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DECEMBER 2008 LEGENDS EDITION 3 Godfathers Of Drumming THE BLACK PAGE Liberty DeVitto THE BLACK PAGE WORKING DRUMMER’S December 2008 BOOTCAMP 3 Feature Interview: Liberty DeVitto 9 Diversity is Longevity by Jayson Brinkworth Profile: Ricardo Melendez 13 photo: www.myspace.com/meladeesheaphotography 15 Guerrilla Drum Making Featuring chris sutherland Holiday Grooves: 18 by Ryan Carver Kim Mitchell, Squeek, Deric Ruttan, Saga, Doc Walker, Amanda Falk 19 The Final Word Designed to get every drum- mer in shape to face any freelancing challenge, the THE BLACK PAGE is distributed via PDF to email inboxes worldwide. Bootcamp is a complete run To subscribe, visit: through of almost anything www.theblackpage.net Send us your feedback at: you might encounter in the [email protected] music business: live skills, Sean Mitchell Publisher studio skills, networking Jill Schettler Editor in Chief skills and getting every pos- Jayson Brinkworth Writer Ryan Carver Writer sible aspect of your drum- Marlys Mitchell Contributing Editor ming ready for anything. It’s a tough business, learn how EARTH FRIENDLY a pro stays impossibly busy. Click on the image above No Paper,m No Ink, No Waste to visit chris on the web hen I think about my introduction to drum- man, but he exudes musicality. For Liberty, there ming, there are two very vivid memories. is no greater gift than the gift he gives to the song, W The Buddy Rich vs Animal drum battle and and that is so evident in his playing. Even if he has the Glass Houses album. If Buddy and Animal intro- to lay back and play the brushes, Liberty is in for the duced me to drums, Liberty DeVitto introduced me long haul. to music. As a drummer interviewing a legend, I wanted to When I was a kid, my dad used to crank up his blurt out, “Dude, I freaking play drums because of Hi-Fi and throw on the old Glass Houses album. you!” But instead of freaking the guy out, I main- (Yeah, this was the 80’s) Who didn’t love that al- tained my composure, did the interview, and had bum? Front to back a musical masterpiece. And be- the greatest 25 minutes of my life. As an added bo- hind it all, relentlessly pushing that groove as if to nus, Liberty was interviewed by a camera crew right drive the band forward, is Liberty. The man in the after our interview, and the host happened to ask driver’s seat. I would listen to that record for hours about the old Billy Joel albums. I sat and listened as and emulate Liberty’s playing, even though I didn’t Liberty described the songs and the soundtrack of have any lessons yet. But it didn’t matter; the music my life as an eight-year-old kid. felt so damn good. The best that my coordination In listening to that interview and the one he and could handle at the time was to nail the 2 and 4. I I shared, I realize that Liberty has taught me so would try and stay up at night when my folks threw much more than the huge 2 and 4. He has taught a party and hope to heck dad would throw on that me that it’s not the sticks you choose but what you record. I loved the pulse of “It’s Still Rock and Roll choose to do with them that makes you who you are to Me.” And the groove on “You May Be Right”? as a player. That it doesn’t matter what you bring to Fuggetaboutit! a tune as long as you remember that it is always When I was offered a chance to interview Liberty about the tune. It’s the song that is your mark on DeVitto I was extremely nervous. Here was the guy history, not how well you played a buzz roll. who made me want to play drums. Hands down the In his selfless career Liberty has and continues first drummer to influence me. And in meeting Lib- to give so much to the music industry, so much so erty I was not disappointed. That man can play, pe- that when my children are eight years old, I too can riod. What a musician, never mind drummer. Here play Glass Houses and create new memories of is a guy who can lay it down so hard that, as we our own. In doing something Liberty loved--playing watched him play, all three rows in the theatre were drums--and by giving to the music, he actually gave blinking on his 2 and 4. The power he has is inhu- so much more. Thanks, Liberty. Liberty DeVitto by Sean Mitchell Photo: www.scottmoorephoto.com Liberty, you’re working on a really interesting man who sings on Saturday Night Live, so if we get book with Jules Follett about New York City a Saturday night gig, Christine can’t do it (laughing). drummers. Tell us about that. It’s that kind of band. Jules loves drummers, first of all. She’s been pho- Where did you learn to play? tographing groups and stuff like that for years, and she says that it’s the hardest to take a picture of the I’m self taught. I tried to take lessons, but I wanted drummer. The drummer is always up on a riser, so to learn how to play like Ringo and it was 1964. The when you’re standing in front of the stage, he’s high jazz guys were the ones that were teaching then up. There’s so much stuff in front of the drummer and they hated the way Ringo played. When I was like cymbals and drums, you can’t see his whole a kid, I wanted to play drums when I saw Ringo on body… you barely see his face, you know. So she TV. Actually, I tried to play drums when I was in decided to do a coffee table book on drummers be- the sixth grade, which would have been… I was 12 cause a band is only as good as the drummer. The years old… it was ’62, but I couldn’t do the buzz drummer drives the whole thing, and he doesn’t get roll for the “Star Spangled Banner,” and the music the recognition that he should. I mean, I feel we’re teacher said, “Put down the sticks, you’ll never do kind of like the bottom feeders of the music world anything with the drums.” So it was like, how was (laughing) because we don’t have any melody and he to know that I was going to be a bad drummer we can’t copyright anything. So she’s giving us all if I just couldn`t do that buzz roll? He was actually this recognition of being the middle of the band, the a bad teacher for saying that to me. So when the whole centre of the band. She’s actually gone around Beatles came out, it was then I said, “I want to do getting guys in a studio or in casual situations, just that,” and it wasn`t to play the buzz roll, it was to be sitting in chairs. She went to Shawn Pelton’s apart- in a band if it made girls fall over. So that`s how I ment where he practices and took pictures of him started, playing 2 and 4. Everybody loved it. I don`t there. She went to a Letterman rehearsal and took really care if other drummers like me – the way I pictures of Anton Fig there. Stuff like that. play. I want guitar players and bass players and keyboard players and singers to like the way I play Tell me about your NY project The NYC Hit because I found out a long time ago the odds of me Squad. going into a recording studio with another drummer are really small. We play once a month or something like that be- cause the guys in the band are all from other bands. Give me your take on the “schooled versus non- There’s me and Ricky Bird (Ricky Bird played with schooled” topic? Joan Jett and The Black Hearts). We started this [project]. We were playing somewhere once and Let me start by saying this, I don’t think a drummer he started to play this little funky R&B song and I should take lessons at least for the first 5 years be- said,” You know, why don’t we start a band in New cause you have to learn groove and feel; you have York?” So we put this thing together and we’ve had to listen more than read. When you buy a book and Will Lee come through and play bass. We’ve had you learn notes off a book, it’s stiff; it’s just whatev- Hugh McDonald from Bon Jovi’s band play bass, er’s written down there. You’re just playing it with no but then he went out with Bon Jovi. Now we’ve got feel, no nothing. I do a thing in the clinic where I’ll Muddy Shews who plays with Southside Johnny show them how I learned to play and I’ll show them and a bunch of guys like that. And Christine Ohl- what I used to do when I was home and I was a kid and I would take “Hide Your Love Away” by the Beatles, and I’d play to that.

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