Tommy Campbell

Hello NEgRO AND ROBBY,

... I had a great time in Tokyo with you Negro, thanks for the inspiration AGAIN!

I just returned from Europe with Sonny Rollins...

I also listened to "at the third world war", Oh man! it's killing man! I love it! And I've only just began to really listen to it. Incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tommy

12/02

Roger Squitero

Hey you guys, I'm on tour with Luther Vandross in the UK.... I saw Andy Newmark in London , and watched him play the Lion King.

Hope you're well, peace, Roger Squitero

12/02

Walfredo Reyes Jr

I could not put into words all that I have experienced musically from July to now. July started off by going with Freddie Ravel (keys) Alphonso Johnson (Bass) & Michael O'Neil (Guitar) to perform at the Halifax Jazz Festival 2002. Fantastic place, the biggest lobsters I've ever seen.

Back in LA I continued to record & do live gigs with Rhian Benson. I hope the album comes out soon.On July 28th I went to Sathonay village near Lyon, France to participate in PercuPassion 2002. One week of percussion with many great masters. Check out PercuPassion.net for pictures & details.I will never forget this wonderful experience.

In August 12th I started my 8 countries, 12 cities Mapex Drum Clinic Tour. The international flying was tough but the musical rewards where supreme. I played all my clinics to packed venues. I shared the stage with sooo many incredible drummers & musicians from each country. I was continuously humbled. Mexico, Santo Domingo, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, Indonesia in four weeks! I shall never forget all the wonderful people I met in all these countries.

I barely recuperated from jet lag & I was on stage Sept.14 with Celia Cruz rehearsing for the Latin Grammies 2002. We performed the hit "La Negra tiene Tumbao" at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Backstage was like a percussionist convention, hanging out with the cream of the crop in percussion... Luis Conte, Raul Rekow, Karl Perazzo, Michito Sanchez, Richie Garcia, Kevin Ricard, Ray Yslas, Rafael Padilla, Tiki Pasillas, Bobby Allende & about 10 more other percussionists & drummers from different acts. Wow!

In October I started recording a new record for Steve Winwood at his recording studio in England. It is a live recording with a trio. Jose Neto on Guitars, Steve Winwood on Vocals, bass pedals & B3 organ, & myself on drums & percussion. Steve will have some guests come in on other instruments. It is a very live feeling in the studio & very loose, not overly produced. No click tracks & almost no overdubs. Just like when we were young & started playing!! We are planning to tour next year around summer time. The album will come out hopefully in April, & other Traffic & Winwood concerts also will be released next year! I hope to see you there.

November 9th finds me taking a one day break from UK's Winwood recording to participate at the Montreal Drum Fest 2002 in Canada. One of the best in the world with great drummers like Omar Hakim, Steve Smith, Tom Lang, Joe Morello & many others. Check out montrealdrumfest.com! I arrived from UK on the 9th, bumped into legendary Joe Morello at the bar & had the pleasure of having a 1 hour conversation / history lesson with the maestro. I performed on the 10th & Raul Rekow from Santana joined me on congas to play for the most receptive audience. Then I went straight to the airport, back to the UK where I am writing this letter right now.

Until next time, Take care, peace & health,
from Wallyworld

12/02

Baba Olatunji

Greetings,

The We Say Love auction is still there and waiting for bids. www.stores.ebay.com/store=2892074

All proceeds benefit the Baba Olatunji Healthcare Trust.

There are a lot of items listed right now, including some beautiful silver jewelry (the photos really do not do them justice) and a certificate to beautiful Hollyhock Retreat Centre on Cortez Island in British Columbia, among others.

Please check it out and pass this on to your friends and fellow Baba fans.

Thanks!
We Say Love

&

Greetings friends of Babatunde Olatunji:

I just heard that our dear friend, and mentor, Baba Olatunji, recently had successful heart bypass surgery (last week) and is recovering well at a convalescent facility in Monterrey, CA, for a week or so, then back to Esalen, where he is an artist in residence.

Please, folks, when you drum this week, send prayers of love & healing energy to our friend, Babatunde Olatunji.

peace and love,
HappyShel

11/02

Sean O'Rourke

It was great talking to you as usual.

The Cartoon Network stuff is out, as well as Movie Bowl for TBS. I also did a record for Howard Tate, produced by Jerry Ragavoy. Jerry wrote "Piece of my heart" for Janis Joplin and "Time is on my side " for the Rolling Stones. He also owned and ran The Hit Factory recording studio in N.Y. I did 11 of the tracks and Rick Marotta did the 12th. Pretty good company if ya ask me. Still freelancing, working with 35 musicians a month on average...

Sean O'Rourke

ps... Just to let you know , I have put up close to twenty video clips on my website. They include The Aquarium Rescue Unit, Leo Nocentelli, Mothers Finest as well as a bit from my house gig in Key West and my new baby girl Saige.
please go check them out at www.seanorourke.com

11/02

Mike Smith

Playin' on The NFL Show.... Fox Sports Net cable channel. It's hosted by Chris Meyers... commentator, Michael Irvin, Tony Saragusa, DiMarco Farr.... football players & comedian Tommy Davidson.

Has the house band, dancers, guest football players, musical artists & a live studio audience.

This week Queen Latifah is scheduled. It airs on Sat. nite about 11 PM & then Sunday mornin' I think about 7:30 AM on the West Coast...Not sure what time on the East Coast.

11/02

Cougar Estrada

Hi Everyone, heres a Cougar update...I've been out Touring with Los Lobos promoting their new CD (Good Morning Aztlan) that came out in June 2002 on Hollywood Records. I joined Lobos in May and we've been out touring hard since, making stops on TV and Radio shows in the states - Conan O'Brien Show, Austin City Limits (PBS) which will air in Oct. 2002, 4 of July Special with Peter Jennings (ABC) and LATV. Check out this TV Sitcom "Greeting from Tucson" on WB which daybued on Sept. 20, 2002. During our breaks between tours we've been in the studio doing the soundtrack for this sitcom, so you'll hear my drumming in between acts for seconds only. Thats TV for you, but the opening song is 30 seconds in length so thats alittle better. So look for Los Lobos in your city. Europe Tour on November 14-23. For more on Los Lobos tour go to LosLobos.org

Also I'd like to announce the release of my third CD, I produced and just released on Sept. 16, 2002. Go to CougarRecords.com you can listen to the whole CD for FREE.

Enjoy the music, Cougar Estrada

PS. Dont forget my first CD I did in 2000 Conga Punks

11/02

Steve Smith

Greetings Everyone,

I've been busier than usual between touring and working my new Hudson DVD project, Steve Smith -- Drumset Technique and History of the U.S. Beat. We filmed it in March and April during the Vital Info tour. The dynamic duo of Paul Siegel and Rob Wallis produced the project and their longtime editer, Phil Fallo, did a fantastic job of editing all the footage. In fact, the editing was just completed last week and now the encoding process known as authoring is in the final stages. The discs will be released in October, if there are no problems. Here is a short summary of the double disc package:

On Disc One: Drumset Technique (2 Hours 35 Min), I break down and explain my hand and foot technique in detail and talk about what drummers need to know to improve their technique and feel. Chapters include: Hand Technique, Foot Technique, The Art Of Practice, Independence/Interdependence, Exercises, Licks and Phrases, Implied Metric Modulations and Four Solo Drum Pieces.

On Disc Two: History of the U.S. Beat (2 Hours), I explain the origins and evolution of the “U.S. Beat,” which is the pulse of U.S. music. I also talk about the prehistory of the drumset in the U.S., the events that led us to the application of the drumset in U.S. popular music. To demonstrate this I play examples with an all-star band and Vital Information. In addition, Vital Information plays seven complete tunes (a 70-minute set) which feature applications of the techniques and complex rhythms explained in Disc One.

Featured musicians are Frank Gambale (guitar), Tom Coster (keyboards), Baron Browne (electric bass), Mark Soskin (piano), Steve Marcus (sax), and Mike Pope (acoustic bass). Chapters include: Ragtime, Early New Orleans Jazz, Big Band, Bebop, Rhythm and Blues, Gospel, Blues, Rock, Funk, Country and Jazz/Rock. Also included on this disc is over 30 minutes of bonus footage.

I'm very excited about this project, it represents years of study, practice, research and writing, it feels good that it's finally all documented. The next step will be a book that will incorporate all of the info in the DVD plus more. I'll start on this soon, but it will be a while before I'll have it completed. Also Warner Bros. is putting my original DCI videos, Steve Smith pt. 1 and pt. 2, on DVD. I'm currently tracking down bonus footage, more on this when I get a release date, but it will probably be next year.

I'm also happy to say that the third release from my trio with Frank Gambale and Stu Hamm was just released August 20 on Tone Center -- it's called GHS3. This record has lots of strong compositions and group improvising. Check it out!

Since I last wrote a newsletter Vital Information toured all over the U.S. and it was our best tour ever. We had great audiences everywhere and we were very encouraged by the support of our fans -- thank you very much!!

In June I had a great week with Buddy's Buddies at the London jazz club Ronnie Scott's. We recorded two of the nights and I'll be mixing those tapes soon for a new Tone Center release: Steve Smith and Buddy's Buddies -- Very Live at Ronnie Scott's featuring Steve Marcus (tenor and soprano sax), Andy Fusco (alto sax), Mark Soskin (piano), and Baron Browne (bass).

I did some teaching this summer, a week at Berklee in Boston (with the entire Vital Info band), a week in Marktoberdorf, Germany and four days in Bath, UK.

In-between those dates I toured in Spain with the great sax player Bill Evans. Bill hired the entire Vital Info band to be Bill Evans and the Soul Insiders. His music is very natural for us to play since it's Hammond B3 based funk/jazz.

Tom Coster will be touring Europe with Bill Evans this fall. Also Tom will be appearing with Billy Cobham in Russia this December -- Vital Info will be playing the same club in Moscow next February. Frank Gambale is touring currently with the reunion of The Chick Corea Elektric Band. Baron and Tom both played the Modern Drummer Festival with Prince's drummer John Blackwell. The gig was filmed by Hudson Music, and the next day Baron went into the studio with John and they filmed some playing for an upcoming Hudson DVD featuring John Blackwell.

I've become very interested in Indian rhythms and have been picking up lessons here and there from different Indian drummers that I've been meeting during my travels, but nothing prepared me for the experience of playing three shows in August with the incredible tabla master Zakir Hussain. I have even played with Zakir a few times before and have recorded with him, but to sit next to him and see what he did in the new group we are playing in -- Summit -- just completely shocked me. We have some more gigs coming up in November and we recorded a new CD that will be released soon. The group is: George Brooks (sax, band leader and composer), Zakir Hussain (tabla), Kai Eckhardt (bass), Fareed Haque (guitar) and myself on the Sonor Jungle Set. With no exaggeration I'd say Zakir Hussain is the greatest drummer I have ever seen.

Vital Information is working on booking gigs into next year at this point, so hopefully I'll be playing somewhere near where you live. I have many clinics and live dates coming up so please try to make one of the gigs. If you are in the NYC area November 24, be sure to check out the 25th anniversary of The Collective at the Bottom Line. I'll be there with Steve Gadd, Dave Weckl, Horacio Hernandez, Victor Wooten, John Patitucci and others -- should be incredible!

Take Care, Steve

11/02

Shakerman

Hello Pam! Hello "El Negro" !

Shakerman here...

Wow, you sure have busy busy life!!... I wish I were drumming as much!... but I'm drumming a bunch, so what the hey!.... oh, and I shake some, too! I've just returned form my 6th year at Arthur Hulls Drumcircle Facilitators playshop, now the world record holder for attending his Hawaii playshop, and a mentor graduate as well! Wow, huh!... I'll be off this week to Bumbershoot, where I'll be facilitating TWO drumcircles... YEAH!... and I recently did the S. Oregon Day of Percussion drumcircle at Southern Oregon University. Also, I produced the N. California Day of Percussion for PAS in Lake Tahoe.... its been fun sharing the magic of drumming (yeah, and shaking!)... In mid-September, I'm teaching a Shaker (tube shakers, not Shakere...) class at Kalani's Drumcamp, OR and will also be doing drumcircles there as well... I guess its "official" that I'm now teaching and doing this stuff FOR REAL!!.... OH!!!- Have you heard about www.drum-party.com yet?... I've got a network of qualified drumcircle facilitators all over the place.... nearly world-wide, and for a fee, my associates can go produce a drum party at almost any location for a heck of alot of people.... more details still forthcoming....- fee's, bios.. etc!

thanks and keep up the great work and music!!

Sincerely,
Kerry the "Shakerman"
www.shakerman.com
www.drum-party.com

11/02

Lionel Hampton

Jazz Great Lionel Hampton, 94, Dies

NEW YORK (AP) - There was more than musical magic on stage that day in 1936 when Lionel Hampton joined Benny Goodman in a Manhattan ballroom - it was a breakthrough in American race relations.

Hampton, a vibraphone virtuoso who died Saturday, broke a barrier that had kept black and white musicians from performing together in public. Through a six-decade career, he continued to build a name for himself as one of the greats in jazz history.

"He was really a towering jazz figure," said saxophonist Sonny Rollins, who played with Hampton in the 1950s. "He really personified the spirit of jazz because he had so much joy about his playing."

The 94-year-old showman and bandleader died of heart failure at Mount Sinai Medical Center, said his manager, Phil Leshin. Hampton suffered two strokes in 1995 and had been in failing health in recent years.

Hampton played with a who's who of jazz, from Goodman to Louis Armstrong to Charlie Parker to Quincy Jones. His own band helped foster or showcase other jazz greats including Charlie Mingus, Dexter Gordon, Fats Navarro, Joe Williams and Dinah Washington.

"With Hampton's death, we've drawn closer to losing part of the origins of the early jazz era," said Phil Schaap, a jazz historian.

During his career, Hampton performed at the White House for presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan and Bush. When he played for Truman, his was the first black band to ever entertain in the White House, Hampton once said.

Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., remembered Hampton's 90th birthday party at the White House, when the man known as the "vibe president" invited President Clinton to grab his saxophone and jam.

"Lionel was a spectacular guy," said Rangel, who recalled seeing Hampton play at the Apollo Theater, the legendary concert venue in Harlem.

In 1997, Hampton received the National Medal of Arts - while wearing a borrowed suit, socks and shoes, because all his clothes and much of his bands' arrangements and other memorabilia had been destroyed in a fire two days earlier.

"He was an American music legend and will be sorely missed," President Bush said in a statement Saturday.

Hampton's music was melodic and swinging, but audiences also responded to his electric personality - the big smile, energy and bounce that contributed to his style. When not playing the vibes, he drummed, sang and played his own peculiar style of piano, using two fingers as if they were vibraphone mallets.

He was a songwriter, too. His most famous composition, "Flying Home," was written in 1937, and he played it about 300 times a year for the next half-century. It was a hit in 1942, propelled by an Illinois Jacquet tenor sax solo.

Hampton did not have a copy of his birth certificate but marked his birth date as April 20, 1908. It was generally accepted that he was born in Louisville, Ky., and raised by his grandmother in Birmingham, Ala., and Chicago.

He learned to play the drums from a nun while in grade school, and launched his career with Les Hite's band after finishing high school. It wasn't until a 1930 recording session with Armstrong that Hampton played the vibraphones.

"There was a set of vibes in the corner," Hampton once recalled. "Louis said, 'Do you know how to play it?"

He didn't. But after 45 minutes of noodling on the instrument, Hampton felt comfortable enough to swing in behind Armstrong on "Memories of You."

The future "King of Vibes" toured with his own band on the West Coast, then settled in at the Paradise Nightclub in Los Angeles.

In August 1936, Benny Goodman heard Hampton play and three months later Hampton was at the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York, starting out "four gorgeous years with Benny" in the new, trailblazing Benny Goodman Quartet.

That quartet, with Hampton, pianist Teddy Wilson and drummer Gene Krupa, broke racial barriers that had largely kept black musicians from performing with whites in public. Wilson and Hampton made up the black half of the foursome.

Wilson had recorded with Goodman and Krupa previously, and white soloists "jammed" informally with black groups, but a color line was drawn whenever a white band was on stage.

Hampton took to the road with his own orchestra in 1940 and built bookings into the million-dollar-a-year range. After the big-band era died, Hampton pared down to a smaller group - around eight players dubbed the Inner Circle - and he occasionally put bigger groups together to travel the globe as a musical ambassador of the United States.

Hampton regularly turned up at colleges and major jazz festivals, made guest appearances on numerous television variety shows and recorded scores of jazz albums and singles.

Hampton also established a community development corporation which, with government support, built low- and middle-income housing in New York and Newark, N.J.

One of his projects in Harlem is named for his wife, Gladys, who died in 1971 after a 35-year marriage. The couple had no children.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete.

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

On the Net: Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival: http://www.jazz.uidaho.edu

BB Borden

Been touring with Marshall Tucker and working on a new album - which will be out the first of the year... sporting brand new Premier Drums!

... am also doing a side project with Clay Cook, co-writer of the John Mayer album...

BB

9/02