Gregg Bissonette Review
Woodley (Baptist Church), UK, Wednesday 8th November 2006
Organisers:
Line-up:
- Paul Dinnage
- Gregg Bissonette
- Bobby Orr (not the Ice Hockey player)
Review:
Please note, Gregg performed for two nights (Tue & Wed). This review is for Wednesday only.
I remarked to my guitarist friend before the gig, “Gregg’s entertaining, both on and off the drums.”
Two-hundred or so drumming fans, of all ages, gathered at the Woodley Baptist Church (opposite Drumwright) to witness Gregg Bissonette with their own ears and eyes. A single red Mapex drumkit decorated with Zildjian cymbals sat alone at the front of the church. The church itself was a refreshing change to the usual venues of drum events this year. Not too large, acoustically sound (no pun intended), good view of the stage, comfortable seating and friendly atmosphere. My friend and I managed to get seats close to the action. In fact, we sat beside the sound engineer (apparently he worked on some Rolling Stones recordings) who was sporting an amusing moustache.
A local drummer from High Wycombe named Paul Dinnage got things rolling. I hadn’t heard of him, but I had heard of Gigajam (the network of music tutors he belongs to - a few years back I had lessons with Jamie Mead of the same network). Although this was the second night, he was obviously nervous whilst introducing himself, but once behind the kit, the nerves disappeared. Starting slowly whilst warming up, he progressively introduced new rhythms as he flowed around the kit. And what a kit! Drum kits sound best during the early part of a listen - the impact of jumping from silence to in-your-face bass, snare, toms and cymbals is always astounding. Paul followed his warm-up with a play-along to an up-tempo rock track with plenty of double-bass - a homage to Gregg apparently.
And now to Gregg. His credentials are well known - Ringo Starr, Santana, Satriani, ELO, TV (Friends etc), Films (Finding Nemo etc) and so on. The audience gave a generous welcome to Gregg as he walked through them to the stage. Gregg is not the typical clinician. I’ve noticed that drummers tend to be shy, they prefer to let the kit do the talking. But, not Gregg. He prefers to do the talking. He’s not just a drummer, he’s a comedian too (who does, btw, an awful english accent!) For me, his banter between playing was just as important as his playing. Normally, there isn’t enough talking in these kinds of events - that’s a shame. You get to know the drummer, and as a result, you gain insight into his playing too.
“Groove gets you the job”, starts Gregg. No-one wants to play to a drummer who can’t groove, can’t swing. He cites Ringo Starr, the drummer of the Beatles as a classic example. I know most people who listen to the Beatles will probably let the drums pass them by, but I suggest you re-listen. Gregg played some of the rolls in “Strawberry Fields Forever”. Now they swing.
Of course, this was an evening to please the audience, so groove has to live side-by-side with solo. He had some wise words here too. Structure your solo as phrases. As sentences. Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself and don’t be afraid of silence. Gregg started out by warming up, by improvising around kit and talking in phrases. The Mapex kit sounded really good at this point! I hadn’t realised, but Mapex kits are primarily made from Maple. Obvious now.
Here’s an interesting fact I learned on the night… apparently you cannot copyright a drum composition. So, although we couldn’t use the baseline from “We will rock you” in our own songs without prior permission, we could freely “re-use” the drums (however simple in this case). This seems odd, if true, and this was highlighted by Gregg involving the audience in a guess-the-intro game. He reeled off several drum intros from Ringo, Bonham, Peart :-), Copeland etc and in most cases, the audience could name the song, band and drummer from just the drums. This goes to show that drum compositions can be as uniquely identifiable as any part of a song.
Talking of Copeland, Gregg dedicated a large chunk of the evening to Stewart Copeland, the drummer of The Police (and a personal favourite of mine) who Gregg obviously admired. Copeland was the first to fuse Reggae and Punk rock resulting in a unique style and sound - the DNA of The Police. Whilst on an 18 hour flight, Gregg relieved his boredom by transcribing many of Copeland’s compositions. On the night, he pulled out two pieces of scrappy paper containing the secret sauce from which he started playing (and sight reading) against The Police backing tracks. This was an amazing part of the show as it reminded me just how much of an innovator Copeland was. As with the Beatles, I urge you to listen to some Police tracks and focus on the drums. Gregg highlighted unique aspects such as the use of the bass drum on beat 2 & 4.
It wasn’t just a night of drums and Mapex don’t just do drum kits. No, they also do trumpets, and Gregg also plays the trumpet. Multi-talented indeed.
I wish I’d been at the Baskerville Arms pub in Henley-on-Thames for lunch on Wednesday. Gregg was there, along with many other “legendary” drummers, including Bobby Orr. Before this event, I’d never actually heard of Bobby Orr. Born in 1928 (Scotland) he has experience of marching bands and is one hell of a jazz drummer. He must of been invited on the spur of the moment - thankfully. On the night, he sat at a lone snare. His hands were shaking (mind you he is 78 years old according to my calculation), at which point I did start to wonder what to expect. It didn’t take long to realise we were in for a real treat. Bobby demonstrated amazing stick control as he reeled off plenty of marching band patterns on the snare. Gregg joined in with his kit and the two of them had a conversation with drums. If that wasn’t enough, Bobby then took the reigns of the kit and blasted out a high paced solo with double-bass. I think the audience was just simply stunned & amazed who gave an incredible round of applause as he left the stage. A real bonus.
To finish off, Gregg played a big band number. Lots of swing, brass etc. It seems to me that big bands are a deeper part of American culture than over here, as all American drummers eventually cite a big band drummer as their idol. Even so, when I hear someone of Gregg’s ability perform this style of music, I temporarily get it.
And so to the closing parts of the show. Drumwright held a raffle with a star prize of a snare signed by Gregg, and a top-end double bass pedal. Bobby Orr pulled the tickets. Gregg also set aside time to meet the audience and sign goodies.
Have I mentioned, Gregg has a new DVD titled “Musical Drumming in Different Styles” - no, well Gregg certainly did, numerous times!
Thanks have to go to Drumwright for organising the event. It was extremely well organised, a great venue and a great shop. Plus all their profits for the event go to Tong-Len. No doubt, more events will come (I think they already have many under their belt). Events like these are an absolute inspiration. I know I’ve consciously put more time-aside for practice since Wednesday, and even my guitarist friend said it made him want to take up drums. As I remarked, Gregg is entertaining both on and off drums. His enthusiasm spread to us all. Awesome!
