The biggest thing that really gets me isn't the complexity of the playing or the odd beats, but that he's keeping tempo constantly with his left foot throughout it all without wavering. As a drummer of 10+ years, I know how ridiculously hard that is, and so that's where Terry Bozzio really gets props from me.
Incredible. I like how he can keep his left foot in rhythm the entire time with all those septuplets and pentuplets and whatever the hell other uplets he's been playing.
Anyone who says this is random notes knows nothing about music. This is through-composed crazy difficult stuff FZ wrote specifically for Terry's 1977 drum kit. He's only gotten better at it over the years.
I agree 100% whilst I sit here listening in amazement to " The ocean is the ultimate solution " from the Sleep Dirt LP , the Black page is far from random notes & was not composed at a percussionist audition piece of music , it was composed with the purpose of presenting classical trained musicians with their worst fear , which was a page absolutely full of highly complicated music ,hence the term the black page , any percussionist or drummer who says it's a simple piece to figure out & play should be in a well known band if they are that good & the piece is so simplistic, 99.9% of the videos I see on RU-vid of drummers attempting the piece butcher it & claim they nailed it .
@@nn-ro1lv i agree there are many RU-vid vids of marginal players " playing " this piece ,most are so far off it's borderline illegal ,I'm one who can tell the difference between nodeling and playing the piece properly ,if it's such an unimportant and trivial piece then please point me to your video showing you making it all the way through in one attempt ,and in time .
I'm no musician. However, I appreciate those people who are experts in their field. When I read posts by people who say it's "random bullshit", or unlistenable "music" I immediately think of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. This phenomenon makes "experts" of people who have little knowledge or training in the field about which they're commenting, whether it be science, politics, the arts, etc. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
For those who don't know, this piece was written by Frank Zappa as a drum solo for Terry. It took him a long time to learn as the rhythms are extremely complicated. When Terry learned it Zappa wrote the music for the rest of his ensemble to play with it. Thus we have The Black Page #1 and #2. Listen to #2 first if you can't appreciate the complexity of the piece. It is truly a masterpiece! For those who loved Frank, he is sorely missed. For those who never saw him check out Zappa plays Zappa which is Frank's son Dweezil playing his Dad's music and doing it right. There is an excellent DVD out too.
Metropolis I don't think you have any clue at all what you are talking about. The black page isn't one of my favorite pieces but reading and mastering these rhythms on any instrument is NOT easy. It certainly couldn't be mastered in "less than a week" even by a professional. Can you even read music?
Metropolis That's bullshit, it took him two weeks not "less than a day", as told by Bozzio himself: "Then he gave it to me, and I could play parts of it right away. But it wasn't a pressure thing, it just sat on my music stand and for about 15 minutes every day for 2 weeks, before we would rehearse, I would work on it. And after 2 weeks I had it together and I played it for him."
I was reading the drum music on the web while I watched this performance. Bozzio nails it perfectly. Excellent reading and voicing on his part. Shows a classical side of his playing. Beautiful pianissimo drum rolls. This really is a work of art.
I doubt that you could read that music and follow his playing at the same time. Both are extremely hard to do independently much less at the same time. But at least you know the word pianissimo.
@@alabamacoastie6924 if you know the piece as well as the rest of the zappaheads, its not that hard. its in 4/4 if you know the melody its not a problem to read it
@@alabamacoastie6924 Good thing we have ears AND eyes. My orchestra teacher in high school used to say "Always have two eyes on the page and one on the conductor"! Anyway, people can read. It's not a super-power.
And Terry thought Vinny was so amazing that it gave him that feeling of 'whats even the point, l this work and Vinny seems like he can do it in his sleep"
I think it's quite interesting how people's perceptions of certain demonstrations varies so greatly, depending on the person performing. When Bozzio performs this, people claim that it's just Bozzio being Bozzio, playing pretentious shit on an extraneously large drum set. When somebody else performs this, people claim it's an impressive display of discipline and coordination, and is surprisingly musical. Honestly, if you are judging a player's ability based on the instrument he/she chooses to use, you've not surpassed a child's mentality.
Joshua Strong i dont understand the hate on bozzio. ive listened very intently to at least 30 FZ albums and being a drummer myself for 10 yrs, i can say with confidence that bozzio was nothing but great and some of the hardest stuff to copy. to all the haters, listen to sheik yerbouti and all the subtleties to the way he hits his crashes, his bass drum, and hi-hats. it's incredibly how spasmatic his style can be at times, all the while keeping time with some incredibly hard music. and lets not forget a large portion of that album is LIVE
I feel like most people who bash Bozzio couldn't even name two songs he's ever played on. The work he did with Zappa in '76-'77 was so tactful, it's like he had the attitude of Keith Moon with the chops of Ian Paice. What I will criticize though, is that lately he's completely forgotten about the perfect simplicity of a hi-hat and the ride cymbal; he spends all of his time on dull china cymbals and weird jangly splashes even though his cymbals sounded fucking awesome in the 70's before all that faff. Sure he can do what he wants with his kits, but the sound becomes pretty stale in the long run.
Absolutely 1st class, superb. Sadly, too many folks haven't been taught to discern the difference between drumming and percussion, between playing drums and making music. People who say silly things like "this sucks" simply haven't learned enough yet to appreciate how wide the world of music is and how gifted Terry Bozzio is. This is really good stuff.
This is amazing!! He totally brings the composition to life in this performance. It is simultaneously absolutely faithful to Zappa's score and a creative expression of the performer! This is an excellent example of why the quality of the performance is key to the success of any composition.
I'm a percussion major in university. This year my prof decided it was time for me to learn kit for the first time ever. This is what he gave me. It's been 2 months. Still don't have it up to speed. It's a great piece but the rhythms are insane.
My humble opinion? The "black page" is not the right point to start playing drums. I know you are a percussionist, but the drum kit is a totally different stuff: it's not so much about hand skill, as it is about four limb coordination. So you have to practice basic drum set exercises in the first place, and THEN (some months or, better, years later) you can go to the black page. Generally speaking, whenever you have to spend two months on one piece, it means that you're not ready for that piece yet. And the key is to improve your overall technique, step by step, slowly but solidly, rather than keeping on practicing that single piece, hoping that one day it will miraculously fall in place. Maybe it will, but it will sound stiff and insecure, as it's grounded on thin foundation. Besides, disappointment and boredom (which are eventually yielded by continual and almost fruitless repetitions) will drain enthusiasm and life from the performance, which ultimately will lead to a dull, if correct, rendition. I'm a percussionist myself, so trust me. ;)
Jonah Angulo-Hurtig He's a fan of challenging me beyond what I should be doing. He also gave me a 4-mallet Bach fugue within about 3 months of starting to play marimba. This wasn't necessarily surprising. I did my best. Got through most of it for my recital last week. The only thing was the bass pedal being a bit sloppy, but otherwise I got through the rhythms. I improvised two measures - the third from the end and the last bar, because I knew it was either going to be play it properly and have it sound really sloppy or improvise and make it sound good. I did the latter. But I mean, yeah, I agree that it wasn't a good idea for me to play this in my first semester of drumkit. My own fault for saying yes to it. I didn't know what it was, and just agreed to it. But hey, got an A- on my recital so I'll take it.
We are fortunate, here in St. Petersburg FL, to have Bogus Pomp, a band headed by Jerry Outlaw, who play Maestro Zappa's work on a regular basis, including at the annual Zappaween concert. They are so good, various musicians who played with Frank have traveled here and sat in. They often hook up with musicians from the Florida Orchestra to play Frank's classical works. Do a RU-vid search for Bogus Pomp and/or Jerry Outlaw, and see what I mean. #Respect
I got to see this live a few years ago on the Zappa Plays Zappa tour, complete with Steve Vai on guitar. One of my top three shows of all time! And it just so happens that the person sitting to my left in the audience was Danny Carey. An added bonus!
"Black Page" is a piece that you have to take it in It's whole musical internity,coz you won't feel the depth and complexity of this song just by listening the Drum part alone BUT when you hear this very piece with the rest of the band the beauty of the Drumming and the composition of the song emerges beautifully.
It’s interesting how he decided to come in 1.84 ms early on the 36th bar. There’s 5 nested tuplets in that bar, so this seems wildly inefficient. But he is the master so I concede to him.
Imagine when he came to Steve Vai when Steve was 16 or 17 and gave him some insane music sheets and was like: "Play it now..." Steve did just that and joined the band. You can hear a lot of Franks music in Steve´s songs. :D
@Pedro Takahashi Gunderson What the hell?! Apostrophe, One Size Fits All, The Grand Wazoo, Weasles Ripped My Flesh, Joe's Garage, Sheik Yerbouti, Overnite Sensation, Chunga's Revenge, etc. - these albums displayed his natural intuition of music and immense talent overall. Obviousl, material like Uncle Meat or We're Only in it for the Money is not as listenable, but you have to at least accept what a talent he was.
I assure you I bang my head tap my feet to any Zappa song. It takes a lot of time and experience, because it's not "passive" listenning, you need to be active and push yourself to the limit to understand it. You can even dance to it once you get it, and it's far more expressive and thrilling than almost any other kind of music. You're like the majority who waits for music to take them, while Zappa needed to be followed, listening to him is a hard job that rewards beyond belief once you've did it
Wow, I just heard this for the first time. It's not something that I enjoyed much but I definitely admire the technique and virtuosity of Bozzio, that is an extremely complicated and intricate composition compounded by the fact that it's really sparse in nature, there's not much to hide behind. His timing is impeccable, or should I say timings.
So far beyond anything I could ever imagine doing. I did manage to steal then bastardize this passage @2:08 and then, in my own, cretinous way, use it for a jaw dropping fill... So inspirational, especially the two clinics I went to, Terry's playing always makes me giddy :D
Was introduced to Bozzio via Missing Persons. That started me checking out his works w/Lonely Bears, U.K., BLS, Beck's Guitar Shop. Through this search, came across Black Page #2. Took a listen & concluded..."The man is Not of this Earth!"
@dubh3124 it's nice to read comments from people who GET IT! Bozzio raised the bar to an immpossibly high level that has yet to be reached - let alone surpassed. I have respect for intellegent people and musicians - thank you for your post.
Fully charted and written by Zappa and some people have commented it could be learned very quickly....probably true but when the innovation was first created,it was groundbreaking and still is!
Oh, I completely agree. Most Progressive music is like that. I think the most rewarding part is being able to find something new in the music every time you hear it. A lot of the really great bands are able to combine passive and active listening music types into one. That is art right there.
Nice job; it looks like for the moment at least, haters have been pushed off the page by people who actually use youtube for the enjoyment of their fellow humans' talents, rather than for the express purpose of dissing great artists they can't appreciate.
@MeinlBoy1 He's actually famous for two reasons, playing with Frank Zappa, and being a master of ostinati. The big kit may not be needed, but he does use it all at one point or another, and he does have skill, that is unquestionable.
amazing. both the composition AND the performance. pure genius. whoever says this is just some random notes has no concept of how fuckin hard it is to play this shit (not to mention composing it in the firs place).
If you can find Bozzio and Chad Wackerman playing this side by side you'll see two different but absolutely perfect versions. Zappa said they were the only 2 drummers he ever worked with who could play it. I saw Zappa back in 1981 with Wackerman on the drums. It was incredible.
Also, remember Frank had the habit of shaping certain compositions after specific instrumentalists, and the Black Page was such a case, he wrote it precisely for Bozzio. I'm not sure, but I guess the drum part for "Mo's Vacation" was shaped after Vinnie Colaiuta (the '78 band used to play it in a marimba/bass/drums version).
I grew up listening to music in the late 60's/70's. I own and listen to every once in whlle one of their albums. I have a TON of old Zappa albums that i would listen to all of the time for a few years, but I stopped listening to it around 1975 timeframe. I got immersed in Allman Bros, Cream, Blind Faith, various offshoots, old blues. I loved listening to old Who, never really care for the Dead (they bored me), I would listen to Mahavishnu, RTF, Weather Report and all of the offshoots.
This is a real nice performance by Terry of this piece ... his playing clearly shows that it was originally written as a solo drum composition ... you can hear it ...
with zappa's line up of legendary musicians over the years, bozzio, vinny coliuta, steve vai, stuart hamm- just to name a few, he was the most prolific musical genius of our time (if not all time). some people, musicians and non-musicians alike cannot comprehend the amazing creativity and complexity of frank's music, so they dismiss it. there's more to life than 4/4 time droning on for 3 minutes at a time on the radio.
Remember - 'Those that can, get up and do it - those that can't, just criticise.' - creditonhughes Spot on. You never stop learning in music. Whether playing playing the simplest pop or rock grooves in 4/4 or other common times or the complex material that guys like Stravinsky, Zappa, Brubeck, Zorn et al wrote, and even various world music styles, a competent musician, no matter what you play does this: sit still, watch, listen and learn. And serve the music, not your ego, humility's a must!
Bozzio almost quit Zappa's band over this song when he had to learn it. It's an amazing piece of music with a drum part that VERY few drummers can do. Awesome to hear this version, Bozzio's writing style with his solo albums sound very Zappa inspired.
There is a lot of room for improv in the chart, which he does. It is very 'on' though, and an incredibly impressive feat of human ability Much luv 4 teh Terry!.
zappa was a genius and nobody has ever written or performed music with the passion and detail as him since.terry is an amazing drummer.so what if hes made a few mistakes on other material and footage.hes only human.people who diss him should try playing the black page and then in ten yrs time come bk with a comment.
What is interesting for mature cool people who know music and percussion, (not boecke91), is Terry is playing a written drum piece by Frank Zappa, and yes Zappa's music is complicated, Avant-garde and abstract. This is a drum solo that is orchestrated, with every beat written down, every dynamic, that fits perfectly in the piece. There's another Black Page UT vid with Bozzio playing with Chad Wackerman, the written score-music is shown along the bottom. Amazing.
My goodness! That is an unbelievable exercise in independence keeping meter with left foot while flogging away at the "Black Page" with the other 7/8ths of you brain. Nice one Terry, I've been a fan forever (UK, Zappa, Missing Persons)
@snareman41 little known fact: it was actually originally written as a drum solo, then when terry was proficient in playing it, frank wrote out a melody for it! i was very surprised to hear it, personally.
@Beaudereck CORRECTION I did write "signature shifts" in that post - I know it's all 4/4 He plays against the time, making it sound odd meter is what should have written. But thanks for the reminder - you guys know your stuff!
@drsoph2112 yeah, i agree with you there man. the problem with drummers that are learning today is that they can't take a chalenge head on. the things i have learnt from listening to terry has helped me more than anny teacher could ever have done. think like terry and me, a drumkit isn't one instrument it is manny played by one man. Use Dax!!!
Actually you're 100 percent right. I don't know why i was thinking it was the Black Page.. probably because they're both rediculously hard to play. The song was called "Mo n' Herb's Vacation." thanks for pointing that out.
Its very clever. When i was a young man in the early 90's hanging around a record store i told the owner that Zappa was shit. He told me that I would understand it when I grew up. I did grow up and I do understand...
I'm so glad you came round to it man! I have been a fan of Frank's music since I was very young (8 years old!) and I love it now more than ever, as I am able to understand exactly what is going on in there. It helped that my high school music teacher was a massive Mothers/Zappa/Beefheart fan, too, and would force the class to listen to them. Then play beautiful covers on his Spanish guitar (he's a world class classical/flamenco guitarist) to show that it could be done! I miss Frank, and it saddens me that there are no artists like him anymore. No-one willing to push boundaries or challenge the 'norm' of modern 'rock' music. No-one willing to pick targets that can't stand criticism. I just wish I could have got to see him play live, but, alas, I am just a bit too young...
Bozzio is great and i didn't mean to take anything away from him but the true master behind the drums in this song is Frank Zappa since he wrote and phrased every single note played. Given Vinnie's style and the fact that the song is structured before the drummer plays it pretty much means that it would sound just as good if Vinnie played it... just in his style. However, you definitley know when it's Bozzio playing the tune because of his unique technique and drums.
