Joys and Concerns #7
Duo with Marty Ehrlich on Monday; Pepperland tour recap.
Monday is Memorial Day, and the monthly series at IBeam in Brooklyn continues. I’m honored to be playing a duet with the great Marty Ehrlich (should be on the IBeam website soon).
It was a joy to be back on the road with the Mark Morris Dance Group playing Pepperland, with an all-star band of Ethan Iverson (who wrote and arranged the music), Rob Schwimmer, Jacob Garchik, Chris McCarthy, Sam Newsome, and Clinton Curtis.
As troubling as the political situation is, I love traveling around the USA, where every place is “completely the same but totally different”. You’d never mistake an ancient college-oriented town like Williamsburg, VA for Berkeley, CA, an entirely different kind of college town. Downtown Las Vegas is, of course, both two thousand light years and a five-hour drive from downtown Beverly Hills. It is still one country, after all.
After the music, the best thing about touring is meeting fellow musicians, especially drummers. A tour of the US brought me to some diverse American drummers.
Scott Amendola, a pillar of the San Francisco jazz community, came to see us in Berkeley. Afterwards, we talked about Joey Baron (who spent years in San Francisco, where he got to know Donald Bailey), Tony Williams (who lived in Marin County in 1977 and could be spotted around SF), and Andrew Hill. Much to learn from Scott.
On our night off, Jacob Garchik and I went to Catalina’s, where drummer Rick Montalbano Jr sounded so great in pianist Max Haymer’s trio, which included my friend Aidan Carroll on bass. I met Rick, an upstate NY native and a few years my senior, when I was in my teens, and I owe him so much. He immediately went out of his way to help me— passing me records (Kelly At Midnite, Red Garland’s Piano, Bill Stewart’s Snide Remarks) and photocopies of Vinnie Ruggiero’s work, loaning me cymbals, having me sit in, subbing out gigs to me, et cetera. I still play some of Rick’s licks.
In Beverly Hills, Terreon Gully came to our Saturday matinee. I hadn’t seen him since the early 2000s, when I would go to hear him with Stefon Harris; I was thrilled to meet him. He told Ethan “I’ve never heard a score so intricate and detailed for a dance performance before.” Beautiful. Terreon lives in Atlanta, GA, so we don’t hear him in NYC as often as we should.
Saturday was a hot-seat day for me, but at least I didn’t know Mr. Gully was there until after the show was over. No such luck for the evening performance, when Ethan Iverson informed me backstage that the great Peter Erskine was in attendance with his wife.
After the show, taking photos with the band and introducing us to his wife, Mutsy, Peter briefly pulled me aside and told me “The part where you were playing with your bare hands on the floor tom? [George Harrison’s “Within You Without You”, arranged by Ethan as a feature for Sam Newsome] It was very clear. Great articulation.” He would know. Thanks Mr. Erskine!
Topping it off, the legendary Jim Keltner came to our Sunday matinee, the final show of the tour. At a reception, the first thing Mr. Keltner did was show me a picture of Elvin Jones and share his story of the first time he heard Elvin with John Coltrane, before checking out my cymbals. Later, Jim and his wife Cynthia reminisced about Bill Goodwin, Shelly Manne, Stan Levey, guitarist Gabor Szabo, bassist Albert Stinson (one of Keltner’s closest friends), and George Harrison.
I’m playing it a little cool here, because it’s hard to say what a thrill and honor it was to play Pepperland for Jim Keltner. Keltner is, of course, the long-time beating heart of the community who brought the world the wider possibilities of American music. As Jim told me that day, his idea was to bring the spirit and dignity of the jazz masters he worshipped, Elvin Jones and John Coltrane above all, to the world of rock and roll. As I hope my playing demonstrated— mission accomplished.
On the way home, I cued up some records to hear everyone:
Scott Amendola with Nels Cline: New Monastery (Cryptogramophone, 2006), an incredible album of Andrew Hill’s compositions featuring the great Bobby Bradford
Rick Montalbano with Jane Monheit, The Songbook Sessions (2016)
Terreon Gully with Tim Ries: Live At Smalls Vol. 2 (SmallsLIVE, 2015)
Peter Erskine with Marty Ehrlich and Michael Formanek: Relativity (Enja, 1999)
Jim Keltner with Bob Dylan: Shot of Love (Columbia, 1981)
Scott Amendola, Rick Montalbano, Terreon Gully, Peter Erskine, and Jim Keltner: the community of drummers is strong. I am one lucky-so-and-so.
Yeah, great hang/playing! You hit it out of the park! And so great to see Keltner and Cynthia-It had been over 20 years since we toured together…
walking among giants - drum giants, lol!!