from afro-cuban guru

AARON SERFATY

r e t e P e n i k s r E

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May 2015 | DRUM WORLD | 1

EDITOR’S NOTE

BEAT REPORTING As I make my way through my last days at the University of Southern California, I can’t help but think about all of the people who have made my experience so fulfilling. The students and faculty of the English and Jazz Studies departments here have helped fostered my passion for both writing and drumming and I’m so glad that I was able to finish my time here with a project like this magazine that attempts to combine the two.

I’d like to thank Peter Erskine for taking time out of his incredibly busy schedule to answer some of my questions (he was in Switzerland when I first contacted him about being in this issue). Although our one-on-one interaction has been minimal over these past four years, I have learned a great deal from sitting in on his lectures, listening to his records, and watching his videos.

I’d, of course, like to thank Aaron Serfaty for sitting down with me and letting me pick his brain, but also for being such a great private instructor. My lessons with him were always challenging and he has opened me up to a polyrhythmic universe of musical styles of which I was woefully unaware prior to studying with him. I’d also like to thank Les Dunseith and Nick Cuccia for acquanting me with the world of design and helping so much with this project. I also owe a thankyou to the great people at Sabian, Vic Firth, Vater, Gretsch and Latin Percussion for allowing me to use their content in this magazine.

Please enjoy the issue!

Patrick Cleland

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CONTENTS Gear Guide 4 Reviews

New products for 2015 from Sabian, Vic Firth, Latin Percussion, Gretsch, Vater, and Zildjian.

In Conversation 8 Peter Erskine

The master drummer, composer, and educator reveals the early lessons he learned from his father, how his approach to the drum set has evolved, and the reasoning behind his recent move to TAMA.

12 Aaron Serfaty

Want to make it as a drummer?

Aaron dishes on exactly what it takes to make a living hitting the skins, and it’s not always pretty. Find out how his love for the drums took him from Venezuela to Los Angeles and continues to keep him going today.

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PRODUCT REVIEWS

vic firth

split brush

Sabian sick hats

These futuristic hi-hats just made it out of prototype land and are now available for purchase at select locations. At a monstrous 18”, these cymbals bring a dark, trashy sound originally engineered with Chris “Daddy” Dave in mind. The 2” holes in the top hat allow air to escape, which makes for a unique effect, but can also lead to sticks getting stuck if you’re not careful.

GRETSCH

renown walnut

Brand new for 2015, Gretsch has unrolled a walnut version of their five-piece Renown series drum kit. Although the shells are six-ply walnut/maple/walnut, it is noticeably more durable, and has a darker tone, than its allmaple predescesor. The high toms are mounted onto the cymbal stands and the bass drum comes in 20” x 16” or the slightly deeper 22” x 18”.

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Vic Firth’s latest experiment was designed by German brush guru Florian Alexandru-Zorn. The Split Brush boasts two rows of wires, allowing for a fuller range of sound, though the additional wires take some getting used to. The extra weight provides an unusually high level of attack and clarity on the cymbals, which is reflective of AlexandruZorn’s experiments using brushes not only in soft jazz, but also in electronic and world music contexts.

latin percussion cajon hi hats

These 9” B20 cast bronze hi-hats mount directly onto the side of a cajon, providing an extra sonic texture. The tension is adjustable and the attached beater allows you to get the sound of a stick on the cymbal by using just your hand. These hats are perfect for the percussionist looking to diversify his set up.

zildjian kerope ride

The simple, clean look and vintage sound of the Kerope ride recalls the Zildjian K line of cymbals played on classic albums by iconic drummers like Tony Williams and Steve Gadd. Like these drum masters, the Kerope ride is endlessly diverse; it sounds just as great in a bebop setting as it does on a pop gig. Available in both 20” and 22”, the Kerope ride is great for the sentimental drummer looking for a sound that harkens back to the golden age.

VATER

concert ensemble mallets

Vater has just upped its mallet game with its new line of Concert Ensemble marimba mallets, featuring a larger, stronger hardrubber core. With 0.3125” birch handles and a variety of sizes in oval-shaped heads, there is sure to be a mallet that brings the right balance of sonority, power, and speed for any ensemble player.

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Pet

6 | DRUM DRUM WORLD WORLD | May 2015

ter Erskine A living legend of jazz drumming, Peter Erskine has played with some of the most talented musicians of the 20th century.

He began as a big band drummer playing in the orchestras of Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson before becoming a pioneer of fusion with the group Weather Report. Since then, he has continued to explore the jazz lexicon with groups like

Yellowjackets

Steps Ahead, ECM Records,

and

released his own music via

and produced his own line of educational material.

World

Peter

sat down with

Drum

to discuss the evolution of his

playing style, the recent move from to

Tama,

DW

his vision for the future of music education, and much more.

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PETER ERSKINE DW: Hi Peter! Thanks for taking the time to asnwer a few questions. To start off, what was your first experience with the drums?

Peter: I began playing the drums when I was four years old, taking lessons from the age of five. My father had fashioned a conga drum with a small rivet cymbal attached to it to function as a drumset of sorts…it was that, also a sort of compass that guided me into this life of music.

DW: Who were some of your early influences?

Peter: My first influences were Art Blakey, Max Roach, Jack Sperling and Don Lamond. This orbit expanded soon enough to include such drummers as Louis Hayes, Eddie Marshall, Roy Haynes, Grady Tate, Mel Lewis, Elvin Jones, Jack DeJohnette and Tony Williams.

I was also very keen to listen to classical music, and found a lot of inspiration from the music of Béla Bartók and Igor Stravinsky, as well as J.S. Bach and Beethoven.

DW: Did you have a lot of formal training early on, or was it more “learn by doing” in terms of getting out and touring and performing?

Peter: Private instruction from the age of five onward, including classical percussion studies from the age of twelve. I attended summer music camps (both jazz and classical) from the age of seven until high school, when/where I studied at 8 | DRUM WORLD | May 2015

Erskine and Weather Report keyboardist Joe Zawinul in 1980.

“One time the beat got turned around

I was trying get beat one straight.

Joe Zawinul said, ‘Fuck one! One’s not important.’ Big lesson in that.” and

the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. I then went to Indiana University where I studied for one year before leaving school to go on the road with the Stan Kenton Orchestra.

DW: You’ve played with some big names over the years: Maynard Ferguson, Jaco Pastorius, Joni Mitchell, Diana Krall, Wayne Shorter, Steely Dan. What lesson, or lessons,

did you learn from being around such great musicians?

Peter: Well, Joe Zawinul (keyboardist of Weather Report) taught me an important one early on in my time with Weather Report. One time in concert the beat got turned around, and I did something to try and bring it back in--you know, “Okay everybody, here’s one.” Afterwards, he was really bugged, furious. “Why did you do that? It was great before

you did that.” “Well,” I said, “I was trying to get beat one straight.” And he said, “One? Fuck one, man! I don’t give a shit about one. One’s not important.”

Big lesson in that.

DW: You seem to spend a great deal of time teaching, whether it’s through teaching at the University of Southern California or through your own educational books and apps. How do you find time to also work on your own material? What percent of your time would you say you spend teaching versus playing? Do you prefer one over the other?

Peter: It’s all music and it’s all part of a musical life. An important part of the jazz tradition is to pass along the knowledge and experience gained from learning and playing. I wish that my schedule allowed for some more private time for composing; lately the performing, recording and teaching demands of my career have overtaken my private creative space a bit.

DW: What advice would you give to a young person hoping to make a career out of playing the drums? What albums would you recommend he or she listen to in order to get into it?

Peter: Advice? Listen to as much music as possible. Play as much as possible. Learn how to combine listening with playing (and don’t just play what your hands know). Always be open to learning, and try not to personalize musical advice or direction when it is given. Most

of all, learn to trust your own ears, the music, and yourself.

And have fun!

DW: You recently left Drum Workshop to join Tama. Can you talk a little about the motivations behind this move and what changes you think it will bring to your playing in the future?

Peter: Changing from one drum company to another is a nice problem to have, but it can be fraught with consequence for all parties; i.e., it’s never easy. I was compelled to make this unexpected move upon the discovery that Tama Star drums were, quite simply, the best drums I had ever played. “Life is short” becomes a very real motivation when you’re 60 years old, and I decided that I wanted to play the very best drums. Plus, the hardware is a delight to use and the company is excellent in terms of drumset support when I travel as well as listening to my ideas for product development. It was painful to walk away from DW — they’re good people and we had a good collaboration going — but this was a musical decision.

DW: It seems like in your progression from the early fusion days of Weather Report to your current work with small piano trios and on film scores, your playing has become more sparse and understated. Is this an accurate statement? Do you still feel the need to play something burning now and then to keep up your chops?

Peter: That’s a good observation … my playing has changed over the years, and I’ve embraced a “less is more” approach and philosophy when it comes to drumming. Playing with more space allows different doors and windows to open in the music. But I still enjoy generating heat and energy at the drums, and am doing that very thing this week with the Swiss Jazz Orchestra playing the music of Steps Ahead and Weather Report. Quite different from the big band drumming I did last week playing the music from the Miles Davis and Gil Evans collaborations in Los Angeles’ Disney Hall with Terence Blanchard and Sean Jones, et al. I guess it’s just a matter of knowing when to do what. Or, in other words, “listening” … the music will always tell you what to play if you’re really paying attention.

DW: On a related note, how do you feel about the current “gospel chops” trend among young drummers? Do you think this is the future of drumming, or will there still be a place for people who want to use brushes and play quietly?

Peter: Drumming is a big universe with room for lots of different styles and approaches.

If everyone else played like me, then I would be out of business!

My way is not for everyone. Plus, I enjoy the incredible drumming I’m hearing today, gospel chops or otherwise. I don’t make a steady diet out of listening to much of what I hear today, but May 2015 | DRUM WORLD | 9

Peter: Always. Going into the studio next month to create a big band play-along app with Bob Mintzer and some of LA’s finest musicians (many of them associated with the Thornton School of Music at USC). I believe DW: Today, there are more that this will be the best big band ways of accessing music than training apparatus ever offered, ever before, from SoundCloud certainly on an iOS app! Plus to Spotify to YouTube to making a couple of new trio simply pirating. Do you recordings under my own think this plethora If I have a motto, it’s one I name. A couple of new of options is a good Tama signature drums learned from my father, who was will be on their way, thing for up-andcoming musicians? plus some incredible a doctor: ‘Do no harm.’ That, Peter: Technology new hardware. Also is what it is. It’s up developing some new and ‘swing.’ to us to call upon our cymbals with Zildjian. resources as well as Investing in my home and know how to play softly.” All ethics to navigate these studio to do more projects of that said, I subscribe to Spotify there, and composing more for waters. It’s an exciting time of so as to have instant access transition but a painful one as classical chamber music as to much of the recorded jazz well. The business model is time allows. Will being work on archives available there for when two new books this next year. changing radically and faster I teach. YouTube is also useful for All of this while being asked than most of us can handle.

Having operated on the sidelines finding performances of past and more and more to travel the living jazz masters. But if I really in terms of my own recorded world and play (oftentimes want to listen to something, I buy to perform the concerto work, the effect is less dramatic in some ways, though I can’t help the album and support the artist for drumset and orchestra, but notice that our CD sales have or his/her estate. composed by Mark-Anthony dropped dramatically over the Turnage, titled “Erskine”). I last few years (plus, I am called DW: And finally, any upcoming thought that I would be slowing to do less and less recording gigs, projects, or down as I got older but instead work in studios for major products we I seem to be getting busier. labels, etc.). And so it goes. I should look Part of this might be the need don’t like plundering and have out for? to work more nowadays to keep never supported piracy in any up … but more of it, I suspect, form. Natural selection, I is the urgency and the need to suppose, will winnow out make music. the survivors, I am still and us following the compass that my father so lovingly made for me when I was four years old.

I appreciate it and recognize that the boundaries are being pushed and expanded, and that’s always a good thing.

Good music abides and will always abound.

old-timers will do well to pay attention to the clever young people who are getting their music “out there.” Ultimately, I trust music and my own tastes and talents to remain creative while providing for my family. If I have a motto, it’s one I learned from my father who was a doctor: “Do no harm.” That, and “swing.” And “be able to read

“

”

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S e r f a t y May 2015 | DRUM WORLD | 11

AARON SERFATY

IN THE GAME

A

Serfaty’s love for the drums took him from his hometown of Caracas, Venezuela to Los Angeles, California in 1991. Since then, he aron

has honed his craft through tours and studio sessions with some of the

Afro-Cuban and jazz scenes. Today, he continues to play extensively and foster others’ love of the drums as a member of the faculty at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. heaviest hitters in the

DW: So when did you start playing drums?

Aaron: I started really late, when I was fifteen years old. On the suggestion of my high school sweetheart, I started taking lessons.

I didn’t have to study, I was a straight-A student, didn’t have to study…go figure.

I had a cousin who was in a rock band and my cousin was incredible; she was a great guitar player, she played piano, she played drums. So, my high school sweetheart said, “You’re not doing anything in the afternoons. Go take a lesson, learn guitar, learn piano from your cousin.” Then she said, “Learn drums” and immediately the light bulb went off. It was like, “Okay, drums it is.”

DW: And then you were on the road pretty soon after that, right?

Aaron: I was gigging and recording when I was 18…I was doing jingles and albums, all sorts of stuff.

vocational music school down in Caracas in 1981 or 1982 and that was the extent of it until 1991 when I moved here to the States to go to college. I was a 27-year-old freshman…

My high school sweetheart said, ‘Learn drums’ and immediately the light bulb went off. It was like,

‘Okay, drums it is.’

DW: So you were just thrown out there?

Aaron: Pretty much. I had never played with a metronome until I went into the studio, which was a scary proposition. So, very little formal training. I took a trimester at a

12 |DRUM WORLD | May 2015

with a wife and a kid, mind you. Most of the stuff I did was just watching videos.

DW: Are there any instructional videos in particular you remember watching?

Aaron: Steve Gadd,

Peter Erskine, Jeff Porcaro, Elvin Jones… anything that was available on VHS. DW: When you first started, were you on drum set or percussion?

Aaron: Drum set.

[Points to his drum set] That’s the love of my life right there.

DW: So, when did you start getting into percussion, hand drums, all of that?

Aaron: Probably 30 years ago. 1985 was when I started dabbling with timbales, a little bit of bongo, then congas.

Then when I moved here, I started playing pandero. It’s been an evolution, but the love of my life is the drum set. That’s the start of the show for me.

DW: When you moved here to go to CalArts, did you find that there was a different approach or philosophy toward music than in Venezuela?

Aaron: Well, CalArts is a completely different music school [than USC]; it has nothing to do with any other music school I know.

It’s all about…art, you know? So, if you want to play in 17, 14, 72, whatever, you’re welcome to. If you want to yell while you’re playing, that’s fine. If you want to play naked, that’s fine, too. It’s a very, very free environment, which I wasn’t ready for. It was shocking. The amazing thing about it when I was there was that it had an unbelievable World Music program. We had two brothers from Ghana teaching African music and we had Poovalur Srinivasan from South India and Amiya Dasgupta from North India. Each one of them was teaching Indian music, but either from the North

or from the South.

And we had Nanik Wenten teaching Japanese and Indonesian gamelan, so for percussion, it was unbelievable. It was heaven. And then, Joe LaBarbara was teaching drums and I had two classical percussion teachers.

One of them was John Bergamo, who played with Frank Zappa, so it was quite an experience for me. I’m glad I was an adult when I went there because otherwise I would’ve gotten sidetracked really quickly.

DW: How did that differ from the scene in Venezuela?

Aaron: Well, we had really rich African influence in Venezuelan music, but most of the stuff that you listened to on the radio was American music, so you had Cyndi Lauper and Madonna, you know, the usual suspects of the Top 40 at the moment.

Not a whole lot of

jazz, a little bit of Brazilian music, little bit of Cuban music— quite a bit of Cuban music, actually. Mostly Colombian music, so it was very diverse, very…eclectic, but not quite as “art school” as CalArts.

DW: Speaking of Venezuela, you’ve been pretty outspoken about what’s going on right now with Maduro and all of the corruption. How do you think that’s affecting musicians there?

Aaron: They’re all leaving. In the last there have been ta least ten musicians I know that have moved just to L.A. and 20 or 30 that have moved to Miami.

DW: And you think that wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t so bad in Venezuela?

Aaron: Oh, it would have never happened.

You’re getting taxed on musicial instruments, you’re getting taxed on CDs, everything. It’s unbelievable. Let’s say you want to buy

a pair of sticks. Here, you pay $8, or let’s say $10. There, you’re paying $30 or $35.

Minimum salary—last time I checked—was $52 per month. So, let’s say you make $100 per month, a pair of sticks is still $30. The math doesn’t add up.

DW: Do you think that’s diminishing the influence of Venezuelan culture and music?

Aaron: Well, they’re listening to American music anyway. They’re listening a little more to Venezuelan music… because of this old Nazi trick, this nationalistic thing, you know? So there’s a little bit more listening to traditional Venezuelan music, but it’s just a mirage, it’s just a trick.

Now, El Sistema (the national youth orchestra) is still running, but that has been running for 40 years. It’s not a new thing. They get pretty much unlimited resources from the government because it has become a propaganda tool for socialist bullshit. [laughs] Sorry.

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DW: You’ve toured with the likes of Arturo Sandoval, Sergio Mendes, Jon Anderson.

Do you have any stories that stand out from your experiences with any of them?

Aaron: I don’t think they’re fit for print. [laughs] No, but I have a few funny stories. Not so many with Sergio, a couple with Arturo, but my favorite story is with Jon Anderson (the singer from Yes).

I was touring with him on a student Visa. They hired me for a tour and I see on the itinerary we go to Caracas and then we fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico, which is a U.S. territory, so I could not enter with a student Visa to work. So I tell them, “I need a working permit.” They say, “Oh, don’t worry about.”

So, we go to Mexico, we go to Costa Rica, we go to Venezuela and I say “Listen guys: working permit” and they say “Don’t worry about, just tell them you’re a tourist.” And I had my wife and kid here (in the U.S.) and I had my student Visa and I decided I wasn’t going to jeopardize all that for a lie, for one gig. It’s their fault, not mine. So, I tell the immigration agent I

should have a working permit because I’m here for a gig. So, they say, “You have to go to an immigration facility and tomorrow you’ll be deported.

You’ll be flown back to Venezuela.” I’m fine with it because they’re flying me back there and my mom is there, my mother-inlaw is there. I have no problem with it. So, I’m calling my wife from the immigration detention place and Jon Anderson walks in pale white

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and panicking. And I just started laughing thinking, “How surreal is this?” So I ask him what was up and he’s a British citizen and he needed a working permit. However, the tour manager and the promoter told him to say he was a tourist.

Except the immigration agent had tickets to the concert. [bursts out laughing]. So we spent the night in the immigration facility and were flown back to Caracas. We went to

the American embassy, got our passports stamped again and we came back and played the concert and kept going on the tour. And it could’ve been avoided if they had listened to me! So, that’s my favorite story.

DW: That’s a great one. Teaching is such a big part of what you do, but you still play gigs and came out with your own CD recently.

What is the ratio of time spent on your own

work versus teaching others, and how do you balance the two?

Aaron: Teaching takes at least 60% of my time, maybe 70%. I’m part of the furniture here [at USC]. That’s the one thing: I would like to find a better balance. I would like to play a little more.

To be honest, I had no idea I was going to love teaching as much as I do. This is sort of the most fun thing I’ve ever done because you run into talented students and you give them an idea and they come back with that idea turned on its head and it’s really, really fun to watch.

DW: People have been saying that jazz is dead for a long time now, but people who otherwise wouldn’t be interested in jazz drumming seem to be talking about it now because of movies like Whiplash and Antonio Sanchez’ soundtrack for Birdman.

How do you feel about this exposure?

Aaron: Well, I haven’t watched Birdman, so I don’t know. I have a bunch of friends who loved it, a couple who hated it, but I don’t know. I watched Whiplash and I

thought it was a great comedy. I went with my comapdre, one of my oldest friends, and we were the only people in the theatre laughing.

The hands, the closeups of the hands, were Kyle Crane’s, who is a USC alumni, a former student. So, yeah, I hated that movie.

DW: So you don’t think that despite its inaccuracies, it’s good that people are talking about jazz drumming?

Aaron: They’re not talking about jazz drumming, though. It’s a sports movie; it’s not a music movie. Replace it with the kid being a quarterback and the teacher is a tough coach. We’ve seen that movie a million times.

DW: At least more people know “Caravan” than they would have otherwise.

Aaron: Yeah, maybe you’re right. The funny thing is a friend of mine recorded the original version of “Whiplash” with the Don Ellis Big Band.

And he would say the same thing: it’s a little ridiculous. But I guess I appreciate the exposure it gave to the truest American instrument. It’s an

DW: That’s maybe not the advice people want to hear, but probably good advice. So, say you are one of those people who have no choice but to play drums. What would you suggest that person listen to?

Aaron: Well, there are iconinc “drummer” albums that you need to listen to. You need to listen to Jimmy Cobb in Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, you also need to listen to John Bonham in Led Zeppelin, any DW: What advice would of their albums. You you give to a young need to listen to Buddy person trying to make a Rich: Channel One career out of the drums? Suite or West Side Aaron: Advice?

Story. You need to [sighs]. If you’re listen to The Meters, good at or enjoy Sly & The Family Stone, doing anything else, Early Earth, Wind & anything at all, go Fire, before it became for that. Because the a retirement home. musician’s life is not Blood, Sweat & Tears, an easy one. However, Danny Seraphine if you’re like me and from Chicago back like most musicians, when they when we have no choice. they CTA (Chicago We have to play. We Transit Authority) not put up with making now that it’s a sappy literally hundreds of love song thing. You dollars a year playing need to listen to jazz because you have Duke Ellington, Count no choice but to follow Basie, Bill Haley & His your heart, which Comets, Earl Palmer sounds ridiculously with Little Richard, the cheesy to say. But, if drummers of Motown.

I couldn’t play drums, If you want to be a I’d be even more of a drummer, those are curmudgeon than I am things you need to be right now [laughs]. listening to.

American invention, which is why I came here to study it. I didn’t fall in love with any particular music; I fell in love with the drum set and this was the place to do it. I assumed I had to play all kinds of music that had drum set in it. My playlist back then was very schizophrenic. I had Oscar Peterson and I had Judas Priest and I had Led Zeppelin and I had Louie Bellson.

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