Jojo Mayer in Eastern Europe

mattsmith

Platinum Member
Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to take a moment to pass along Jojo Mayer's current tour in Europe including some of the harder to get places in Eastern Europe. Last night he and his band Nerve were in Turkey. The schedule for the rest of the week is at the bottom of this post. but I think the tour goes on for a couple of months including at least one gig with guitarist John McLaughlin.

This past Thursday, I was pleased to see the tune up gig at a comfortable and informal club in Bucharest called the Silver Church. I always love tune up gigs because you get to hear the guys experiment as they work out the bugs of their tour before they go to the venues where real money is paid and the higher tickets are charged. At a deal like this most people were paying the equivalent of 5-10 euro. There was a standing area so a lot of the local drummers just walked up as tight to the drums as possible and watched his clearly visible hands. It was a really nice experience. He played trad grip almost the entire time.

I really enjoyed his interaction with bassist John Davis. They fit like a glove, and when Jojo would play his fills the crowd went nuts. And because they were trying out new material the show went a lot longer than what the big ticket people will probably get. This was a good surprise considering how I originally thought everything was going to be fairly short considering how he was really just playing for a glorified bar crowd/ In other words a real pro who puts out pro effort whether it's 10,000 kings or 100 rowdy guys like us.

Because of the informal nature of the show backstage time was plentiful. The 4 or 5 main drummers in Bucharest had healthy chats with him throughout the night about all kinds of things. And he seemed genuinely interested in our activities. I had never met him but Bernhard/after asking him the week before/ was apparently gracious enough to email him and help with the introductions, because I hate to go up to established pros I don't know and just grin. Apparently he sees a lot of youtube and keeps up with everybody large and small, while continually scoping the technical styles of many, many people. But considering the quality of his famous video that was probably not a surprise.

If you are around any of these gigs you should check them out and enjoy the experience. I sure did.

25 Mar 2010 Jojo Mayer & Nerve Aarburg Moonwalker ch – Switzerland
25 Mar 2010 Poogie Bell Band Frankfurt Musikmesse de – Germany
24 Mar 2010 Jojo Mayer & Nerve Trondheim Dokkhuset no – Norway
23 Mar 2010 Jojo Mayer & Nerve Marcq en Baroeul Theater 'Charcot fr – France
22 Mar 2010 Jojo Mayer & Nerve Tbilisi Eventhall ge – Georgia
 
25 Mar 2010 Jojo Mayer & Nerve Aarburg Moonwalker ch – Switzerland
25 Mar 2010 Poogie Bell Band Frankfurt Musikmesse de – Germany
24 Mar 2010 Jojo Mayer & Nerve Trondheim Dokkhuset no – Norway
23 Mar 2010 Jojo Mayer & Nerve Marcq en Baroeul Theater 'Charcot fr – France
22 Mar 2010 Jojo Mayer & Nerve Tbilisi Eventhall ge – Georgia

=( Why Norway but not Finland. Guess I have to wait some more.
 
That sounds so awesome! Hopefully I can see him in the UK in the near future (can't afford to travel to mainland europe atm).
 
Hm Poogie Bell Band? Really - Poogie is a drummer himself with Marcus Miller. Their appearance in Frankfurt is scheduled Wednesday March 24...

And Jojo Mayer himself is scheduled Saturday, March 27, 12:30 Agora Stage....

..but things can change of course...

Bernhard
 
NOoooooo!! I was in Trondheim 2 weeks ago. He should come to Oslo.
 
Hm Poogie Bell Band? Really - Poogie is a drummer himself with Marcus Miller.
Bernhard
Yeah Bernhard I thought that was wierd too. But who knows?

This is the entire tour taken from his agency's website.

2 Jul 2010 Antonio Forcione Quartet Riga Congress Centre lv – Latvia
16 May 2010 Wayne Krantz Muri Ochsen ch – Switzerland
15 May 2010 Wayne Krantz Zurich Moods ch – Switzerland
14 May 2010 Wayne Krantz Vienna Porgy & Bess at – Austria
12 May 2010 Wayne Krantz Fribourg Spirale ch – Switzerland
11 May 2010 Wayne Krantz Trondheim Dokkhuset no – Norway
10 May 2010 Wayne Krantz Trondheim Dokkhuset (clinic) no – Norway
9 May 2010 Wayne Krantz Osnabrück Musik der FH Osnabrück (clinic) de – Germany
8 May 2010 Wayne Krantz Dortmund Domicil de – Germany
6 May 2010 Wayne Krantz Berlin A-Trane de – Germany
4 May 2010 Wayne Krantz London Ronnie Scott's uk – United Kingdom
3 May 2010 Wayne Krantz London Ronnie Scott's uk – United Kingdom
27 Apr 2010 John McLaughlin and The 4th Dimension Tbilisi Eventhall ge – Georgia
24 Apr 2010 Ernie Watts Quartet Minden Jazzclub de – Germany
23 Apr 2010 Ernie Watts Quartet Berlin Jazzwerkstatt klassik cafe de – Germany
16 Apr 2010 Ernie Watts Quartet Hamburg Birdland de – Germany
27 Mar 2010 Jojo Mayer & Nerve Dortmund Domicil de – Germany
27 Mar 2010 Poogie Bell Band Trutnov Jazzinec cz – Czech Republic
26 Mar 2010 Antonio Forcione Quartet Chevreuse Salle de spectacles Fernand Leger fr – France
25 Mar 2010 Jojo Mayer & Nerve Aarburg Moonwalker ch – Switzerland
25 Mar 2010 Poogie Bell Band Frankfurt Musikmesse de – Germany
24 Mar 2010 Jojo Mayer & Nerve Trondheim Dokkhuset no – Norway
23 Mar 2010 Jojo Mayer & Nerve Marcq en Baroeul Theater 'Charcot fr – France
22 Mar 2010 Jojo Mayer & Nerve Tbilisi Eventhall ge – Georgia
19 Mar 2010 Jojo Mayer & Nerve Istanbul Bronx Pi Sahne tr – Turkey
 
Re: Ronnie Scott's-London
awesome. will defo try and get to that!

Better start putting away cash now because Ronnie Scott's will take all your money. That's one expensive club.
 
On 27 Mar 2010 Jojo will play solo at 12.30 at Frankfurt Music Fair and in the evening with Nerve in Dortmund. :)

The Poogie Bell Band hat nothing to do with that, they are just at the same booking agency... ;)
 
Re: Ronnie Scott's-London

Better start putting away cash now because Ronnie Scott's will take all your money. That's one expensive club.

ahhhh really? it will be worth it anyway i think, seeing awesome jazz fusion will be amazing. plus whichever live drummer he has will kill it!
 
I had never met him but Bernhard/after asking him the week before/ was apparently gracious enough to email him and help with the introductions, because I hate to go up to established pros I don't know and just grin. Apparently he sees a lot of youtube and keeps up with everybody large and small, while continually scoping the technical styles of many, many people. But considering the quality of his famous video that was probably not a surprise.

Hey Matt, what's up? Been a while. Glad to hear you're having a great time over there.

Speaking on the topic of meeting pro drummers, I had that experience before and it was pretty awkward to say the least. The band, Rudder, with drummer Keith Carlock, was playing in Toronto at The Rex last month and they were really cookin'. The performance was amazing and I couldn't believe the amount of groove I was hearing between Carlock and the band - I can't even describe it... how he gets that sound of his. Unbelievable.

Anyways, during the break, I had become pretty friendly with his wife, because she came up to me trying to sell his DVD. I told her I had already had it and that it was a really great DVD. And then we started a small conversation about something else and that's when I ended up almost meeting Keith. You see, as soon as Keith got off the kit, he had all these people in business suits and older people go up to him and they started to chat with him, crackin' jokes and what not. I stood there aimlessly waiting to meet him and to get his autograph and photo and when I finally got the chance to, I asked his wife if I could get his autograph and signature and she said jokingly that I needed to get her a drink from the bar. So I went and got her drink and then I gave it to her and then at that point, Keith started to notice me. Then his wife was like "Can you take this photo of me with so and so..?" and I said sure and so I took the photo and then she said "One more!" and that's when Keith was like "Oh, c'mon *wife name*. Give him a break." She laughed and said "All right" and then at that point he was giving me his autograph and getting ready to take a photo with him and I. I didn't really discuss anything with him. I asked him one question regarding lunch with the head instructor of Humber College. I asked "So how was lunch with Mark?" and he said, "Who?" Then I said, "You know? Mark? Head of the drum department at Humber College?" and he's like "Ohhh yeah! Right! Yeah, it was canceled because I had a interview with Modern Drummer that I had to do." And then I was like "Oh... cool!" and then he gave me his autograph and I said thanks, nodded and smiled and went back to my seat. It was super brief. I wanted to ask him all these questions but it's different when you actually get the chance to do it. I felt like he didn't really wanna have a long discussion with anyone. He just wanted to chill for a moment and drink his wine casually with his wife. It's funny, you just never know what to say to these guys because believe it or not, the last thing they wanna talk about is drums. But yeah, that's my story. It was somewhat awkward but I think I handled it well.

Him and his band are actually coming back next month to play at The Rex again so maybe I'll just stay in my seat this time. lol
Ari Hoenig and his trio are also coming to play at The Rex here next month. I'm gonna book a lesson with Ari when he gets here. That should be interesting.

Tom
 
Hey Matt, what's up? Been a while. Glad to hear you're having a great time over there.

Speaking on the topic of meeting pro drummers, I had that experience before and it was pretty awkward to say the least. The band, Rudder, with drummer Keith Carlock, was playing in Toronto at The Rex last month and they were really cookin'. The performance was amazing and I couldn't believe the amount of groove I was hearing between Carlock and the band - I can't even describe it... how he gets that sound of his. Unbelievable.

Anyways, during the break, I had become pretty friendly with his wife, because she came up to me trying to sell his DVD. I told her I had already had it and that it was a really great DVD. And then we started a small conversation about something else and that's when I ended up almost meeting Keith. You see, as soon as Keith got off the kit, he had all these people in business suits and older people go up to him and they started to chat with him, crackin' jokes and what not. I stood there aimlessly waiting to meet him and to get his autograph and photo and when I finally got the chance to, I asked his wife if I could get his autograph and signature and she said jokingly that I needed to get her a drink from the bar. So I went and got her drink and then I gave it to her and then at that point, Keith started to notice me. Then his wife was like "Can you take this photo of me with so and so..?" and I said sure and so I took the photo and then she said "One more!" and that's when Keith was like "Oh, c'mon *wife name*. Give him a break." She laughed and said "All right" and then at that point he was giving me his autograph and getting ready to take a photo with him and I. I didn't really discuss anything with him. I asked him one question regarding lunch with the head instructor of Humber College. I asked "So how was lunch with Mark?" and he said, "Who?" Then I said, "You know? Mark? Head of the drum department at Humber College?" and he's like "Ohhh yeah! Right! Yeah, it was canceled because I had a interview with Modern Drummer that I had to do." And then I was like "Oh... cool!" and then he gave me his autograph and I said thanks, nodded and smiled and went back to my seat. It was super brief. I wanted to ask him all these questions but it's different when you actually get the chance to do it. I felt like he didn't really wanna have a long discussion with anyone. He just wanted to chill for a moment and drink his wine casually with his wife. It's funny, you just never know what to say to these guys because believe it or not, the last thing they wanna talk about is drums. But yeah, that's my story. It was somewhat awkward but I think I handled it well.

Him and his band are actually coming back next month to play at The Rex again so maybe I'll just stay in my seat this time. lol
Ari Hoenig and his trio are also coming to play at The Rex here next month. I'm gonna book a lesson with Ari when he gets here. That should be interesting.

Tom

Hey Tom,

Great to hear from you! I'm still here in East Europe playing in a bunch of bands, shows etc and generally just continuing to learn. Congratulations on all the E fame you're getting from those soundtrack videos. I think they're all really, really good.

Yeah it's pretty wierd, mostly because you could say you're a WF---you know, and a famous drummer would either talk technique with you for 20 minutes or get out of there as fast as possible. As you know that approach works both ways depending on who you're dealing with.

But if you're a young guy and say nothing, then you're having to do the dance to have a sincere conversation because most of the guys who just walk up to guys like that are these kind of goofy people who really don't know what they're going to say and pretty much just scare the artist like a stalker. So unless I have a formal introduction or a lesson planned I just play it cool and fade into the crowd.

Funny you mentioned Carlock because I first met him 5 years ago when I was reffing the qualifiers for the Michigan WF--you know at a music store in Detroit where he was simultaneously giving a clinic in the other room. He already knew all about WF--you know and wasn't negative at all. With Jojo it was immediately Oh yeah the trad grip WF--you know with the thumb. He also claimed he had seen a bunch of those old WF--you know videos.

Funny how all those years we were told that even being curious about stuff like that was beneath that level of artist, while all the while/regardless of internal opinion/ they were watching too, and often with more interest than we were led to believe. As time moves on I continue to find that BooMcAfee and that whole operation opened a lot of initial doors for us.

But yeah, I'm with you in that it's not quite the best fit to throw that out to one of those guys first. Until I'm regularly playing with bigger names I'm just going to enjoy the show unless someone like Bernhard or a mutual acquaintance helps out. However if Buddy Rich were still alive, I would drop the WF--you know bomb in a second. For some reason I think he would take the bait.
 
Hey Tom,

Great to hear from you! I'm still here in East Europe playing in a bunch of bands, shows etc and generally just continuing to learn. Congratulations on all the E fame you're getting from those soundtrack videos. I think they're all really, really good.

Yeah it's pretty wierd, mostly because you could say you're a WF---you know, and a famous drummer would either talk technique with you for 20 minutes or get out of there as fast as possible. As you know that approach works both ways depending on who you're dealing with.

But if you're a young guy and say nothing, then you're having to do the dance to have a sincere conversation because most of the guys who just walk up to guys like that are these kind of goofy people who really don't know what they're going to say and pretty much just scare the artist like a stalker. So unless I have a formal introduction or a lesson planned I just play it cool and fade into the crowd.

Funny you mentioned Carlock because I first met him 5 years ago when I was reffing the qualifiers for the Michigan WF--you know at a music store in Detroit where he was simultaneously giving a clinic in the other room. He already knew all about WF--you know and wasn't negative at all. With Jojo it was immediately Oh yeah the trad grip WF--you know with the thumb. He also claimed he had seen a bunch of those old WF--you know videos.

Funny how all those years we were told that even being curious about stuff like that was beneath that level of artist, while all the while/regardless of internal opinion/ they were watching too, and often with more interest than we were led to believe. As time moves on I continue to find that BooMcAfee and that whole operation opened a lot of initial doors for us.

But yeah, I'm with you in that it's not quite the best fit to throw that out to one of those guys first. Until I'm regularly playing with bigger names I'm just going to enjoy the show unless someone like Bernhard or a mutual acquaintance helps out. However if Buddy Rich were still alive, I would drop the WF--you know bomb in a second. For some reason I think he would take the bait.

Thanks man. I appreciate it. I really enjoy making those remixes. I get a lot of positive responses from everyone who's seem them.

That's cool that Carlock was cool about it and that makes a lot of sense with Jojo being really cool about Worlds Fastest Drummer too seeing how he's got some ridiculous hands of his own. Not to mention his feet. Yikes. And Buddy Rich would definitely be up for the conversation. There's no doubt about that.

Well, I hope you're learning lots and taking everything you can. I know you are. You're a beast of a player man. So besides seeing all these guys like Jojo and what not, what are your plans for the future? Do you plan on coming back to the U.S. sometime? We have to hang one of these days like we did in Austin. I think when I turn 21 I might end up going back to Europe to see my relatives or better yet I wouldn't mind going down to Georgia for a week or so =)
 
So besides seeing all these guys like Jojo and what not, what are your plans for the future? Do you plan on coming back to the U.S. sometime?
Right now I'm still wrapped up with the learning by working thing I'm involved with here. And it's really nice to go to a big city jazz club, ask to stage a concert, then have them reply when? without batting an eye, followed by playing the gig a week later, alongside similar other deals with a half dozen other projects. You really can't make serious money here. But for guys like me I can get by for the time being, while not having too bad of a real world education.

Yeah I do plan on going back to the States, but I want to be fully prepared. I 'm not interested in waiting in a gigantic line where you don't play for a year or so. No, when I come back I'd like to do it with some kind of gig or at least a way of living already in place. Then there's the other part of it. Five years of interacting on forums taught me that there is a lot more to making music than just the music itself. Getting through attitudes and perceptions is part of it too. I think sometimes getting to where you want to be is as much a game as it is anything to do with skill. And making it in America probably requires more of being a total package than anywhere else because the competition there is second to none.

I'm not in Georgia anymore. Last I heard my folks were probably going to move to Serbia where Dad might coordinate the new Balkan Jazz Center at their Conservatory of Music. If that happens in the next year or so I might park there for a while. Serbia is a very good scene with a lot of good people.

Good luck with your studies at Humber Tom.
 
Right now I'm still wrapped up with the learning by working thing I'm involved with here. And it's really nice to go to a big city jazz club, ask to stage a concert, then have them reply when? without batting an eye, followed by playing the gig a week later, alongside similar other deals with a half dozen other projects. You really can't make serious money here. But for guys like me I can get by for the time being, while not having too bad of a real world education.

Yeah I do plan on going back to the States, but I want to be fully prepared. I 'm not interested in waiting in a gigantic line where you don't play for a year or so. No, when I come back I'd like to do it with some kind of gig or at least a way of living already in place. Then there's the other part of it. Five years of interacting on forums taught me that there is a lot more to making music than just the music itself. Getting through attitudes and perceptions is part of it too. I think sometimes getting to where you want to be is as much a game as it is anything to do with skill. And making it in America probably requires more of being a total package than anywhere else because the competition there is second to none.

I'm not in Georgia anymore. Last I heard my folks were probably going to move to Serbia where Dad might coordinate the new Balkan Jazz Center at their Conservatory of Music. If that happens in the next year or so I might park there for a while. Serbia is a very good scene with a lot of good people.

Good luck with your studies at Humber Tom.

Cool Matt. Good luck with your all future endeavors as well. See you around.
 
Yeah Bernhard I thought that was wierd too. But who knows?

4 May 2010 Wayne Krantz London Ronnie Scott's uk – United Kingdom
3 May 2010 Wayne Krantz London Ronnie Scott's uk – United Kingdom

For the one in London can anyone give me a link to tickets as I have looked on the Wayne KRantz London website and there is nothing mentioned about Jojo Mayer on the calendar.
 
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