Dave with (L to R) Marv
Dahlgren, Elvin Jones,
Keiko Jones, Elliot Fine
and Milo Fine (2003)

FRIENDS & INSPIRATIONS

Here are some recommended links to friends and other players or interesting things I admire and enjoy. Be sure to check out all the cool links contained within the other pages of the Web site as well.

Astral Project
Saxophonist & good man Tony Dagradi leads this celebrated New Orleans quartet featuring Steve Masakowski's exquiste guitar and James Singleton's unpredictably groovy bass, all driven by the incredible John Vidacovich on drums. These guys do it all, no boundries, with incredible empathy. One of my favorite bands of all time.

Ignacio Berroa
Dizzy Gillespie grabbed Ignacio not long after he arrived in New York after defecting from Cuba, calling him "The only Latin drummer in the world, in the history of American music that intimately knows both worlds; his native Afro-Cuban music as well as Jazz"--an attribute vital to exploiting Gillespie's music to maximum effect. Ignacio has unbelievable chops and rarely shows them, prefering instead to play with such beautiful understatement. That being said, he's also a master of confounding your ears with his ability to use space to make his rhythms sound more complex. That kills me! I've found these skillful concepts mirror his personality and intellect quite closely. My studies with him and of him have helped bring my drumming and feel closer to the African roots of the art.

Terry Bozzio
The first time I saw and heard Bozzio was with Frank Zappa in the 1970's. I was new to playing music and Terry played with such ferociousness that he literally frightened me. This was not the first time that had happened to me though--that happened when I saw Eric Kamau Gravatt play for the first time with Natural Life. Funny thing is, later I learned what a huge influence Gravatt was on Bozzio, as was Marv Dahlgren and Elliot Fine's classic method book, 4-Way Coordination. Naturally I feel like we're kindred spirits of sorts. His present day endeavors are fantastic, pushing the musical boundries of the drumset. He's a true one man meta-orchestra. If you're a drummer, be sure to check out his technique link for some great tips.

Bill Bruford
As a kid, Bruford had me at Roundabout with Yes--his sound, his funky bass drum foot, and that great rhythm in the middle section. It still sounds great. I remember being in London on tour in 1978, and finding his first solo LP, Feels Good to Me, and snapping it up like a prize. Not too long after that, I saw him with his band at an old bus station-turned club in downtown Minneapolis called Uncle Sam's (now better known as First Avenue). It was very exciting, as was every opportunity I've had to see him since with King Crimson, Yes and Earthworks. Simply put he's one of my favorite drummers for his sound, his musical imagination, and the clever ways he challenges the traditional set up of the drumset in a way that's both futuristic, yet a throwback to the early days of the trapset, when, along with the foundational bass and snare drum, anything that sounded good was used, before the now standard compliment of cymbals and tom toms had fallen into place.

Keith Carlock
I first heard Keith on the title track of Steely Dan's Two Against Nature CD, where his funky feel and loose approach stood out from all the other great drummers on the disc. It was on Steely Dan's Everything Must Go tour that I got a deeper look and listen to the depth of his pocket and ears. I remember that show opened with Aja, a tune almost legendary for Steve Gadd's playing on it. Keith played the grooves the way we all know them and in the solo sections blazed through the figures with a stunning display of rhythm and syncopation that was all his own, never straying from the groove-based orchestration of his cymbal, snare, bass drum & hi hat. All that just opening the two hour show! He's since done notable work with Sting as well. Reminds me of the tune "Nice work if you can get it," and it turns out he's a warm and humble cat to boot, so let's hear it for a nice guy finishing first!

Congotronics
Cool new African sounds from this interesting group, Congotronics. Their sound is being described as "otherworldly music" with its cool "electro-traditional" mixtures of African rhythm & song and electronica. Click on their video clips & dig on it. Wait 'til you see their instrumentation--it will defy what you're hearing beforehand. Amazing and seriously groovin'.

Jack DeJohnette
The consumate musician. A guru to many of us who listen to him. From his early work in the AACM, his work with Miles Davis, Keith Jarrett, thousands of sessions and his own great groups, Jack has a voice that gets to you. Always surprising and on the money, he's amazing. Nothing else I can say, other than I grabbed one of my favorite discs by Jack for mood music when writing this.

Peter Erskine
It's easy to wish Peter Erskine's resume was yours...Weather Report, Jaco Pastorius Big Band, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Bass Desires, the John Abercrombie Trio--all favorites of mine with Peter at the helm. As a kid I saw him quite often with Maynard Ferguson's band in the days I was playing in my high school jazz ensemble and he was always generous and kind enough to answer my questions and give me food for thought. That continued into my college years. He even turned me onto the Meters, giving me a cassette of his which I wore out. In addition to being a player capable of extremes from subtle delicacy to burning fire, he's also a very thoughtful and introspective educator with a lot of great concepts about musical drumming which I recommend you check out.

Herb Graham, Jr.
One of my best friends from my days living in Los Angeles. Lately you can hear Herb playing on Macy Gray records or films he's scored for HBO, but I recommend you find the music he wrote and recorded with his own band, the B Sharp Jazz Quartet. The quartet was formed through Herb's association with the World Stage, a collective in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, organized for young, up and coming musicians by the late, great Billy Higgins and a few of his contemporaries. Those were exciting times that I learned from and really enjoyed thanks to Herb. His music still stands up on every level. Check it out.

Ruben Gutierrez
My old cruise ship roommate from East Los Angeles, this tenor saxophonist, composer/arranger, now leads a hot New York band, Red Rube, that plays an exciting mix of Latin Jazz, ska, and funk with a line up that includes bassist Tim Lefebvre and drummer Zach Danziger. You can hear them all on Uri Caine's 2005 release Shelf-Life.

Jeff Hamilton
Renowned for his incredibly bluesy swing and ability to groove ensembles, large and small, to death. Jeff is also a dynamic artist with great depth in his ability to paint and color not only the groove, but his solo statements as well. He takes playing melodically to fabulous new levels for drumset artists, able to quote melodies on his kit in ways that will remind you of a horn player's phrasing more than a drummer's, all on a standard four-piece kit. My studies with Jeff in Los Angeles in the mid '80's were invaluable to deepening my feel and expanding the way I look at a set of drums in general. The personal interest and friendship he has extended in helping me is something I'll never forget.

Zigaboo Modeliste
Known in his homeland of New Orleans as the "King of the Funky Drums" that's not something you argue about. He's a innovator of funk drumming up in the pantheon of those particular players. Incredible feel and sound, and his own blend of his cultural roots that has been influential on me, and a million other drummers, setting a new standard of New Orleans drumming and funk in general. Meters bassist George Porter Jr. recently stated in an interview " I play with a lot of great drummers in New Orleans who all bring something to the table, but Zig built the table!!" Fortunately for all of their fans, The Meters have reunited. Don't miss 'em this time around!

Stanton Moore
Equally laid back and fiery, Stanton is at the forefront of the New Breed of drummers. A keeper of the flame for his New Orleans jazzy funk heritage, he's also broad-minded and futuristic as some of his recent work with Galactic, Corrosion of Conformity, Garage a Trois and his own various groups easily demonstrates. His recent book and DVD releases, Take It to the Street!, a traditional and modern approach to New Orleans drumming, is an instant classic and in the wake of Hurricane Katrina a new kind of "Preservation Hall." Be sure to check it out!

Idris Muhammad
Starting to figure out how much I dig New Orleans drummers? Idris is a master with a long, fruitful legacy of work in New Orleans and New York. He's equally at home in jazz and funk rhythm sections and has his own vocabulary in each. He was also a student of the late master drummer Ed Blackwell, which comes out at times in his melodic solo work especially. There's an insightful interview at this link, but also be sure to check out his playing and see him if you can. He's one of three drummers, along with Billy Higgins and Al Foster, that exhibited techniques of producing sound I'd never seen before, every time I'd see them, sending me straight to the drums when I got home!

Bernard Purdie
To say that Purdie is a character is an understatement. It's also an understatement to say he has a great feel. It's incredibly solid and supple and always both the foundation and the icing on the cake, on hundreds of records and every time I've heard him play. I don't know how he does that. I do know I've been very fortunate to have been showcased by him on more than one occasion when we've been on the same bill or played together in clubs and clinics. He's been very gracious to me and that, in and of itself, is something I don't get either but I do appreciate it greatly!

Jamil Sharif
Another great friend from my tenure on cruise ships, Jamil leads the house band nightly at the Maison Bourbon, located on the corner of Bourbon Street and St. Peter, in the city's French Quarter. He's a truly gifted trumpeter regularly appearing with a "who's who" of the New Orleans music scene. You can see Jamil prominently featured in the hit Academy Award-winning film Ray, as a member of the Ray Charles Orchestra. TRIPLICATE recorded his tune Crescent City Strut on our debut CD, which recieved a lot of airplay, and remains one of our most requested pieces.

Ed Shaughnessy
Some of you know Ed from his long tenure on "The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson." I grew up watching him on TV, night after night, a model for a true professional drummer, kicking that big band, playing all kinds of music with so many different artists the band backed up. Then, my senior year of high school, we played together with my jazz ensemble and brought the house down. It was the biggest thrill of my life at that time. Shortly thereafter I went to UW-Madison to study with the great bassist Richard Davis, who runs the jazz department there. Ed, unknown to me, went out his way to call Richard and talk me up, which changed my relationship with Richard to my advantage right at the start of my freshman year. For that I'm eternally grateful. The above link goes to a great interview with Ed, but be sure to check out his classic Tonight Show "drum-battle" with Buddy Rich here.

Steve Smith
I first saw Steve in Jean Luc Ponty's band, tearing it up. After that it was Journey and the first incarnation of Vital Information, which was a very cool sound. Lately he's been doing so many diffrent things it's hard to keep up. He's been dropping into the McNally Smith College of Music for clinics and concerts for about three years straight which has been lots of fun for all of us. Always with something new to share and his playing continues to evolve in amazing ways. The series on adapting Indian rhythms to Western drumming he wrote recently for MODERN DRUMMER magazine was fantastic. Be sure to check it out.

Chad Wackerman
Back in college, I first saw Chad with Allan Holdsworth and Jimmy Johnson and I'd never heard anything like it. It was like music from another planet and very captivating. Soon thereafter I saw him w/Frank Zappa, a musician I admired greatly. He was again stunning. I looked him up when I moved to Los Angeles and my studies with him opened up my awareness of how to play more freely outside of 4/4 time as well as within and around it. Chad's playing is beyond reliable yet never predictable, something we all can strive for.

MINNESOTA MUSIC SCENE

Marc Anderson
Around these parts if you want the personification of the word "percussionist," as it relates to all groove-oriented music, look no farther than Marc. He has magic hands (& his feet ain't bad either). He has a broad cultural knowledge of world percussion, a bright and powerful positive energy, and there's always a lesson for me when I have the joy of hearing and/or playing with him.

Jay Epstein
Jay is a drummer-of-choice for many fabulous Twin Cities jazz musicians. He has a beautifully colorful lightness to his sound and great taste in his musical decisions. He's been a friend for years and extremely supportive of me. Be sure to check out his timeless recording Long Ago featuring bassist Anthony Cox and my old high school friend Billy Carrothers on piano. It's amazing.

Eric Fawcett
Eric is a player with a fabulous energy and feel. Don't take my word for it, ask Pharrell Williams, guru of the smash pop artists the Neptunes/N.E.R.D. Eric's been recording and touring with them around the world for the past few years, even earning a terrific personal mention in a Rolling Stone Magazine review. Locally he's busy with The Hopefuls and Spymob. He's also been writing, for awhile now, a fabulous column for a British magazine called DRUMMER, called Mindset, that I encourage you all to check out. I believe you can find samples at Eric's myspace as well. He does all musicians a service with his insights. You tune up your drumset so be sure to tune your mindset too!

Eric Kamau Gravatt
It's like a guilty pleasure to call Kamau part of the Minnesota scene. Sure, he's lived here for many, many years, but he made a huge mark with his work with Weather Report and McCoy Tyner before relocating to the Twin Cities to join Natural Life, an amazing group from here in the 1970's, back when I first saw him play. Eric has a style that ranges from sensuous to spiritual to frightful. I've read interviews where Joe Zawinul called him the "greatest drummer in the world" and Terry Bozzio explained that anyone who thought his own playing was unique didn't know Kamau's great influence on him. Around here we travel to the Artists' Quarter in St. Paul to "see how it's done," but fortunately Kamau is once again touring the world with McCoy Tyner. Take advantage of the opportunity to hear this incredible, unique artist if you get the chance. He's inspiration personified on the drums. Believe it.

Phil Hey
I don't know where I'd be without Phil Hey. I've had so many meaningful friendships with so many great mentors but no one encouraged me more to pursue my dream of playing as a career than Phil did and, as I like to tell him, someday I'll get him for it! I learned how to tune drums and how to select cymbals from Phil. He turned me onto the music of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, as well as the artistry of Max Roach and Ed Blackwell, with whom he shared great relationships. He plays regularly with saxophoinist Dewey Redman on the road, and everybody here in town. He always encouraged me to sit in with the premier be-bop group in town, Eddie Berger's Jazz All Stars, when I was a kid, every time I came into the Artists' Quarter, giving me a bandstand education that is rare these days for young players. I could go on and on. A local paper called City Pages just voted Phil "Jazz Artist of the Year," which is just great. They're twenty years late, but it's still great.

The Jazz Image
This long running, and Web accessible, Saturday evening Minnesota Public Radio program (9 PM, CST), hosted by local radio legend Leigh Kamman, was my window to a world I could only dream of as a young boy. In a classic old-school radio style, Leigh painted pictures with words that always made me feel like I was actually in the cities & clubs where the music he played was recorded, as it was happening. He's still doing it masterfully every Saturday night. Tune in and turn on!

Joe Pulice
A premier artist in these parts, I first met Joe in 1978 in the Midwest Regional Finals of the Louis Bellson/Slingerland National Drum Contest. I had won the Minnesota state competition and Joe had done the same in Wisconsin. He played before me in our face-off and I was capitivated by his presence of sound and the interesting, tasteful things he did. It was only when he finished that it occured to me I would lose! I didn't mind, he deserved to win. After that he played with Woody Herman for awhile and came to town where he quickly established himself as the first call show drummer in town. He currently plays regularly with the JazzMN Big Band, and everyone else in town. Joe did a lot to break me into the show scene when I moved back home. He's a true friend.

THE MADISON CONNECTION

Richard Davis
I attended college at the UW-Madison because I wanted to study with Richard Davis. He almost didn't let me into his program after I got there because he typically didn't accept freshman, but thankfully I got past that with him at my audition. He had played with so many musicians I admired--most all of my favorite jazz drummers. I loved his sound, particularly on the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis big band records. After I began working with him closely he became the role model for the kind of musician I wanted to be. Who else do you know that's played with Igor Stravinsky, Elvin Jones, Eric Dolphy, Tony Williams, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Leonard Bernstein, Jaco Pastorius, Frank Sinatra, Andrew Hill and Roy Haynes--to name a few?? I started working with him on gigs and recordings outside the school which gave me a lot of confidence and was very exciting. My parents have always been very supportive of me in my choices and direction which, as a parent myself now, I'm ever mindful of and grateful for. At college, even though he now refers to himself as "Cousin Richard," he was my musical father.

Wally Ingram
Brother Wally and I shared much as college roommates at 1118 Bowen Ct. in Madison. We studied with great teachers like Richard Davis, Les Thimmig and Joan Wildman. Hung out with Clyde Stubblefield, did sessions at Butch Vig's Studio, traded gigs and/or played together a lot on drums and percussion with various groups. We even built a unique two-man drumset for a gig w/Bryan King, a songwriter who also managed the Violent Femmes at that time. Wally has been based out of the Los Angeles area for the last several years, keeping busy with the likes of Sheryl Crow, David Lindley, Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne. He's currently gigging in Europe with Eric Burdon & the Animals when he's not home with his wife Laurie and their lovely new daughter, Lydia.

Ben Sidran
Ben is a true Renaissance man in the world of jazz and a champion of the cause. Pianist, vocalist, composer, producer, author, T.V. & radio host, the list goes on. I learned so much being around Ben about music and life. He's done so much and could answer so many questions with such a deep and logical perspective. I admired his wonderful family scene as well, so open and warm. His son Leo is an amazing talent as well. We now have a scholarship in Ben's name at the McNally Smith College of Music where I teach.

Clyde Stubblefield
When James Brown screamed "Give the drummer some!", It was Clyde he was talking about. Clyde is known as "The Funky Drummer" around the world, a moniker taken from the track of the same name he played with James Brown that contains perhaps the most sampled drum groove ever. He has for many years lived in Madison, Wisconsin, where I went to college. I had the privilege, in those days, of not only hearing him and learning a lot about groove from him, but he also befriended me and asked me to back him up when he put together his first "Clyde Stubblefield Band" so he could go out front onstage for part of the show and sing. I know how lucky I was to do that!

Butch Vig
What I learned from Butch was how to play more simply, strongly and hear everything more clearly. I had the opportunity to do sessions at Smart Studios that Butch was engineering and tried to really soak up the studio environment. Butch is an amazing engineer capable of getting great mixes instantly and offering lots of great ideas to make a session better. It's no surprise to me to see the level of success he's attained producing for Nirvana, the Smashing Pumpkins, U2 and the like, not to mention his great playing with Garbage. He's still the same in that he's all about the music and having fun in the pursuit of getting it right.

RECOMMENDED PERCUSSION STUFF

GK Music
This is the business of my friend and mentor Gordy Knudtson. Gordy is a deep thinker and a real doer in life. He's well organized and a great influence with those qualities. He's also an amazing drummer, with some of the cleanest technique I've ever seen. He's been with rocker Steve Miller for what must be getting close to twenty years now, and that only scratches the surface of his background. He's played with Roy Buchanan, Ben Sidran, and done hundreds of sessions. He won the Minnesota Music Awards "Best Drummer" catagory for I think, ten years in a row. Gordy founded the percussion department at the McNally Smith College of Music and hired me onto the department faculty almost 16 years ago. That opportunity changed my life and I'm deeply grateful to him. He's been there for me every time over the years. Check out his books and DVD on the advancements in the open/close hand techniques he's innovated. They'll ramp up your chops like they have mine and kind of blow your mind! Also try his various Drumphones, used by drummers like Steve Gadd, that help protect your hearing and get a great headphone mix in the studio. Inventive stuff from an inventive mind and a great friend. Check him out!

Paiste Cymbals Sounds Gongs
When I was sixteen I visited the Paiste Cymbal Factory in Nottwil, Switzerland, while on tour with a youth symphony. I had met Robert Paiste and Roy Burns at a Paiste clinic in Minneapolis, and Phil Hey helped set up a factory visit with Robert. What a great day. By coincidence, Billy Cobham visited the factory that day which was really cool and what I remember the most was that Robert and the folks at the factory treated me just as warmly and attentively as they did Billy. That stuck with me. I also took home some Formula 602 cymbals that I still treasure. Some years back now, Gordy Knudston and Herb Graham, Jr. recommended me to Paiste's Rich Mangicaro and Ed Clift who invited me to come onboard as an endorser. I remembered the feelings I had at the factory and I've been with them ever since. Music should be about being true to yourself and I have an easy time expressing myself with the superior instruments I find at Paiste. They have a versatility in their various lines of cymbals that adapts beautifully to the versatility I strive for musically. I never come up short and I always recieve high praise on the sound of my cymbals, even from artists who endorse other brands. What more could you want?