Concert Review: Terry Bozzio

["greg williams" <gregorwilliams@comcast.net>]

Hello folks,

I had the great pleasure of attending an inspiring Terry Bozzio solo 
drumset
performance/clinic last night at CSU Sacramento as part of the schools
annual "day of percussion" event.

I assume most of you are aware who Terry is and some of the people he has
played with, including Zappa, Jeff Beck, etc. 

I watched his crew setting up his kit (which took three hours!), and if you
haven't seen it, this thing is a monstrous mutant alien creation consisting
of chromatically and diatonically tuned toms, 8 diatonically tuned bass
drums (going down I believe to a low E three octaves below middle C), 
gongs,
various world percussion stuff, and tons of stacked cymbals, sorta pitched,
in layers from low in pitch to high in pitch. Oh, and a snare drum thrown 
in
for good measure.

He played pitched solo compositions (with perhaps a little improv) that 
were
virtuosic and orchestral in nature, with thought to form, harmony, melody,
texture, drama and dynamics. At first I looked at the kit and thought, 
"wow,
this is overkill", but by the end of his first orchestration, I changed 
that
view completely.

It was totally inspiring, and I got a lot of great ideas from both his
performance and his "chat" with the audience. Something he does is that 
when
he wants a sustained note, he rolls the tom very fast. That sounds like a
normal human thing to do, but in addition, he also performs sustained slurs
between specific notes in a melody by overlapping his rolls on two 
different
toms when transitioning between those specific notes. He also performs
harmony (four notes total, plus a hi-hat, as he has pedals set up which
simultaneously play a bass drum AND hi-hat). He does all kinds of
polyrhythmic stuff with ostinatos, and to boot he is a very dynamic,
enthralling performer. I caught a couple of Stravinsky and Zappa quotes, 
and
he played an excellent orchestration of Ravel's main "Bolero" theme - on a
freaking drum set!

The concert was totally packed and the buzz afterward was positive in the
extreme. Check his stuff out when you get a chance. Apparently, he has an
instructional DVD with the whole shebang included.

Oh, by the way, I am not a drummer.

~Greg