Pete Zeldman

Huh?

There are wizards out there that are unknown. Youtube makes quite a difference in this world.

Although maybe some of you are familiar with Zeldman.

Yes, I've seen him before.  Interesting stuff.
It's just that at the end of the day, what are
you gonna do with all that.  For me, this would be
a very impractical way to spend my time practicing.

My lord, what a mind workout. Some interesting video comments. The 9/8 narration is way cool, especially since I just started trying this with an interest in Turkish music. Maybe one day I'll be ready to accompany a belly dancer. Here's a nice video instruction I've been working on, really very well presented other than a mistake in the chart. Very easy to follow and was tricky to get, but I'm almost there:

He's a good teacher.

D, I think I can hear practical music in what Zeldman does if her were in a band without a percussionist. Lots of notes.

But, yes, after awhile turning drumming into a mathematics course loses the organic nature of it for me, which is what drew me to the instrument to begin with.

Actually, given that you love what Virgil does, one of the elites of subdivision and odd time, I'm surprised you didn't like this more.

I can certainly appreciate what he's doing, Asaph and
he's quite good at it. I have Virgil's latest CD. It's good!
But it's so rhythmically involved that I find myself becoming
ear fatigued depending on 'HOW' I'm listening to what he does.

i.e. Sometimes I'll put on a certain piece of music for study and
other times (most of the time) I'll put some on for enjoyment sake.
I want to be taken somewhere without being ooooed and awwwed
from a technical platform. I just want to hear some good music
and it doesn't matter to me how simple or complex it is.

I'm happy to say that Virgil does have a lot of the latter but this
last CD of his though well put together leaves me a bit cold in the
area of emotion. Likewise, Pete Zeldman just leaves me dry and in
all likelihood I'll never need to execute anything close to such
concepts.

But don't get me wrong, I think what he's doing is a good thing.
Everything's just not for everybody.

It really depends on the feeling
for "pocket" that I get from the
players that play odd-signatures.

"Counting" is counting. "Feeling" is
another thing. When I hear Virgil
do odd-signatures, I can hear the
accenting in/of the subdivisions.
This makes a big difference for me.

I do not want to hear 9-bars go by.
I want to hear the 4's, 5's, 3's and
2's etc. I don't just want to be
taken for a fool's ride. I want to
really feel these intervals. That is
something I think Virgil does and
of course, what Billy did/does.

Regards,

Agreed, Pete and very well said. This is among
the biggest reasons I love what Virgil does behind
a set of drums. He has a way of inner-lacing what
he does to the time signature and the music, making
want to pat your foot not to keep time but because
you're FEELING it!

To me, this is the area where Thomas Lang and Marco
Minnemann fall short. Likewise for this guy Pete Zeldman.

I don't feel anything.

This kind of "playing with rhythm" is central to Indian classical music. Trilok Gurtu does stuff like this all the time. I know Roma musicians do it out of boredom sometimes. i think the trick is to get other musicians on board for these types of rhythmic excursions. Playing real music in real time with real people. That's when it counts and makes sense. if Zeldman can take these concepts and make it musical with musicians then it's gonna be powerful. Right now it's a demonstration. I want to hear his band imply these concepts as a group. Rhythm by itself isn't so interesting as it can be when with other instruments. I have to say i like the general tone with that high pitched thing he's got in there, reminds me of Bulgarian drummer Salif Ali's (the Billy Cobham of Bulgaria) concepts. Also got an almost west African sabar drum ensemble sound. Almost. the difference is it needs a melodic instrument or voice carrying it over the top to give it a full dimension. i think the guy's pretty awesome so far. I can't say i dig his teaching style it's like watch this kids. here's this now. it ends up very dry with that new york accent hey kids check dis out I'm gonna put a seven in dis here 18 sounds a little like a dis.