Tribute to Michael Galasso & Mongo Santamaria + More!

Hello, Friends!

I’m back from a fun weekend at our Vedic beach house, in Angra dos Reis!

My brother-in-law, Louie Saucha, also has a great house in the same private (gated) community and this weekend, along with a bunch of good friends, we celebrated his birthday on Saturday night. One of the highlights of that evening was a private, in-house circus act by two young carioca circus performers, one of them a musician/clown/trapeze artist (he had actually set up a trapeze in a part of the living room!) and the other one a contortionist fire-breather!



I had just arrived with Margo after enjoying a sauna session and dashed out to the car to retrieve a video camera in order to film the trapeze act…but, the camera wasn’t there, so I ended up using my phone to capture these small clips that I’m bringing here to share with you. The performers are Celso (whom we know since he was a baby!) and his friend Natalia. Louie, the birthday honoree, can be seen with the silver top-hat, enjoying the show!



My good buddy, Russian guitarist Roman Miroshnichenko, has a fine, new CD he’s just released, titled, “Temptation”. Roman, as far as I’m concerned, is the premier Russian guitarist of this decade and I have a wonderful time performing with him every time I visit his country, which has been on a yearly basis since 2003. So, it was a natural urge to invite him to participate on a song on one of my on-going pet projects, The Musical Nations Project (www.musicalnationproject.com), which he gladly accepted to do, performing brilliantly on the track titled, “Xekere”. He then turned around and included the track on his new CD, released in Russia and Europe and available through CD Baby (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/miroshnichenko2) and iTunes!



Temptation CD Cover

Also featured on the track are: from England - Clive Stevens (soprano saxophone), from Spain – Michael Groosman, and from Brazil – producer/composer/arranger Daniel Figueiredo. Also on the CD are musicians Henrik Andersen (soprano guitar, vocal, sitar, harp, konnakol vocals), Hernan Romero (acoustic guitar), IKA (vocal, spoken word), Nikolay Rostov (keyboards, programming), Sergei Filatov (electric piano), Leonid Atabekov (keyboards, programming), Galina Mishustina (vocal).

Now a video clip from one of my drum mentors; the late GREAT Mongo Santamaria! The song is “Leah” and this is a “live” recording, taken when Mongo and his band were the opening act for an unforgettable show by the Fania All-Stars at Yankee Stadium in New York City.



Last month, one of my good friends and colleagues, Maestro/violinist Michael Galasso, passed away in Paris, after a fierce struggle with liver cancer. A brilliant composer of film soundtracks and avant-guard theater music, over the years, we worked on some memorable and interesting projects together, such as a two-hour sound sculpture, commissioned by Georgio Armani foundation and designed to sonically circulate the entire Guggenheim Museums of New York and Bilbao…the first sound installation in the Guggenheim’s history!

Galasso constantly stretched the boundaries of contemporary music: from his early use of evolving music technologies, to working with Iranian, Indian, South American and African Musicians, to his use of MIDI violin and the Internet. He performed in more than 300 concerts all over the world always in groundbreaking places, such as the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, The Kitchen in NY, the Médersa in Marrakech, and the Roman Amphitheatre in Malaga. Gallasso’s work has been presented in such festivals as the Festival d’Automne in Paris, The Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy and the Festival de Musique Montreux-Vevey.

In 2001, I performed with him at the Venice Bienniale, who commissioned a music score for a ballet by Carolyn Carlson. His works have also been included in the repertoire of the Paris Opera Ballet. We also worked together on film soudtracks, some of which won the European Critics Award and the César for the best foreign film.

My last project with Michael was participating on his last CD, titled “High Lines”, recorded in Oslo, Norway and produced by the famous Manfred Eicher, owner of the prestigious ECM Records.


High Lines CD Cover

The following are the two reviews of this album on Amazon.com.
(http://www.amazon.com/High-Lines-Michael-Galasso/dp/B0007DHQ2K)

5.0 out of 5 stars Broadening his sonic palette, June 16, 2005
By Jan P. Dennis "Longboard jazzer" (Monument, CO USA) -

With the addition of Terje Rypdal (guitar), Mark Marder (double-bass), and Frank Colon (percussion), mysterioso violinist Michael Galasso significantly expands the aural soundscape in this follow-up to his 1984 disc Scenes. How many other musicians wait more than two decades to come out with a second release? That's what Galasso has done, which, one supposes, does little to undo his reputation as a first-class musical iconoclast.

And the sounds contained in this provocative disc further that reputation. This collection of mostly miniatures mainly featuring the leader's unique violin stylings does open things out in the direction of jazz beat/chamber jazz/world metal styles--a quite beguiling mix, if you ask me. The inclusion of guitarist Terje Rypdal was a stroke of genius. The longtime ECM-label staple here plies his rock-tinged improvisational skills to maximum effect. Check out his playing on, esp., "The Other." The leader seems to restlessly shift from one soundscape to another, moving with ease from drone to Nordic fiddle music to world jazz to Gothic to New Music to classical to chamberish ambient to Middle Eastern sounds, all with stunning effect.

It certainly helps to have completely simpatico bandmates. And one could hardly ask for better interpreters than Rypdal, Marder, and Colon. Each brings a wealth of recorded and live-music experience, plus an ability to completely tune in to the weird vibe that leader Galasso exudes.

Certainly not for everybody, but anyone with an adventurous spirit looking for highly idiosyncratic but brilliantly conceived and played instrumental music will want to check out this remarkable recording.

4.0 out of 5 stars Incidental music at its best, October 23, 2005
By Paul Kim (Athens, GA United States) -

Michael Galasso's first release under his own name since 1984's Scenes consists of 16 aural vignettes covering a refreshingly broad scope of moods and styles. While listening to 30-second clips tells you very little about certain albums, in this case you'll find out all you need to know. Each track sets up a certain mood or sensation and maintains it, for the most part, throughout. Any development you get is relatively subtle. Calling this disc background music is certainly not an insult, but this music doesn't stand up to studied listening. Having said that, it is still, with a few notable exceptions, a beautiful album.

ECM's typically-pristine production captures the performances exceptionally well. Galasso's violin sounds gorgeous, and the different percussive textures that Frank Colón produces are almost magical. Nice double-bass work by Marc Marder as well. However, the guitar work of Terje Rypdal sticks out, and not in a good way. Take "The Other," for instance. Not even Manfred Eicher's sonic prowess can do anything to reduce the displeasure you get from hearing Rypdal's guitar tone. His is the reverb-drenched buzzsaw distortion tone that you hear 13-year-old nu metal shredders-to-be use as they test out import Strat copies through 15-watt solid state amps at Guitar Center. On this track and others, it spoils the otherwise-gorgeous sound of the album. In addition, some of Rypdal's playing itself comes close to noodling. Granted, he does have some nice moments, but I'd sooner not hear him.

Still, this is quite an intriguing disc, though maybe not one you'll continue to cherish for years and years.

And, of course…..yes……MORE DRUMS!

A classic inspiration for me, back when I was still in The American University, majoring in Political Science – the infamous conga duel between Mongo Santamaria and Ray Barreto, performing with the Fania All-Stars, titled, “Congo Bongo”!

I still get goose-bumps when I see this!!!

Voyage Around India & Drums Galore

Hello, Friends!

Once again….wheewww!!! This blogging thing, along with all the social networking that one does nowadays, is not as easy as it first seemed that it would be to me…that’s for sure. I mean, I know many individuals who sit at their computers and simply stream the words out, with their first-drafts sounding brilliant and socially relevant and all that. Well, that’s hasn’t exactly been my case…so far.

However, overcoming my own self-imposed filters, I’ve turned over a new leaf, in my own mind, and will, from now on, simply throw down, on this blog, thought snippets concerning one of my favorite subjects – drums and music. But, now, “snippets” is the key word! For as the fragmented ideas and/or observations pop up before my eyes or in my mind, I’ll be throwing them into this media vehicle…come as they may.

So, check this out: allow me to point you towards a video clip that I put together from footage shot during a trip to India a couple of years ago. The trip was a blast… incredible, to say the least! I was warned many times by my Indian colleagues and friends that I would be surprised but, let me tell you – in reality, India is like a different planet altogether! My great friend, Drumbrother and tabla mentor, Pundit Samir Chatterjee (http://www.tabla.org/) has talked to me a few times about how the Vedic culture originated more than 6, 000 years ago, due entirely to the arrival of people from a different galaxy, the majority of whom intermingled with the developing beings inhabiting the Indian sub-continent, while a few branched out over to what is now Germany. And, according to Samir, this is one reason why German and Sanskrit are so similar…



Backstage after a concert in Houston with Pundit Samir Chatterjee and the Chhandayan Percussion Ensemble, also featuring Henry Hey, Dan Weiss, Baba Don, Nano Valerio, and Yousif Sheronic.

But, back to my new video - The music soundtrack is a composition of mine titled, "Twilight in Samarkand", inspired by this trip to India and a performance tour I did through Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Turkmenistan, and Moldova.



And, of course: DRUMS!!!

Here’s a clip that a good friend turned me on to, featuring some badass cats, slamming down the maple on the skins.



I’m talking about Ginger Baker, Bobby Graham, Alan Grindley, John Kearns, Bobby Richards, Ronnie Verrell, Andy White, Ronnie Stephenson and Arthur Mullard, jammin’ together on this tongue-in-cheek drum fiesta! Enjoy!

No More Borders for Music Creation

Hello, Good People!

I Just had the surprise pleasure of receiving, via snail-mail, a brand-new CD by John Raymond Pollard, titled, “Dreams”! Doubling my pleasure is the fact that I participated on his project, playing acoustic and electronic percussion.



Also, very satisfying is that my participation took place here in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! Upon the invitation to perform on the CD, I asked John to ftp the wav. files to a site of mine, from where I downloaded the material to the Music Solution Studio, where I do the majority of my production and recording work.

While I rehearsed through the material, John mailed a disc with the music files (to avoid any file corruption), which is what I used for my actual percussion overdubs.
And, check it out; we´ve done 3 CDs in this exact same way!

Here are the covers of the other albums: “Character” and “Passion, Poison, and Politik".










The use of technology for blending the creative collaboration of artists, no matter where they may be on the planet, is also what The Musical Nations Project is all about! All of the tracks available for listening have been created in this fashion. Very soon, there will be new collaborations to check out and enjoy, so be sure to check back here (or at www.musicalnationproject.com) for upcoming downloadable music.



Also, stay on the alert for a new CD release by poet, author, composer, professor, Diem Jones; aka Dr. Hug M. Joy (….of former notoriety as Dr. Fladimir MS Woo…!). His next project is said to be titled, “Triumph of the Spirit”, and there´s no doubt that it will be replete with clarity-inducing melodies, allied to an enlightening and compassionately delivered vocal beacon.



On a side note about a topic which concerns me deeply – Lydia Guevara (Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s grand-daughter) is the new poster-girl for PETA’s (People for the Ethical treatment of Animals) South American campaign!
















And, it always inspires me to find fresh new talent from whom I can learn a thing or two! Check out this young Drum Brother by the name of Onur Il, from Istanbul! (And, thanks for turning me on to this, Kenny!)



It´s a beautiful thing!

Keep On Drumming!!!

New Frank Colon Page on VicFirth.com!

Sheeesh….. wow, it’s been soooo long since I posted anything on this blog!!! And, it’s not like I haven’t been writing, because I’m now into this “10-page-minimum/day” campaign in relation to the (at present) three books that I’m working on. Two are a practical “how-to” books, (which has inspired interest from a certain Brazilian publishing house! while the third is a novel, written in first person. And, that’s about as much as I feel like I wan to say about these projects, on this public forum, at this time….. ;-)

In the meantime, bassist extraordinaire, Rob Fried, has released a fine contemporary CD titled, "Water Rhapsody".

Produced and recorded by Paul Averinos at his Studio Unicorn, in Redding, Ct., this great record also features the flute of Steve Gorn, Marion Meadows on soprano sax, and Chris Parker on drums. I, happily, contribute percussion to six pf the CDs songs.

The Vic Firth, Inc. company’s web department has recently re-designed their artist endorser roster’s web page on their mother-ship site. It’s got a cool, modern look to it…check it out here:

http://www.vicfirth.com/artists/profile/profile.php?id=248

Here’s another great jam by some cool cats, led by bassist and friend, Tony Cimorosi, on his album titled, "Horizon".

Included on this hot CD are Randy Brecker on trumpet, Alex Foster on sax, and Alejandro Garcia on drums. I also contribute percussion to the entire album, including some innovative work with the Bata drums!

Another album well worth your while to check out is titled, "Language of Secret Hearts", by English reedman and wind-synth pioneer, Clive Stevens!

This very interesting CD features the keyboard and production skills of Steve Gaboury (recently touring with Cindy Lauper), Jeff Golub on guitar, J.T. Lewis on drums.

New Video - Nano's Chilla - Hanging with Baby do Brasil

A Brazilian friend of mine recently suggested, since I've been going to Russia every year, for the last 6 years or so, that I might as well get an apartment in Moscow! You know, he may be right....it might be worth it!

There's a friend in Russia who manages to collect footage of my performances and now he's surprised me with some patched-together clips of my performance in Novokuznetsk, Siberia! It's on YouTube....but I'm linking it here, as well.



A drumbrother of mine, Nano Valerio, has recently accomplished what is known in the Vedic Hindustani tradition as a "Chilla". It's basically a spiritual, self-awareness retreat, whereupon us drummers becoe one with our instrument - in this case, the Tabla drums. Nano, himself, describes this significant event very well...

"As you know a real chilla goes for 40 days, mine was a half-chilla of 20 days. Originally, Guruji (Pundit Samir Chatterjee - Nano's tabla guru..as well as mine, too!) was going to set up a space where he and a handful of students would be but at the last minute he had to leave for India. So i was left to do this on my own at my own place. The solitude was fine (and part of the tradition), doing it at home had it's limitations. Because of neighbors i had to trim things down to 12hours of practice time per day. It was very grueling the first few days and had i not blocked out the time and turned down work i probably would have stopped. In a chilla you never take your hands off the drums (except for eating and bathroom) so even the practice itself is intense. Pictures of Guruji, Coltrane and Ali Akbar Khan kept me going. i was surprised that it was very emotional at times and by the end i felt like i could have gone on longer as my mind/body metabolism had acclimated to the situation. If i ever have the time i'd like to do a full-length one but until then i'm happy that i completed this goal (something i've always wanted to do once i heard about it)."

Intense, huh?!!!

Here's Nano, on the top left, dressed in white, in a backstage photo with the Chhandayan World Percussion Ensemble, during a performance in Houston, Texas.



Also in the band and the photo are: L-R / Pundit Samir Chatterjee, Sri Steve Gorn, Dan Weiss, Henry Hey, Baba Don Eaton, Yousif Sheronick, Frank Colón.

This weekend, Margo and I went up to Itaipava, in the mountains of the state of Rio, looking for some quality rest and meditation. But, as fate would have it, we ran into our friend, singer Baby do Brasil (formerly, Baby Consuelo), and we ended up hanging out together all Saturday and Sunday, checking out the night scene, some music, some restaurants.......we had a great time and still got some much-needed rest!



Baby and I are now talking about a collaboration on some projects for very early next year! I'll keep you up to date on that...

And, now,,, some archive photos -

An impromptu jam session with Richie "Gajate" García and Giovanni Hidalgo at the NAMM Show in Anaheim, California!









NAMM Show photos by Martin Cohen.

Photos from The Wild Shamans in Moscow

You know, I'll be posting photos, not necessarily in the sequencial order of events.... and, by this, I mean that while these next photos are of a Moscow concert for US Ambassador, John Beyrle, at the prestigious Spaso House, I've just found some photos of band rehearsals in NYC, the week before. The rehearsal pix aren't processed yet, so they'll be posted up in a couple of days, at the most.

In the meantime, here are some of the photos shot by photographer Pavel Korbut at the 1st concert of the Frank Colón and The Wild Shamans 2008 Tour of Russia.

Ben Stivers - Piano Cecilia Tenconi - Sax




Cecilia Tenconi - Sax David Meade - Drums Tony Cimorosi - Bass



BERIMBAU




Groovin' with The SHEKERE!




Talking with the CUICA!



Wailin' on the TIMBALES!

New Kremlin Chamber Orchestra "Adoracion al Ritmo" clip on YouTube!

Hello, my friends!

I'm just getting back from a very relaxing weekend down at the "family beach compound" in Angra dos Reis, about an hour-and-a-half south of Rio. I call it such, since Margo and I, as well as Glorinha and Luiz have houses in the same gated beach community, Portal do Verde Mar, and Luiz is now the president of the community's board of directors. maybe sometime soon, I'll post some photos of our Vedic beach house up and in here...

Right now, I want to turn you on to another segment (movement)of the "Adoracion al Ritmo" symphony, composed for me by violinist Eskender Bekmambetov, on commission by the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra, which is conducted by the great Maestro Misha Rachlevsky. I performed this with the KCO a couple of years ago in Moscow, with the world premiere held at the International House of Music, Moscow's most modern show complex. The symphony consists of 7 movements, of which, to date, 3 are up on the Tube. Here's the recently uploaded movement, titled, "Chinese Tea Room".



Meanwhile, a bunch of family photos dating back 10, 15 and 20 years or so has just been recovered and, while there are literally thousands of shots, mostly taken by Margo, from all around the world, I am slowly finding some that we all thought had been lost forever.

Here's one of them, taken by Margo during a concert at NYC's Beacon Theater by the 2nd incarnation of a band called "The Samba-Salsa-Swing All-Stars"! This band performed twice...once in Puerto Rico's Coliseo Roberto Clemente and once at the Beacon Theater, in Manhattan.

The basic roster was Airto Moreira/drums, Flora Purim/vocals, Dave Valentin/flute, Mario Rivera/sax and myself.

For the show in Puerto Rico, we also had: piano/Jorge Dalto, bass/Sal Cuevas, timbales/Nicky Marrero, trumpet/Claudio Roditi and congas/Patato Valdes.

For the show in New York: piano/Michel Camilo, bass/Jaco Patorius, sax/Paquito D'Rivera, and congas/Jerry Gonzales.

This old photo shows a jam between, Jaco Pastorius, Airto, Jerry Gonzales and myself (with a full beard!), on shekere.



I'll be posting some more of these archive treaures, as I find them among the many photos that have been recently recovered!

And, here's a great song by a cool band that I just happened to check out last week!

Grammy-winner John Legend, doing "Green Light", on the Letterman Show!



Thanks for stopping by..... I'll be back soon!