-Thanks to all the staff, students and volunteers at the University of Saskatchewan where I spent the past week adjudicating and working with student groups at the annual Unifest music festival. It was very cold in Saskatoon last week but there was much great music to be made. Keep up the great work everyone!
-I spent Sunday afternoon watching and learning from the master Kenny Washington at Calgary's Ironwood Stage & Grill in a show that also featured baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan and bassist Ray Drummond. This fine trio is currently touring Western Canada with dates in Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver.
Thanks to local drummer and educator John DeWaal who was nice enough to set Kenny up with his vintage 1970s Gretsch kit:
Watching and listening to Kenny Washington is always a lesson in itself.
-During a conversation with Kenny after the show our conversation turned to the weather (it's too cold here!), Recordland (Calgary's premier used record store which happened to be across the street), cymbals and the art of playing Charlie Wilcoxin snare drum solos (get those accents UP there). Kenny handed me a book and asked me if I had checked out this interesting one by Dominick Cuccia:
http://www.amazon.com/Beat-Different-Drummer-Not-So-Traditional-Rudimental/dp/1574630326/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1
Dominick has a website of his own that features some of his rudimental snare drumming knowledge:
http://www.dreadeddrummer.com/
-Here's a few new blogs to check out that I've been enjoying lately:
Bassist Rubim DeToledo - Mount Royal Bass blog
http://mountroyalbass.com/
Andrew Hare - The Melodic Drummer
http://haredrums.blogspot.com/
-Finally, if you are in the need of a little inspiration to get your week off to a fresh start, here's an archived radio interview with Lewis Nash to take a listen to: http://archive.kjzz.org/music/interviews/2007/nashview
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