Drummer Cafe Community Forum

Well ... guess who I saw last night?

I got a last minute call from a percussion friend of mine telling me that the band Tunnels was in town, playing in a small club here in Nashville in less than two hours! Through the entire night, there could not have been more than 25 people there ... if that! Amazing.  :-[

Anyway, if you're not familiar with Tunnels ... you may be know of Percy Jones, bassist and composer for the 70's English fusion band, Brand X. Phil Collins played in this group, as well as Kenwood Dennard.

(http://www.buckyballmusic.com/progressivity/tunnels3.jpg)

Tunnels

• Marc Wagnon - MIDI Vibes (malletKAT)
• Percy Jones - fretless bass
• Frank Katz - drums

I had a nice talk with all of the musicians, and spoke at length with Marc and Frank.

Frank is a fine musician and has a real nice touch on the drums. He teaches at the Drummer's Collective in NYC when he's not on the road, and has a self-published book/CD coming out soon ... with plans of sending me a copy to review and hopefully available here at the Drummer Cafe. Incidentally, Frank studied with a variety of people ... one of which includes Kenwood Dennard. By watching and listening to him play, I was going to guess he had studied with Morello and/or Gottlieb ... so I think you get the idea ... WOW!

Drum wise, the night was full of syncopation and odd meter ... and I think I can count on two hands the number of times Frank used his toms. Kick, snare, ride cymbal, hihat ... with the occasional crash ... that about sums it up ... and I was never bored. If you like Jack DeJohnette or Tony Williams, you are going to dig Frank.

You need to check these guys out ...  they'll be in a town near you very soon! I know they will be in Louisville, KY tonight!

To find out more, check out their own label:
www.BuckyBallMusic.com

They are re-releasing a lot of Brand X material as well.

I purchased Tunnels' recent CD, Progressivity.

Here's a quote from the liner notes; it will give you a better idea of what this jazz fusion band is all about.

WARNING: This recording contains tonal nastiness, dissonance, harmonic and rhythmic abstraction, distortion, an abundance of intense blowing and other forms of sonic weirdness that may cause harmful side effects such as hives, palpitations, fibrilations, aneurims, dizziness, facial swelling, wheezing and may lead to serious brain damage. Do not play while operating heavy machinery or while under the influence of smooth jazz.


Too funny ......  :)

Thanks for the head's-up, Bart - I'd not heard of this band before, but I definitely dig what I've heard on their web site.

Any thoughts to share on Marc's mallet work?  I like the little bit that I heard on the site.

Marc is a fine player; used the three octave MalletKAT ... and has been using that instrument for 14 years I believe. He definitely has that "New York" approach to mallets; hard to describe, but I see it in all the mallet players from there. I don't mean that as good or bad, just describing his playing.

Something you might want to also check out is Marc's wife, who is a singer. They have released a CD of 17th century music (Renaissance / pre-Baroque) ... and are performing it within the jazz instrumentation. I'll have to pick-up the CD sometime soon. Everything is available on www.buckyballmusic.com.

They'll be playing at the NEARFest in Trenton NJ in June. I have tickets but my wife wants to schedule our annual trip to Japan at that time. Guess I'll just have to buy the CD.

I've seen Percy Jones with two live incarnations of Brand X (first with Collins, I think the second was with Dennard but I can't really remember). One of the greatest bass players I've seen.