We took our daughter to the St. Louis stop on the Steve Gadd drum clinic tour last night. She’s been taking drum lessons for three years and clearly has both strong interest and talent.
Grace had to tolerate me telling her that Steve Gadd really was a drum legend when I first saw a poster for the show and then me occupying her teacher’s time talking about Steve Gadd. In spite of the embarrassment I may have caused, she still wanted to go to the drum clinic.
It was fun, it was educational, and it was amazing. I realized that I haven’t taken enough advantage lately of the chances to see any great artist or expert in any field when you have the chance. If you have the chance to catch a stop on this tour, even if you think you have no interest in drums or drummers, you will want to catch this show. There are still a few dates left.
Gadd had just celebrated his 60th birthday and there was such a great vibe in the room. The show was sold out and I’ve never been in a place with so many drummers in my life. It’s clear that they revere Gadd and, as he patiently answered questions, and showed techniques and played some of his signature drum tracks, it became clear why that is the case. I was as impressed with his generosity as much as his tremendous skill and ability.
I enjoyed all of his talk about finding the groove and his effort to find an ego-less approach. I don’t pretend to know much about drumming, but I was in awe of some of the things he did. I also loved the way he played with a fluidity where the sticks and gravity clearly were doing most of the work.
Great stuff. Inspiring. A view into a different way of seeing and thinking. We all had a great time. For some reason, though, every song I heard on the radio today sounded like the drumming needed a lot more work.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]