dougonthedrums

Spring is in the air...

2010-03-01T09:40:00.000-08:00

Well it has been a long cold winter but at least the time is flying. A few highlights have been the completion of my Slingerland drum set rebuild. I put the drums back together in early Feb. with new Remo black dot heads on all the toms (8x12, 9x13, 14x14, 16x16). The bass drum was put back together with a clear Remo control sound head for the beater side and I put a vintage logo head on the front. I also picked up two new maple bass drum hoops for the bass drum. I have to say I am really pleased with the sound of the drums. I cleaned them inside and out and polished all the chrome and gold sparkle. They are beautiful and a real joy to play. I hope to be behind them most of the summer with the trio.

Mike, Scott and I have been doing a few East End Trio performances as well as beginning work on some new tunes. We are going to get Scotty singing a bit more so look out for I'm Free by the Stones, The Shape I'm In by the Band along with a few others. Mike is working on a really nice arrangement of Dylan's Lay Lady Lay. It looks as if it is going to be a wonderful summer playing at a bunch of nice venues. We have also been positioning ourselves to do more private parties and affairs. Take a look at our new facebook page if you are into that social network scene.

On the listening front, I have been continuing to check out the digitally remastered Beatles albums. I still can't get enough of them. I also just picked up a Stanton Moore cd called Flyin the Koop. Stanton is one of the hot New Orleans drummers playing out a bunch.

Anyway I look forward to seeing you all from the band stand.

Video of the month

Love / Peace
D

2010

2010-01-05T11:55:00.001-08:00

Can you believe it - a new decade? I am very sorry about the delay between posts this time. Fortunately, I was very busy working and being daddy O and unfortunately also very involved with my mom's passing in mid November. My mom was a great mom and a dear friend and always very supportive of my music. I will forever remember her in our living room reading while my brother Peter was wailing on electric guitar in one end of the house and I was in the other end of the house bangin the drums. I am very grateful that she had the opportunity to hear some great gigs. Love you mom! I know you will always be listening.

On the musical front, the trio had a very busy Fall with numerous vineyard gigs and concerts. We really enjoyed the venues and people. Mike and I also started up a duo act with guitar, drums and vocals that we call the East End Duo. I am playing a cool retro HB cocktail kit along with some percussion instruments. My big plans for the winter are to rebuild my early 1970s gold sparkle Slingerland drum kit. This was the drum set that my parents bought me as a kid when they realized I was very interested in playing the drums. I have kept the drums in good shape and thought it would be a wonderful idea to get back behind them in honor of my folks. As I have gone over the drums it has been a reminder of how well these vintage instuments were made! No wonder most of the American drum companies went out of business... these instruments were made impeccably and if you took care of them, you would have never needed to replace them. Along with rebuilding the drums, I hope to do some recording work and catch up with some new players. I have also had the opportunity to connect with some old musical friends through facebook over the past few months.

On a listening note... the Fall hit CD for Diane and I was Mark Knopflers Get Lucky. A beautiful record with lovely melodies and a great blues guitar tune. A reminder to all of us that less is more when you can play. I also had the opportunity to pick up a bunch of the Beatles remasterd CD's. I just can not get enough Ringo and the boys. What fun! Our Christmas albums featured, JT, Sarah McLaughlin and Bob Dylan's Christmas in the Heart which has a cookin versions of Must be Santa and Christmas Island. One of my other all time favorites is the Chieftains Bells of Dublin album... great musicianship. The high lite of the Christmas season at our house was celebrating the holiday with Antonio and Santa. Tony got a starter set of red Ludwigs and some trains, cars and trucks.

Videos of the month http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8qE6WQmNus /
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qIA3OyeSvA

Link of the month http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/buddy_rich.html

Love/Peace
D

http://www.dougonthedrums.com/
http://www.theeastendtrio.com/

Roll on Summer 09

2009-07-13T10:39:00.000-07:00

Well hear we go... good weather, good food, good beer / wine and of course good music and dancing - we have been busy doing our Summer thang! The July 4th weekend was a blast with gigs at our good friend Jim Ferrarie's holiday party along with an appearence at Duckwalk vineyards and the Beach Hut at West Hampton's Cupsogue beach. We had a blast! Tony, Di and I got some fireworks in along with time at the beach and in the garden. This past weekend, Mike and I did a duo date Friday at Ruvo's and Saturday, the trio sailed on the Port Jeff Ferry for their sunset music cruise. Really nice crowds and lot's of "big fun." The band has been working some new tunes and groooooves including a bit of reggae and funk. I even have the guy's opening up a few tunes to jam on. Scotty's version of Old Man and Mike's version of Lay Down Sally are two new performance highlights.

On the CD player the Morrow's have been digging a Summer music shuffle that includes some Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Paul Simon, Herbie Hancock (the River), the Mavericks and Peter Tosh. We are all over the map. What are you folks listening to? Check the trio website schedule to see where we are at (we have a bunch of performances coming up) and please come out!

Love/Peace
D

http://www.dougonthedrums.com/
http://www.theeastendtrio.com/

Away we go - late Spring into Summer 2009

2009-05-28T08:13:00.000-07:00

As the great Jackie Gleason would say... "away we go." I look at my music calender and realize the trio is booked right up until the Fall. We will be performing at many beautiful places so check the calender and come on out for some big fun. Over the past few weeks, we performed at some wonderful venues including the Dutch Festival at Hofstra University and Family Day at Heritage Park in Mt. Sinai. Both events were dogged by bad weather but we got them in and had a great time performing. We have already been asked back by both venues for next year. We have been working out new material and introducing songs into our sets so a few surprises when you here us again? This past weekend Mike and I did something new as we performed at a private party as the East End Duo. Mike is great singing and playing that Taylor and I brought out my retro cocktail drumkit and conga. We really had a ball and the guests really seemed to enjoy it. I stand up when I play the cocktail kit. This allows Mike and I to utilize a very small footprint and do music that is nice and light to nice and rockin! Maybe a few more duo dates in the future... who knows?

On a listening note... I picked up the new Dylan CD Together Through Life. I have been really enjoying the CD. BD has a great band which features David Hildago from Los Lobos and he has Tony Garnier (my old Filthy Rich band mate) playing bass. Dylan really has a way of crafting a song and painting a picture with his lyrics. He seems to have embraced his age and wisdom in his songs with a wonderful sense of style, humor and grace. I have really enjoyed Dylan's last few discs. I also put together a killer shuffle mix of tunes on the CD player for the Memorial Day weekend. Dylan's new album along with the Loving Spoonfuls greatest hits, a Beach Boys collection, Jimmy Cliff's the Harder They Come, and a Puntamayo children's Latin collection for Antonio. Diane, Tony and I were dancing around the backyard.

Last up, be sure to check out the blog video down below "the great Gretsch kit" and I will give you a quick tour of my drumkit. Mike and Scotty say hello as well! Well, I hope to see you from the band stand and I hope you chime in and comment on the blog.
D

http://www.dougonthedrums.com/
http://www.theeastendtrio.com/

The great Gretsch kit!

Let the "Big Fun" begin

2009-04-21T09:10:00.000-07:00

Well here we go! A great couple of dates to start the Spring 09 gigathon. On Friday night the East End Trio performed a concert for the Brookhaven Arts Council at the beautiful Heritage Park building in Mt. Sinai. We had a very good time playing for a diverse group and making some new friends. We will be back at Heritage Park May 17th for family day performing outside. Hope to see you there. On Saturday, the trio performed our first outdoor vineyard date of the season. We had a blast with our friends at Osprey Dominion Vineyards. With the warm weather, people were out big time with their picnic baskets and LI wine. We had the people on the deck singing and dancing and many new names on the mailing list. We are really looking forward to the spring and summer dates. We also added a few more tunes into the set (intrigue).

On a listening note, I picked up the new Van live Astral Weeks CD. I really enjoy this guy and his band. Also on the way out to Osprey I heard a John Prine tune Aint Hurt Nobody that I thought was killer. I just ordered that CD from amazon. What are you guys listening to?

On a sad note, the trio lost a good friend Doug Myers over the winter. Doug died from melanoma cancer. We will always remember his smiling face and beautiful family. We hope to see Doug's family and friends out East this Summer to celebrate his life!
As my pal Ringo says... "Peace and Love, Peace and Love."
D

www.dougonthedrums.com
www.theeastendtrio.com

Ba Dum Bum - Crash

2009-03-23T13:22:00.000-07:00

Well time flies. This weeks blog starts with a drum joke?
Did you hear about the two tom toms and the crash cymbal?... They fell off a cliff!... Ba dum bum crash!
All right all right.

A great week of music with fun gigs for the trio at Ruvo and the North Shore library. At Ruvo, we debuted a few new tunes including Neil Young's Harvest Moon and Bob Marley's Stir It Up. More new ones to come. The library concert was packed with people of all ages. Some were singing, some were dancing and nobody got kicked out. It was very rewarding to see the turn out and to have so many people respond to the show. Mike played a beautiful arrangement of Danny Boy on accoustic guitar and Scotty brought the house down with his version of Van's Into the Mystic. I guess we were feeling a bit green. Our Summer / Fall schedule is filling up with a bunch of winery dates / beach dates / and concert dates. We are really looking forward to it. Check out the trio website http://www.theeastendtrio.com/ for shows and times.

On a listening note, I picked up the new JJ Cale CD. Very nice with JJ's guitar stamp all over it and that great Tulsa groove. What have you folks been listening to? Please contribute.
Peace
D

In like a lion

2009-03-10T04:01:00.000-07:00

What a week... most of us New Yorkers started by shoveling! Anyway, it was a fun musical week. The trio did Friday night in Port Jeff at Ruvo and we had a nice crowd with some dancing going on. We even broke in our first reggae tune, Bob Marley's Stir It Up. Saturday brought us out to Duckwalk Vineyards as part of the Jazz On The Vine program. Lots of familiar faces and lots of fun. People hung out all day.
What have you folks been listening to? Anything interesting, anything good? I went to the record store last week to get the new Van Morrison live version of Astral Weeks but no luck... Second on the list is the new JJ Cale CD. Even though JJ is out west now that Tulsa groove is really still there. I recommend Jamie Oldaker's (JJ & Claptons long time sideman drummer) Mad Dogs and Okies CD if you like that Tulsa sound. It features Clapton, JJ, Vince Gill, Taj Mahal among others.

A special note! Recently we lost won of the best drummers to ever hold sticks. Louie Bellson died (the end of the big three, Krupa, Rich, Bellson) at 84. I was lucky enough to see Louie Bellson twice . Once was a drum clinic where he shared some of his technique to a crowd of young drummers. He graciously and constructively scared us all. The other time was in a small jazz club in Florida, his playing was amazing. I remember him as being very nice (I had to strike up a conversation with him being the up and coming player I was). Two standouts from Louie. First, he was credited with starting the double bass kit. Second he liked a bunch of rock n roll drummers before it ever became fashionable.

Please contribute.
Peace,
D

Some cool music Feb. 26th

2009-02-27T11:54:00.000-08:00

I heard and watched some great music this week.

First, did any of you get to hear the interview Imus did on Thursday with Van the Man. I got lucky as I scanned the stations I thought I heard an Irish brogue and I knew Van Morrison was in town for some concert dates. He was great... funny and candid. He mentioned that to him, Brown Eyed Girl was a throw away tune and as a songwriter he never felt it was masterful. He did say Sony marketed it well. He referred to his songs as a page and a half short stories. The stand out line from the interview was something like... "There isn't to much roll in rock anymore." I like that and as a drummer, I think I know what he means. If anyone out there knows Van let him know I want to jam.

Second, Stevie Wonder received the Library on Congress Gershwin award for songwriting. PBS did a telecast of the White House award concert Thursday night (well shot show with nice lighting). Many stars and Stevie doing his tunes! Great drummer and killer bassist. All I can say is WOW!
Peace
D

Doug On The Drums

2009-02-23T07:37:00.000-08:00

Well now we are cookin - the site is up and running. Please let me know what you think?

The blog is here to keep you informed about my musical thoughts, performances, ideas etc.
A place for fun and sharing. Please let me know what you are thinking. Tell us about any performances you have caught, any CDs or records you are digging and any videos you like.

Peace
D

www.dougonthedrums.com
www.theeastendtrio.com