Guest
Here we have Steve Hamilton on piano, Mark Hodgson on bass, Tim Garland on soprano and myself on drums, in a sweaty version of the Hamilton / Clahar piece ‘Tramontana’. The Tramontana is a sudden and sometimes violent wind that blows up on the Mediterranean sea. The musical material here is well known to all of us, so personally I don’t have to do anything much to get this to roll along, other than possibly stay out of the way. On a good night, like this one, the feeling from the drum stool is that the heavy work has already been done when you begin the performance. All you have to do is perform. All the off-instrument stuff: baggage, personnel, travel, practicing, rehearsals, business, soundchecks, “When's dinner“ and “Is this being filmed?” – all the stuff you do off-stage, is done and dusted. All that’s left is the on-instrument concert performance, the thing you showed up for, the thing that made you want to be a musician in the first place. After a good gig you can pinch yourself and say to yourself you’re the luckiest man alive to be playing the best music you can with the best people you can find. After a lousy gig, it’s a different feeling, but there’s always another shot at it tomorrow. And it should never (almost never) be about the money. You take, or make, the gig for musical reasons, and then try to make the money work. Occasionally you’re overpaid for doing very little and underpaid for doing a ton of stuff. Weirdly, the more compensation you’re being offered by a label, producer, or band-leader, often the less you are required to do. You just try to smooth out the bumps and dips and construct something called a steady salary, but a lot of guys have no luck at all at that skill. Earthworks was never a big-money thing, but the reward I got out of it was beyond measure. #billbruford #earthworks #jazzdrummer #paistecymbals #tamadrums #drummer #yes #kingcrimson #drummer #drumsolos
