Thanks to Janek Gwizdala for letting us know Jo Jo Mayer will be joining him for a gig in Pasadena on October 5th. Details here on his MySpace. Discussion on that show here on the forums.
Thanks to Todd Sucherman and Gavin Harrison for both sharing their experiences at this year’s MD Fest. Sounds like another great year for this landmark drum event.
Also it appears that Drumming Monster Gary Novak has switched from Drum Workshop drums to Yamaha seemingly unable to resist the new Phoenix line. Discussion on that here. I’ve had a chance to get some hands on time with the new Phoenix line and I can tell you to believe the hype. They sound amazing. .

The new CD from Altered is now available and shipping world-wide.

Information is available here on the band’s site.

Thanks to Tombo 7/4 for finding (oh nothing) two pages of tour dates of the group billed as CHICK COREA & JOHN MCLAUGHLIN FIVE PEACE BAND - WITH CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE, KENNY GARRETT & VINNIE COLAIUTA.
Discussion here on the forums.

I first heard of Todd Sucherman on the HOD forums a while back, and since then he has risen in the community quickly, and with good cause. Todd is a monster player who has recently finished his instructional DVD “Methods and Mechanics”. Pre-order info as well as video samples are available right here with many more video samples here as well.
Todd hangs on the forum fairly often and even thanks the HOD guys in the credits of his dvd (thanks Todd!) Discussion (with Todd) on the DVD right here on the forums.

An instrumental trio I’ve been in for a few years now is playing at the Baked Potato in Los Angeles this Sunday July 13th. Audio and video samples as well as CD info all here on our myspace. More info on the Baked Potato here on their site. Come down and witness the twisted metal carnage that occurs when Jazz, Rock, and Funk get into a 3 car pile up.

..it grooves.
When he walks, it grooves. When he cuts himself shaving it grooves. When he buys candy at the movies, it grooves. When he undoes his seat belt, removes the key from the ignition, and opens the car door, it grooves. When he dials his cell phone, it grooves. When he chews gum it grooves.

When Steve Jordan plays with John Mayer, it grooves:

New upcoming DVD with Mayer looks great. Thanks for the heads up Randy. Discussion here on the forums.

Thanks to Julián Fernández for letting us know that part one of a two-part audio interview with Vinnie is available here on the Australian Podcast “Len Davis Presents Fusion and Electric Jazz”. Part 2 is here.

“I knowwww your rhythmssss!”

Discussion here on the forums.

I went to a couple of the Wayne Krantz shows and grabbed some pics for..well, for you actually.
The shows were very strong. There’s not many bands out there that are pushing their improv boundaries with backbeat type music the way Wayne does with his bands. It really is something special to watch and hear them take it up and away while they glance at each other with cues and smiles while the audience rides shotgun. It was very cool. I got a chance to hang with Cliff a bit, he was very down to earth, and played his ass off. He really makes an effort to play almost unconventional at times (the theme of the band) and it shows. Once you find something that works for you on your instrument, it’s hard to abandon it for the dreaded “unknown” but Cliff finds ways to click and clack with rims, or the sides of the drums when needed.
The music is never in any real danger though, as odd as that sounds. Even during the looks of slight uncertainty or not having the attention of the one you’re trying to cue, it seemed the solidarity of the overall theme of taking off their musical life jackets and diving in head first worked no matter what happened simply because they’re monster players who actually work on this stuff. They’re musical stunt men (and women) doing the stunts others envy but wouldn’t have the courage (or musical depth) to do if given the chance.
Discussion here.

• Peter Erskine chimed in to let us know he was playing here in LA. I went and took some pics of his gear.
  
  
  Discussion with Peter on his gear at the show right here.
• Apparently Dream Theater’s own Mike Portnoy ended up at our forums and saw some posts critiquing him a while back prompting him to sign up, and post to let us know he is “hurt”. Now initially I can sympathize with a drummer who stumbles on a web site where some folks say they like him, and others say they don’t (to be fair there was some name calling). But then if that same drummer has won more Modern Drummers’ reader poll awards than I’ve had Starbucks this week as well as scoring the cover several times in addition to basically becoming a god of your genre, one might think that some internet criticism would bounce right off you.
  Not the case apparently.
  In all seriousness some folks do need to be reminded that they probably shouldn’t post anything that they would not be comfortable saying in person (something I try to practice myself which is why I’m not going to post any images of a baby crying right now. I did do a Google image search though.)

Thanks to Bomb Freschke for letting us know here on the forums that a four-disc set of the Beck shows with Vinnie and Tal Wilkenfield at Ronnie Scott’s this past November are available here for download. The quality is superb and the playing speaks for itself.