Music
I've been playing drums for over 25 years. When I was in Buffalo I took a break from the
drumset and studied Afro-Latin percussion (djembe, conga, bell, shaker) with
Charlie Keil and
Synor Hanesworth. Synor was a student of
Babatunde Olatunji and we got to
play with Olatunji and take workshops with him when he visited Buffalo. I learned a lot about
poly-rhythms and the pulse of African-influenced music. I returned to playing drumset with the
jazz-funk band Gumshoe. We became pretty successful playing with bands like
moe. and
Rusted Root,
toured western NY and even played some gigs down in NYC before the band broke up in 1994.
Moving to SF provided many musical opportunities. My roommate got me interested in the band
Galactic and I became passionate about
the music and culture of New Orleans. I joined a band called
Five-7
and we played in a style which we coined as "FRAZZIN" (funk, rock, jazz, latin). We recorded a
live CD at the Red Devil Lounge, and then had a huge CD release party at the same venue. Five-7
moved to NY around the same time that I quit my job and I continued on to play in
several projects, most notably with the New Orleans style
Brass Monkey Brass Band (BMBB).
I primarily played percussion with BMBB (cowbell, shaker and tambourine) and occasionally
subbed on snare and bass drum. Some of my most memorable shows in SF are at Bruno's, the
Great American Music Hall,
the Fillmore
(photo by
Adam Traum) and Bimbo's 365 Club.
After BMBB I joined up with my good friend John Fonseca to play in
The Unravellers. I enjoyed making
music with him and the band. We had some amazing gigs, most of which were at the Starry Plough in
Berkeley. We did a few recordings. Here is one of my favorites where, instead of regular drumsticks,
I used wood dowel "Hot Rods" for a softer sound with less of an attack. I think that it helped with the
spacey atmosphere of the song:
In Space (5 min MP3).
I also did a recording with my friend and neo-folk-rocker Allene Rohrer during this period. Here is her
CD
(along with
MP3 samples for your listening pleasure).
Since moving to Davis I've been involved in several musical projects.
Most recently I have been playing with
Matt Herman's Mad Funk Project.
Click here to find out more about
this band (including MP3s and photos)!
A couple of years ago I played with a jazz-funk project called
Jokimama.
Here is a 7.5-minute
MP3 compilation
of some of our tunes. It was recorded live in May 2007 at a house party with one microphone
in mono on a MiniDisc. Caveat: there's a lot of distortion on this recording, but there is also
a lot of soul and good energy.
I also occasionally play with the Davis Klezmer Orchestra. If you are interested,
Wikipedia has a pretty good article on the
Klezmer style of music.
Most of our gigs have been at the Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings and have been a lot of fun.
Here is a cool
photo (900 kB) of us playing.
In August 2006 I met one of my lifelong drumming heros. Here is a
photo
of me with Stewart Copeland of
The Police!
And here is a
photo of me with the great Afro-Cuban drummer
Ignacio Berroa
taken at the Jazz Standard in NYC.
Go back to Matt's home page
