Keith Carlock

I first heard him play at Modern Drummer Festival 2005 DVD, with Wayne Krantz, and he impressed me very much. He has Tony Williams-like approach to drumset with powerful bass-drum kicks, and a deeeeeeeeeep grooooooooooove.
 
First of all, my favorite drummer was, is, and probably always will be, Tony Williams. A couple weeks ago I was talking to one of my drummer buddies and mentioned how much I admired Keith Carlock. He said he did not care for Keith. I was totally blown away. How could you NOT like Keith Carlock's playing. Great technique, excellent musicality, stupendous dynamics, etc. etc. etc. on and on. Even though I am a drummer, I often get bored with drum solos. However, when viewing Keith's Toronto 15 minute solo I was never bored. Instead, I was totally captivated. No doubt, Keith is one of my favorite "new" drummers. I also am quite fond of Staton Moore.
 
I saw him at PASIC and he played a killer 45 minute drum solo

yeah...I was there also.
Excellent clinic.


I love how not only does he tilt his snare to facilitate his traditional grip, but his floor toms as well.


Keith is a fantastic musician & drummer.
 
Some of you may have seen this post http://drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22093which contains a video of an awesomely talented young bass player I knew in LA. As I said there, she's just recorded her first album with Keith Carlock on drums. Check out this photo of the band. Everyone looks composed and happy except Carlock who's staring like a mad man and dripping with sweat. You can tell he's been rawking out - I love it!
 

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I watched Keith play at the Big Bang festival in Enschede, the Netherlands. I also watched the videoshere on drummerworld and compared to that, I havent heard much new stuff, he played pretty much the same as on those videos. It was awesome though, he was working together with 4 other drummers, Glen Velez was one of them. They made some awesome music there!
 
As many of you know Keith is off on tour with Steely Dan right now and is travelling across the US and into Europe and then Japan and Australia. For thos of you who have never seen the Dan or Keith - GO!

I saw SD in Clearwater, Florida last night. As usual it was a lesson in musical perfection, restraint, taste and talent. During the song Aja, Keith built up to the first solo , just got into it and dropped a stick! While it put him off some of the chops he was intending to perform, he played through it with consummate skill and there was never a hint of lost time or any awkwardness. A wry smile crossed his lips and he went back into the verse. I felt sorry for him because Aja is clearly his big moment - but he made up for it on the second solo of the song where he appeared to pull out an extra trick or two to make up for the first.

On the whole, it just made me like him more.

Paul
 
Saw Steely Dan last night. KC may have an unusual set up and a strange right hand but can he ever play!! A fantastic performer who clearly got the recognition from the crowd that he deserved with the biggest response from the audience when Walter Becker introduced the superb band.
 
its rick marotta on josie! His drums + an overdubbed trash can lid for the buzzy snare hit.

I too was raised on 'royal scam & aja' and was a big fan of purdie, marotta, keltner- the 'deep pocket guys'.
Carlock seems to be a modern version of these players, who never subverts the groove at the expense of a 'monster, over-the-bar, lighting bolt, inverted fill, or self-indulgent sub-divisions.
The fact that they are there, if you listen carefully, is even more amazing.

This summer, I had the incredible pleasure of seeing SD n Carlock live in NYC at the beacon theater, a 15 year old chilhood dream come true.

As for Carlock, not a note was too much, or too little, or too anything!

Its nice that todays drum frontiers are being led not only by the chop- miestersPortnoys, Adlers, Colauitas, and Weckls of the world..., but also by the pocket kings, Carlock, Gavin Harrison, Bennny Grebb, Rodney Holmes etc.
 
i would love to see steely dan with keith carlock playing.
i saw them in 1996 with ricky lawson, one of the best gigs ive ever seen.
it was an honour to have seen cornelius bumpus play sax live too.
 
hee fans ,id love to see Keith play as well,here in the Netherlands...

not in concert but in an jamsession kind of way...
there are plenty of jamsessions overhere,but not as many talented for'n drummers that attend...


so Keith......
 
I think its Keltner on Josie - check, but I think I am right!! Marotta plays on Peg.

Paul

Paul - You are correct. Boy, I sure wish SD would get around to my neck of the woods. Keith Carlock is my favorite present day player and I totally love every facet of his drumming!
 
Having been lucky enough to see him with SD a couple of weeks ago I will be seeing him again in another couple along with Omar Hakim at Drumfest in Northampton. Should be great.
 
First thing is first: Steely Dan is the greatest rock/jazz/commerical whatever band to have ever existed.

Second- Keith Carlock sure is an awesome drummer.

My only complaint about him is that he's a little too repetitive to me. I appreciate the emphasis on pocket/groove/touch/ and taste, but when it comes to soloing, after you've heard him a couple times, it's the same thing everytime. You know what I mean? It seems like he just has two ideas:the 2ndline/funk grooves and that double strokes/kick fill. And he'll pull that out be it jazz or rock.

Thoughts?
 
I agree with that actually, I saw him live once and it was great, but he did the same thing he always seems to do. He's still on my favourite drummers list though.
 
A couple of pics from a clinic in Northampton last night. KC is just an awesome drummer with huge amounts of passion and skill. He played an improvised solo, a piece from his Rudder album and fabulous piece with a backing track of some Oz Noy guitar. I could watch him all day long.
 

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Wish I could get into the head of KC. It's so refreshing to hear a guy who has a fresh approach to playing music. He's like a really good chess player...
 
Keith will be taking over the drum throne from Steve Gadd and joining James Taylor on his West Coast tour. This will be the third major artist that Keith has toured with and each one is renowned for having incredible drummers. Steely Dan's touring drummers are well known and include Dennis Chambers, Pete Erskine, Ricky Lawson and Jeff Porcaro. Sting's past touring drummers include Omar Hakim, Vinnie and Josh Freese. James Taylor has toured with Gadd, Carlos Vega, Steve Jordan and Russ Kunkel.

This is a great testament to Keith. Can anyone else think of any drummer who has hit such heights so relatively early in their career.

Paul
 
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