Paul Randolph @ Elefante Rosso

Another amazing night at Elefante Rosso. This is going to be a great season for the newly born club in Mestre! Club owner and founder Rabih Beaini decided to give a preview of what is to be expected for the remaning of 2009 by hosting bass player and singer Paul Randolph backed up by myself, Michele Manzo on guitar and DJ/producer - a pioneer of broken beats - Enrico Crivellaro aka Volcov aka Isoul8.

Paul Randolph, originally from Detroit - vocalist, guitarist, bass player and producer - previously worked with Carl Craig, Hugh Masekela, Funkadelic, War, Waajeed of PPP, Amp Fiddler, “Mad Mike” Banks and many other soul, R&B and electronic music artists. More recently he's been guest starring with German nujazz band Jazzanova.

It couldn't be a better way to start the Elefante Rosso concert series especially since Paul recorded the very first release on Elefante Rosso Label, the single "Collide" remixed by Volcov (ER001). Being my record "The Knight" the number 2 of the series with an edit by Ra.H, we finally joined forces to showcase both the label and the club... and we made it happen! Another great meeting that is sure going to lead to further collaborations.. Detroit - Venice via Berlin.

Hamid Drake & more...

Just came back from a couple of days in Milano. I had two great sessions with piano player Antonio Zambrini and young bass player Andrea Di Biase. Mr. Zambrini is definitely one of the most underrated pianists around. His musicality and knowledge on the instrument are astonishing as well as his beautiful arrangements and compositions. He recently recorded an album with NY based trumpeter Ron Horton entitled "It's A Gadget World" published by Abeat Records but his recording production is pretty vast having played with the likes of Lee Konitz, William Parker and Hamid Drake.

Speaking of which... the main reason I went to Milan was to meet my good friend and inspirer Hamid Drake, on a day off between his tours. Besides being an outstanding musician, an innovator of percussive instruments and a musical chameleon Hamid is a very spiritual person. He has a deep knowledge and understanding of Eastern philosophies and religions. He practices yoga, meditation and chanting which definitely enhance his clarity in music. His band as a leader is called Bindu a Sanskrit word that describes one of the main chakras. Hamid is about to release his third album with this project entitled Bindu III on the french label Rogue Art.

Not everybody knows that he has been involved in countless projects with such musicians like Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Don Cherry, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Foday Musa Sosa, David Murray, William Parker, Anthony Braxton and many others. At the end of the '70s he was a member of the Mandingo Griot Society, one of the first world music ensembles. It included Drake on drums, tabla and bells, Foday Musa Sosa on kora and voice, Adam Rudolph on bongos, congas, timbales, djembe and Joseph Thomas on bass. Their first recording guested Don Cherry on trumpet. A later recording entitled Jazz Africa includes Herbie Hancock on piano and Armando Peraza on congas. Definitely a few recordings worth checking out...

More & more people should be aware of the immense contribution that this wonderful musician and human being brings to contemporary music and art. His fresh and positive approach in relating to his fellow musicians and the audience through creativity and spirituality sets a good example of human and artistic conduct for those who like me are engaging in this art form as a way of living.

CVL Drums

For the last 2 years I've been collaborating with CVL Drums, a company owned by Mr. Lucio Cavallarin, based in the city of Chioggia right out of Venice in Italy. Their main aim is to build quality instruments thanks to their long time experience in wood working in many other industry fields.

CVL works are very original due to the strong relationship between the artist and the manufacturer. Their staff always welcome new ideas and develop its products based on both the musical and selling potentials of the instruments. They build drums with any kind of wood and in any kind of finish, experimenting on the ways of assembling the shells, on their sizes and implementing the sound with additional elements, like finger cymbals or string guitars.

My favourite instrument from their production is a jazz set made out of African mahogany wood. Besides the wood quality the real new thing is the fact there are no lugs on the shells, so what you end up playing is a solid, un-holed drum. They made it possible by adding long screws that go from one hoop to the other. The result is that by tightening the top head you also tune the bottom one simultaneously. Usually one would consider this as a down side but the outcome in sound is really outstanding. The hoops are made of the same wood and they are very resistant and hard to get dented. Even the bass drum is suspended through the same system. The main characteristic of this drum set is a super warm and original sound with a long projection. Playing the snare drum and bass drum feels like dipping a spoon in soft butter. This is how it looks:















Here's a demonstration and description of the set I made in 2008 at CVL headquarters.



The following is a clip from "Venezia Suona 2008" Music Festival, held in Venice - Italy every year. Dozens of musicians are spread throughout the city playing simultaneously in different locations. Unfortunately that day we got caught in the middle of a storm passing through that area, so you see people running to find some dry place where to rest. It was challenging and fun playing and keep concentrated on the music.



Othe interesting works by CVL:

For More Info Visit:

http://www.cvldrums.com
http://www.myspace.com/cvldrums
http://www.myspace.com/cvlpercussion