The musicians are:
Sam Bevan – bass
Mas Koga – sax, flutes
Grant Levin – piano
Bryan Bowman – drums

The CD was recorded at San Pablo Recorders by Bond Bergland. It was mixed at Spliggetyfidge records by Kevin Weber and mastered By Sam Bevan at Bev’s Lair Studios.

Our CD Release date will be announced soon! In the mean time you can listen to samples by clicking play on the Reverb Nation player on the right side of this page.

The cd cover is actually from a painting by the great bay Area artist, Yvette Buiguess.

For more information about this release and for booking send  me an email.

Robert Bowman Piano Recital at Hollis Street Loft

We had a very nice turnout for our house concert January 30 featuring the one and only Robert Bowman. He played an evening of Beethoven sonatas beautifully and from memory no less. We love doing music events and hope to continue to hold them occasionally.

Find out a lot more about Robert Bowman at www.robertebowman.com

At the piano I play in A major. Fleshing out more of the same ideas but in a different way and some new things have emerged because I’m no longer afraid to hear new things. My fingers are loosening and playing their own music with time.

Can’t listen to Joni yet. The audio cable was so tightly wound and won’t reach the stereo. Unwind the twisted cable.

This new year. I’m afraid. I’m encouraged. I’m happy. I’m remorseful for those who have had their lives stolen by unjust wars and jubilant for the brave resistance to them.

This year is the time to make ourselves more beautiful. To unwind all of the cables. To fearlessly look for new music. And to love those who are here with us and those who have left us.

Pretend governments doesn’t exist. It’s up to us to invent our new way of living and giving. Now. This year.

We have sent out many long tendrils to our friends new and old and we seek closeness beyond distance and time. But the time is now to make that closeness meaningful and to share our hints and clues with each other on how to live better.

Rekindling and building our communities.

In this desolate wasteland of missed opportunities let’s strike out with creative abandon to let the whole world know that money is not a thing of value. Beauty is. Courage is.

Touch without breaking things. If we can learn to do that we get to stay.

Nothing like getting your ass kicked so thoroughly you actually feel good about it. These guys play at such a high level that I am really sweating to get the music together but I was lucky to have had some time to internalize the unusual meters and the harmonic depth of Sheldon’s music.

Wish me luck! And please come hear us! I would be nice to have a good crowd for this one!

The following PDF is the first block of exercises I created using the book, Syncopation by Ted Reed. You will see that I have written out numerous four bar phrases which share the same syncopated figure. The rolls that connect the rhythms are of different speeds and densities. You can look at them as a diverse palette of colors and shades you can use to augment any given syncopated figure.

It is a melodic approach to drumming which will allow you to command a much more musical grasp on these pots and pans we call the drums.

Download the following pdf to begin your journey and remember to be patient with yourself while learning them. More important than playing them exactly right, you should begin to see the patterns and the ways in which a simple syncopated figure can be expanded upon.

Syncopation – Snare Drum Studies – PDF Download

Once you have mastered these exercises the idea is that you would apply them to to pages 38 through 45 of the Syncopation book. Each exercise should be memorized and thought of as a key which you can apply as you sight read through your Syncopation studies. Hopefully as you look at the examples you will begin to see the logic in this. Feel free to ask questions should they come up. Audio examples will be added soon too I promise!

For the Drumset
The next set of exercises is essentially the same concepts expanded to include the snare and bass drum together. These are hard but fun and I think will provide you with a sense of what is possible. My hope is that you will take these ideas and create much hipper phrases and concepts to use in whatever style of music you like to play.

Syncopation Studies for the Drumset – PDF Download

Many fun things on the horizon in early 2010!

• I’m hoping to have a new cd out in February! I’ll keep you posted as things progress but there are some samples up on my music samples page:)
• I have three gigs with Tuba player Greg Moore in SF in January as well as a date with the Sheldon Brown Quintet. (Check the Performances page for details) Both bands are pretty exciting for me because all the players are really great and because we’ll be doing some very challenging material including lots of Balkan, Indian and Calypso with a very modern approach to harmony and melody. Greg Moore does some indian marching band music as well as some bulgarian stuff so I look forward to playing with him. I have played Bulgarian music with Trio Mopmu and numerous other bands here in the Bay Area but have not done enough of it lately. Anyone who has yet to hear Sheldon Brown should definitely come to hear the band at El Valenciano on January 6th! He is a very dynamic musician and an incredible composer.
• Also, I’m going to spend some time in January recording with my good friend Joe Hammons, who is a great rock and funk guitar player. We have played a bunch in the past but have only recently reconnected and I’m really looking forward to hearing what we come up with. His Son Adrian Hammons is a killer bass player and has a very deep pocket that drummers just love to groove with! I expect him to soon conquer the world with his talent.

Michael said it and I’ll say it too:

We are in a unique point right here right now here on earth. We have the capacity to create and destroy but far more talent in the latter. If we are not creative, the end is clearly looking certain for the majority. Change is needed but we clearly lack the capacity to fundamentally reinvent our vision of our place on earth. We are mainly spectators and customers of life and that won’t do any longer.

But we are learning and hopefully will take the crash course and not end up like so many other creatures long since extinct before us.

If I believed in god I would pray.

While that previous sentence may be complete crap, I am very busy playing with all of my favorite musicians and that definitely makes the world feel like a much better place.

This coming week I’ll be recording a cd with Sam Bevan, Grant Levin and Masaru Koga. It should be a really interesting couple of days! We have a bunch of nice tunes to record and we’ll be doing quite a bit of free improvising as well. This will be a perfect preparation for my gig at Annas Jazz Island on the 18th of October with the same group. Then we’ll play mostly my tunes as well as originals by the other guys. Hope to see a lot of friends there to support our efforts and the great local club we call Annas!

Amidst all of this I am gearing up for the big audition at Lincoln Center on the 24th for the Rhythm Road, playing a gig on October 11th with Sheldon Brown and Michael Wilcox at Chez Hanny and rehearsing for all of these simultaneously! Wish me luck.