Session Drummer | Studio Drummer | Touring and Worship Drummer for Hire | Dale Baker | Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, NC

Dave Spencer Gig at the Cradle!

I'll be playing this Thursday night (Aug 30) with David Spencer at the Cats Cradle over in Carrboro.  I first met Dave when he was in a band with Will Acuff.  I was fortunate enough to get to play on their first record, Moment Golden.  They went on to form a band called Spencer Acuff and did some touring and made some waves. 

Well, now Dave has set out on his own and has a wonderfully produced debut solo album called Love Like a Symphony (to be released Sept 18).  He's got a great voice, the kind that draws you in and keeps you interested.  The arrangements and songs on the record are first rate as well.  I think David is a great songwriter as well and it will be fun to watch as his solo career develops. 

I'll be putting my spin on the various songs and arrangements when I play drums for David on Thursday.  My good friend Wade Baynham will be playing bass with us too.  At some point, I may post my transcriptions of the drum parts.  The drummer on that record (Tommy Perkinson you rock!) plays some wonderful parts.  There are some brilliant and tasteful things Tommy does to support the songs and the other musicians and I hope to do what I can to emulate as much of what he played on the CD.

Doors open at 7:00, we start playing at 7:30.  David is opening for the band The War (formerly Starting Tuesday).  Tickets are $10 at the door or $8 in advance.  Contact the Cats Cradle for more info.

Max Roach, RIP.

Another great one passed along to the big 'ole jam session in the sky.

Local music blog, The Oak Room did a great write up on the man, and posted some videos and a song as well.  I won't try to out do that blog's wonderful write up, but I did dig up some links you can follow if you want.

Quote from the NYT:  "Over the years he challenged both his audiences and himself by working not just with standard jazz instrumentation, and not just in traditional jazz venues, but in a wide variety of contexts, some of them well beyond the confines of jazz as that word is generally understood."

--"Max Roach, a Founder of Modern Jazz, Dies at 83," by Peter Keepnews, August 16, 2007"

You can also find out more about Max via Wikipedia, Drummerworld, The Hardbop Page, and read the excellent article over at the New York Times.

While at the Times, look for the wonderful "Topics" article about him as well as his official Obituary. 

Speaking of Flickr...

I've just uploaded a bunch of photos to my Flickr page.  I created a catch all group for all my various studio shots, and tour photos, video shoots, etc.  I've even put a few images in there from some of my old web sites and included some shots of some random favorite things.  Hopefully, I'll get around to organizing them into sub-groups or something, or at least writing a description to them, so they make some sort of sense.
Until then, peruse, browse, and linger and wonder what in the world was I thinking...

Pics Galore!

Pics from my DIY V-Drum Project

I realized that for the past few years, I've been tweaking my electronic kit that I use for drum lessons and have yet to chronicle my experiences.  Today I sat down and wrote out all the materials I used to create my own "V-Drum" kit and found that for the price, it's a pretty affordable option for those of us, who have the time and just enough ability to tweak something.  Obviously I don't have some of the higher end features of those higher end kits, but for what I use this for (midi input and teaching), I figure I don't need all those fancy options found in the higher end kits.

In a later post (probably to appear on my Durham Drum Lessons site,  I'll detail my expenses and process for setting up a kit similar to what I have.  For now, you can look at the photos and read my captions over at my V-Drums DIY Flickr page.

Cheers!

Kiss Me Video in Paris

It's taken me entirely too long to get this posted for you to see, but here it is (for those of you still interested in the band and our exploits.) 

It was about 10 years ago that we shot this video on a 3-4 day schedule throughout the streets and environs of Paris.  It was my first time to visit that city and we stayed in a budget hotel up in Montmarte right down the road from the Sacre Couer. 

I think the hallway we ran down in the video now is a popular destination with funky shops and a boutique hotel at one end.  Oh yeah, and if you look real close you can see that someone trips in the background during the opening shot - Matt and I were doing some fencing in the background over the bridge and as we were coming down the other side, Matt took a spill.  He was okay, but it was a little scary. 

Other trivia:  I still own the sweater I was wearing, it was a J-Crew sweater that I got back in 1996 or so.  It is such a comfortable sweater that I can't ever imagine throwing it away.  The rowing sequence was nerve racking, 'cause the sun was about to go down and we were trying to get the boat in the right place, yet I had never rowed before.  Tricky stuff.  Oh, and the doors we all pop out of, was the top suite of the cheap hotel we stayed in.  Specifically, it was Steve and Debbie's room (since Steve was the director, he got the nicest room).  I took some shots from that balcony and ended up with a wonderful picture of the Eiffel tower that I still have hanging in my house.

In many of the shots we're smiling and it looks like we are having the time of our life.  Man, it was so hard to smile on cue!  I think there is one shot where we're all walking arm in arm along the Seine and I grab a tree branch, and for some reason that cracked me up and then Leigh, so I think those smiles were actually the only "real" ones. In the shot where we are playing dominoes (before Leigh slaps Matt), I'm hitting the back beat with the domino in my right hand while contemplating where to make my next move.  Fancy huh?

The grave site at the end was Francois Truffaut's and apparently it's illegal to film in that cemetary, so apparently Ben (the cinematographer) and Leigh, snuck in and quickly filmed that sequence.  Truffaut was the director of Jules and Jim, which is the classic French Film that this video was based on.

Cool PC case that Looks like a Drum!

I wonder if these are made from Keller Shells?  The heads look like regular drum heads, though they may be using something a little sturdier.  Anyway, it's a fascinating design and I think a fairly original idea.  It would probably make a great gift for the drummer friend in your life or make an interesting media server for your living room.  Anyway, I felt compelled to let you know about it.

According to 3D Game Man:

"...you definitely want to check this product out, its very original looking...its made from the ground up. Handcrafted. Very well designed, and looks simply amazing. A perfect product for a Home Theater PC case! Overall this is a 100% kicka## product..."

You can even see a video review of the product on Google Video or You Tube (I think it's the same video on both sites...)

I found prices for the various products on here.  Anyway...pretty cool don't you think?