Steve Gadd Throwback Thursday From the MI Vault 

Amen!

Jeff Porcaro Groove he comments about being nervous and having to settle in.

Telling you the slow build at the beginning is my favorite part of the whole thing......when he starts opening the hat it's just so satisfying. I have always found it much harder to play slow and controlled than max mode.

Oh shit it’s Rob Brown! I just wanted to say thanks for your videos, they really helped me out with some drumming stuff I’ve been struggling with, your tuning videos in particular cleared some things up for me.

Rob Brown Is that an American thing ? I really wanna come to America. The Americans I have met have all been lovely, polite and laid back people. I travelled half way around Europe with a big negro guy called Yaz. Really good, easy company. Total trust. Love and respect from the suburbs of Perth, Western Australia.

@@fuzzy8mike What do you mean "is that an American thing?" i'm curious to what you're speaking about. Definitely make your way down to Mississippi for some jazz and blues. Great stuff down here. Also, the word "negro" has a lot of negativity surrounding it in our culture today, its a term that was mostly used during the slavery period of American history. Just an fyi. Have a great day dude :)

Dantaye Walker I don’t know what I meant DW. It was 10 months ago ! It was so long ago it was pre-Covid !! 🤣🤣🤣 The American trip didn’t happen.... but I still want it to happen

@9:50

Mark ODay Hey fellow student from MI!!! '88-'89!!

Hi there, PIT 88 to 89 here as well!

Howdy Mark, I was a PIT student at the time and was there! It was like going to drum church in that room, even the teachers were in awe. I also remember Gregg Bissonette and Myron Grombacher being there.

@@acsticks1 Hey Art in this day and age maybe you are still on?

@@mrtomcat91604 Yo how are you? Where you a Europe guy?

+Jason Cavitt, what a perceptive comment!

+Jason Cavitt He was fairly high also...

being willing to wait for longer periods before offer in a solution is directly correlated with creativity in research.

Man what a great comment! I think you’ve summed up what’s so great about his playing and personality. There’s a great lesson in that . Thanks

@@GingerDrums he wasn’t high, just been through rehab, we (in the audience) were instructed to not inquire about drugs or alcohol.

cadence mentality...well said!!! love to discuss this more

What do u mean by top of beat

@@mikehawk9461 - if you don't know the difference between playing on the top (or front) of the beat rather than on the back of the beat then you probably aren't a musician. His feel is more full and laid back within the time now than it used to be when he was younger. All musicians play time in their particular way.

This was an amazing interview, 2 legends

I saw it too. By just moving a pattern off the 1 to the 2 gives you a whole different feel. Wild stuff. 🥁

Keep playing Joe, Even Gadd learns something new everyday.

​@@Sms8668right on!

So well said. When I was an apprentice carpenter, 64 yr.old journeyman Smitty said to me, "No matter how long you've been doing this, there's always something new to learn." Words to live by.

Yes, Groove!

Theatre Mad me too

I feel the same, having studied percussion formally, there is something about Gadd's technique that really inspires other drummers. He applies the simple things that we were all taught in band, and Gadd still uses it.

*inserts Weckl's 30min solo out of spite*

Agreed. No offense, no homo, but this is sexy funk!

Art Corey .... thanks for dating this. When he mentioned "Jeff" as being one of "the guys out here" ... I knew it was pre-1992. Gadd is the greatest. You're so fortunate to have been there for this awesome clinic.

Canadian Drummer You're welcome...I was a student at MI then...it brought back a lot of great memories!

I was fortunate for sure! Awesome experiance and Gadd was a bonus.

+Art Corey Dude, I was standing to the right of them!! Very Cool!! Nice to meet ya Art!!

Awesome!

今のドラマーは手数、正確性を意識しすぎている気がします。ガッドの音はいい意味でズレが生じて音の一つ一つが躍動しているような気がする。だから聞いてて面白い。日本で言えば村上ポンタ秀一はガッドのノリに近い気がする。機械みたいに正確すぎる譜面なら打ち込みでいいわけですから。人間の鼓動を聴きたいわけですよ。

He does ---

To be fair, most drummers only get around 32 bars of time to do the solo, better unleash the lions now or end up with Zack's grooves

The first one was really just a run through- not really a take. He got the drum track the first time the red light went on.

@@sticktrik And that speeding up is wondrous... with that fadeout, it sounds like the song is speeding away to whatever dystopia Fagen and Becker have imagined next.

@@sticktrik - he didn't speed up. Tap your foot through it if you need to but he didn't speed up.

@Brad I know that. But the fact of the matter is that no tracks on Aja were recorded to a click and there is movement of tempos within each song. Aja in particular, the calmer parts sit around 116 bpm, but during the first Gadd/Shorter solo the tempo edges up to 122 bpm and for the last one the tempo sits around 128... so that's a movement of 12+ bpm over the course of the song. I'm a drummer who practices to a click every day of my life, and I have no problem with this... you can call it rushing or just the natural movement of tempo over the course of a 8 minute song, but in this case the tempo sure does move around a LOT and you COULD call it rushing. Oh and Gadd is my favorite drummer, bar none

@@kz1000ps I call it feel.

approximately at 10:00

I'm not a drummer and this is still such a joy to watch

Legend has it, a fellow MI student gave Steve a bump or two right before this!!

💯, In Gadd We Trust! ☝🏼

​@@milo8796 So? Judge much? If you can't add something constructive, please don't spread conjecture..

yes!!! you hear the rudiments.

Rudiments are everything!

Good 1!

They were great drums. I had a set of white ones, one of my first kits. I'm so bummed I sold mine so long ago to "upgrade" to Maple Customs. I didn't know what I had. I've been looking for that sound ever since.

well, the only good thing, is that those tour customs are being sold for pretty cheap on eBay, so you can get them back if you want :-) I was able to build a pretty nice black tour series set - all was from looking at eBay and finding good deals...

I hope to be in a position to buy a kit when one comes up some day. Some time ago I did find a kit that is similar (Yamaha Power V mahogany shell) and bought that for a song ... :)

Tomer Dichterman Those toms sound like shit

I got my Yamaha Stage Custom`s March of 2000-Philippine Mahogany sandwiched between Birch!!!(and this is an "introductory" level kit)1000 bucks I maxed out my Visa I got that day hahaa

+Papapoo Do sure ya did

Why would i care if you believe me? Go practice kid....

Sigh

Suck

+Papapoo I thought Gadd was completely clean by '87 or so? Well I guess a little weed can't hurt ;)

That's Beyerdynamic

Thomas Hornig just seeing this now. We both got to ask him a question how cool! What a great year that was : )

Think he innovated that

It's interesting his involvement with the LA session/album scene as I think of him as NY session scene, not much crossover from the NY to LA session scene, whole different scene, but of course Steve can play any scene.

dagambler999 :) HAS to be Gadd's groove since the speed of light isn't a constant!! :)

Another level for sure....but he's a product of the best in the world NY session scene. What else needs to be said, it's produced the very best.

Looks like 88-89 in Hollywood from other comments.

+Felix D'Mello wake up: he has invented this kind of playing! Don't you know "50 ways to leave your lover" (Paul Simon, 1975)? You have similarities with "Cissy strut", by Zigaboo Modeliste (1969). And Buddy Rich was a specialist of that concept in solos already in the 40's! All real creators, real artists, not just technicians like they are a lot today without admiting it, paying tribute to the one they copy shamelessly! Why do you think they are so renowned?

***** Hey Pete...Art Corey here...I was there too! PIT 1989!!

Art Corey Hey Art....what a night that was!!..Very cool to hear from you..take care!

Pete Ramos what happened to PIT? I remember their ads in Modern Drummer circa 1988-89. Was it run by Joe Pocorro? Seemed like it was kind of a West Coast Berklee.

@@drummer78 MI is still going strong, I was there a couple of years ago and they have actually now become accredited and offer bachelor's programs. As alumni, they allowed me to come in and take a tour. The inside hasn't really changed much in 30 years, the hallways full of drum practice rooms look just like they did in '89