pics of me kicking a big band

[Red Hawk]

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The gazebo was built in the lat 1920's. I think it should get used alot more because the acoustics are amazing in and around it. You can see how small the PA is for an outdoor gig, but it's all that's needed in that "venue".

The last thing I said to the trumpets was "this is going to be loud in a second!" right before the downbeat... Immediately after the first song one of the trumpets looked at me and said "holy crap! You're loud as hell!" That put a smile on my face.

The kit is my regular Pacific LX, using the snare that came with it since I've tuned it for a beefier jazz sound now that I'm using the Black Panther as a main snare for everything else.

Cymbals are my 13" new beat hats, a 16" zildjian medium crash, a 10" zildjian A splash, my lovely 22" paiste 505 ride, my 18" zildjian breakbeat as a crash/ride, and my 20" zildjian swish with 6 rivets.

Mics are all Shure betas. 52 on the kick, 57 on the snare and 98s on the hats, toms and ride.

The video clips will be up soon, i promise.

[kung_f00]

Nice drums, nice pies, nice venue.. nice everything, man. That looks like a blast. I look forward to clips.

[Cymbalrider]

Big bands are a lot of fun. Who got to play the little combo set-up down front?

[punkdrummer1]

Looks pretty cool man. Big Bands are loads of fun to play with :D yes, I play jazz too :P

[Red Hawk]

i forgot to write about the combo...

it was a hammond (obviously), bass, guitar and drums. Very interesting stuff, stylistically. The played everything from an old standard out of the fake book to an emerson lake and palmer tune. It was like "small group jazz and its progression for dummies" Pretty cool concept, and tough to pull off in only five tunes.

The little black kit is a yamaha hipgig. The one where not everything mounts off of the kick. I can't believe how huge that little kickdrum sounds mic'd up through a PA. It was pretty crazy.

[The popes love child]

Nice ride, I got myself a 20-incher.

[fijjibo]

Looks just about perfect.

Weather good?

Looks pretty nice to me...

[maddrummr]

Wow set looks really nice. What a sweet venue too.

[Cymbalrider]

I played with a little combo over the summer for some extra money before heading off to school and we played a bunch of stuff out of The Real Books. Great stuff, although I much prefer playing with a broader instrumentation. I'd much rather play Basie or Miller instead of Davis, or Brubeck but those are fine too. That's always sort of my dream really, get a big white marine pearl kit and play with a big band. Rock is fun too, but it doesn't quite do the trick that a swingin' big band does for you. Just watch the videos of all those big band drummers on this site. All the people in the band and audience are having a great time.

[Red Hawk]

I like combo jazz and big band jazz situations equally, but for different reasons. I decided this year to play in the big band because I hadn't had an opportunity to play big band jazz since I graduated from college. Unfortunately Fargo only has one professional level big band and it's not an auditioned group. People literally stay in the band until they die or physically can't play anymore. It's really too bad too because there's TONS of young talent in this town that never gets to play jazz because of all the "good-ol-boys" hogging the chairs.

The combo scene is the same here but not quite as bad. Younger players can get gigs, but you have to be really good, and really lucky. I have 3 running gigs now with well known musicians in the area. Probably more because I'm lucky than good... sadly enough. I got a chance to sit in with one key player once and the audience just happened to be stacked with guys needing a drummer for some gig they had coming up.

I'm probably just barely good enough to hold on to those gigs, but I cherish every second I get to play with musicians that are better than me.