Mario Calandrelli:
Mario Calandrelli, drummer, percussionist, educator, clinician and " computer - drum machine programmer ", was born in Venosa, a small pleansant town lied in the bed of a lake - basin, in the north - east of Basilicata (a region in the south of Italy). His beginnings are very similar to a lot of other famous music mates' ones, drummers and no drummers. While still very young he demonstrated a gift for rhythm and music. The " fateful meeting " with drums occurred when he was only three years old.
The " fateful meeting " with drums occurred when he was only three years old.
While attending a family wedding he was dazzled by the sight of the drums. There was, in fact, the typical band cheering up the party. The next day, using pot lids, boxes and washing powder bins he began practicing ...
Gordon Odametey zeigt die Heilung des Geistes mit afrikanischen Trommel-Rhythmen, Afri-Jazz Roots-Musik Konzerte Workshops.
In the village "Beje Wo Ahumi" Gordon grew up in the Odametey-family, who is well known for it's excellent drumming and dance. Influenced by his grandfather, a famous herbalist, he recognized early the healing power of special spoken words and drumrhythms, espacially the "heartbeat-rhythms".
In his younger days he was known in Ghana and West Africa as an excellent drummer. He teached drumming, first to africans, then also to europeans in a drummingschool outside from Accra, today in Berlin and elsewhere. Since 1985 Gordon lives in Germany.
Here he performed with various groups, for example "No Fears", "Bibiba", "Root B. Tama", "The World Music Orchestra" and "Senegambigha". 1987 he founded the group "OGIDI GIDI", with wich he toured with "Black Uhuru" and "The Wailers" and performed on TV. He also played with other drummers like Mustapha Tettey Addy and Aja Addy. He perform for dancer - composing and playing the musical rhythms.
He also composes percussion - rhythms for different musicians. Last but not least he proved his talent in numerous solo-concerts in Berlin, Basel, Vienna, Paris, New Orleans, Hongkong ... Based on the tradition and his long experience in so many various musical trends from all over the world, Gordon Odametey has developed his very own style and art.
Buster Birch, freelance drummer and percussionist:
Hello and welcome to my web site. Finally, a chance to have everything all together in one place. Being a self-employed freelance musician I find myself working in a wide variety of musical spheres. When performing this can vary between jazz groups, orchestras, covers bands, cabaret and musical theatre. When teaching this can range from one-to-one lessons to percussion groups and larger scale workshops. Please feel free to get in touch if you would like further information about anything contained in this website.
Playing professionally since his teens, Buster is a very experienced musician in many fields of music. He has a degree in music from the University of London and a post-graduate diploma in jazz performance from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (where he was able to meet and play with Branford Marsalis, Randy Brecker, Billy Cobham and Dave Liebman, not to mention most of London's top jazz musicians who tutor at the college). Whilst living in New York, he also studied at the Drummers Collective in Manhattan and privately with Jim Chapin and Joe Morello (of The Dave Brubeck Quartet).
He has travelled extensively as a musician and has now played in over 30 countries with various jazz ensembles, orchestras and shows.
His experience in playing jazz is considerable and includes big-bands to small groups. He regularly plays with many of the up-coming "young lions" on the London jazz scene, but particularly enjoys working with the "more mature" generation of British jazz veterans, who he finds very inspiring.
His experience of orchestral playing is quite substantial for someone who has chosen not to specialise in that field and includes playing for The Sarum Chamber Orchestra and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
He also has extensive experience in musical theatre, having played for countless shows in various theatre pits in the uk and abroad. These include West Side Story, Chess, South Pacific, A Chorus Line, Annie, Five Guys Named Mo, La Cage Aux Folles, Little Shop of Horrors, Les Miserables, Chicago, The King and I, My Fair Lady, Oliver and many more! ...
The Official Web Site of Buddy Rich, featuring information about Buddy Rich, as well as shopping, downloads, message boards, links, and business inquiries.
Arguably the greatest jazz drummer of all time, the legendary Buddy Rich exhibited his love for music through the dedication of his life to the art. His was a career that spanned seven decades, beginning when Rich was 18 months old and continuing until his death in 1987. Immensely gifted, Rich could play with remarkable speed and dexterity despite the fact that he never received a formal lesson and refused to practice outside of his performances.
Born Bernard Rich to vaudevillians Robert and Bess Rich on September 30, 1917, the famed drummer was introduced to audiences at a very young age. By 1921, he was a seasoned solo performer with his vaudeville act, "Traps the Drum Wonder." With his natural sense of rhythm, Rich performed regularly on Broadway at the age of four. At the peak of Rich's early career, he was the second-highest paid child entertainer in the world.
Rich's jazz career began in 1937 when he began playing with Joe Marsala at New York's Hickory House. By 1939, he had joined Tommy Dorsey's band, and he later went on to play with such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Ventura, Louis Armstrong and Gene Krupa. Rich was regularly featured in Jazz at the Philharmonic during the late 1940s. He also appeared in such Hollywood films as Symphony of Swing (1939), Ship Ahoy (1942) and How's About It (1943).
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Rich toured with his own bands and opened two nightclubs, Buddy's Place and Buddy's Place II. Both clubs were regularly filled to capacity by fans of the great master drummer. After opening Buddy's Place II, Rich introduced new tunes with elements of rock into his repertoire, demonstrating his ability to adapt to his audience's changing tastes and establishing himself as a great rock drummer.
Known for his caustic humor, Rich was a favorite on several television talk shows including the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, the Mike Douglas Show, the Dick Cavett Show and the Merv Griffin Show. During these appearances, audiences were entertained by Rich's constant sparring with the hosts and his slights of various pop singers ...
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Drummer and jazz icon Chico Hamilton's official website .
CHICO HAMILTON had his first brush with Hollywood in 1957. Riding high on the popularity of his adventurous quintet of the time reedist/flutist Paul Horn, bassist Carson Smith, cellist Fred Katz, guitarist John Pisano - he and the band were case in Sweet Smell of Success, a gritty black-and-white film about a ruthless Walter Winchell-style York City tabloid-gossip columnist, J.J. Hunsecker, played by a dour Burt Lancaster, who wields his power like a club. The plot of this sharp-edged media satire thickens when J.J.'s younger sister, played by Susan Harrison, begins dating the clean-cut young jazz guitarist in the Chico Hamilton Quintet, Steve Dallas, played by Martin Milner.
The film was a landmark for its time, a model of street-smart cinematic cynicism that preceded Network by almost 20 years. And in choosing the Chico Hamilton Quintet as its in-house group for the nightclub scenes, the filmmakers not only demonstrated unusually hip taste in music, they also proved to be quite progressive in depicting an interracial band on-screen. But then, the Chico Hamilton Quintet had always been progressive in that regard since its inception in 1955: the original lineup featured guitarist Jim Hall, reedist Buddy Collette, bassist Carson Smith and cellist Fred Katz.
"Being a mixed group was not too cool out there at that time," Hamilton says in his penthouse apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side. "We played our first gigs at a club on the boardwalk in Long Beach, which at that time was really redneck country. Plus the fact that the kind of music we played was so different made it a very unique, almost unheard of experience. But man, it worked."
As word of mouth spread about the new band playing a savvy brand of chamber-jazz on the boardwalk in Long Beach, the in-crowd soon followed. And gradually the nature of the club itself changed dramatically. "The first gig we had, man, you wouldn't believe. There was nothing but sailors and sawdust on the floor. You couldn't get no funkier than this joint. And can you imagine us going in there with a cello, flute, guitar, bass and drums? We had the gig for a week and that turned into two weeks and then went on into three weeks. Next thing we know, people were coming in from LA to check us out. Within a month, the whole thing changed around. They remodeled this place: and it looked great. The joint was packed every night" ...