On Sunday 16 May, 2010 the Shake Radio Sessions broadcast a unique 4-hour show featuring some of the world’s greatest drummers, past and present.  We covered jazz, fusion and rock artists and their music. All the drummers played are listed below together with their biographies. We have broadcast hundreds of hours of the world’s best modern music, but this show, I feel, topped them all. First the album that influenced so many bands and drummers since its original release in 1971…

The ‘Mahavishnu’ Orchestra THE INNER MOUNTING FLAME

The Inner Mounting Flame was the first album which totally captured the power of hard rock and the freewheeling improvisational aspects of jazz. Larry Coryell, Miles Davis, and Tony Williams’ Lifetime had tried something like this with some success in previous years (it was no mistake McLaughlin was attached to all three of those efforts). But none of that output captured the spirit like the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s 1971 recording The Inner Mounting Flame. The Inner Mounting Flame’s ascending and descending distortion-laden mantra-like riffs and unison playing set a standard for jazz-rock that is still in place today. Its Indian influences merged with blues scales and rock rawness set the music world on fire. The musical attack was relentless. Over thirty years after its release, this album can still blow away first time listeners. The Inner Mounting Flame was recorded before the use of synthesizers, drum machines, and computer enhancement. The sound is loud, raw, and dangerous. Wild abandon meets supreme musicianship on such classic tunes as “The Meeting of the Spirits,” in which an introductory guitar passage sounds like an electric sitar played through a thick fog. A forbidding theme turns “The Dance of Maya” into a raving jazz-fusion hoedown. The drummer and bassist take a short rest while the acoustic guitar, piano and violin offer the beauty, grace and delicacy of “A Lotus On Irish Streams”. How could this be the same band that just blew out my eardrums?

Melodies and rhythms like had never been heard before. The distortion and the loudness could be insulting, and the speed of the playing was mind-numbing. In short, this was the greatest jazz-fusion recording ever made.

Who were these guys anyway? John McLaughlin was an up and coming European jazz guitarist who recently had been best known for some far-out playing with Miles. Soon he would become a guitar god. Billy Cobham was an ex-marching band drummer from Panama who had played with the great Horace Silver and in the important band Dreams. He too would also take his rightful place in the heavens. Jan Hammer was a true innovator who would eventually achieve worldwide fame not only for his keyboard playing, but also for his movie and television scoring. Jerry Goodman was a jazz-folk violinist who had cut his teeth during the short run of the pseudo jazz-rock group The Flock. Rick Laird had been a musician friend John knew from London. He was the house bassist at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club and had played with Ben Webster and Wes Montgomery. Although the Mahavishnu Orchestra enjoyed a relatively short reign, their influence still reverberates today.

In 1972, the relatively unknown Mahavishnu Orchestra followed Count Basie at the Newport Jazz Festival. Upon hearing the very first ear splitting notes from the stage, hundreds of jazz fans-feeling musically assaulted - left the concert hall in a rush. What a joy it must have been!

Track listing: Meeting of the Spirits; Dawn; The Noonward Race; A Lotus On Irish Streams; Vital Transformation; The Dance of Maya; You Know You Know; Awakening

Personnel: John McLaughlin - guitar; Jan Hammer - keyboards; Billy Cobham - drums; Jerry Goodman - violin; Rick Laird - bass

Walter Kolosky

THE DRUMMERS/PERCUSSIONISTS FEATURED

Jim White

Jim White is an Australian drummer now based in Brooklyn, New York. He was born in Clifton Hill, Melbourne, Australia. He is the drummer for the Dirty Three, a band formed in Melbourne, but he has also played with a number of other groups, including:

Tren Brothers - consisting of Jim White and Mick Turner, guitarist of the Dirty Three.
Mick Turner
Boxhead Ensemble - musical collaboration including Jim O’Rourke, Will Oldham/Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
Will Oldham/Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy - on several of his albums.
Cat Power - on and off since 1996, then as member of the Dirty Delta Blues since 2007.
Beth Orton
Smog (Bill Callahan)
White Magic - live drummer with this New York based group from time to time, having recorded on their debut record.
Essie Jain, New York singer songwriter - drummer on the record We Made This Ourselves.
Nina Nastasia - whom he has played live with since 2003, and recorded with on her albums Run to Ruin and On Leaving. In 2007, a collaborative album, credited to both was released, titled You Follow Me.
PJ Harvey’s album White Chalk
C. W. Stoneking’s 2008 album Jungle Blues
Marianne Faithfull’s 2008 album, Easy Come, Easy Go
Seeker Lover Keeper - producer and drummer.

An October 2007 article in Time Out New York called him “indie rock’s drummer of choice“, saying, “Those who play with White speak of him with the ardor of religious converts.”

“Watching Jim White play drums is still worth the price of a ticket just on its own, and roadies still have to occasionally run out onto the stage to hastily reassemble parts of his quivering drumkit – but at the Palace Theatre show there was a lightness to his playing that I can’t remember having seen before.  Twice I swear I even saw him flip a drumstick in the air, an act which was so astonishingly casual that it seemed the very opposite of a showboating rock-drummer-dude party trick and instead came to speak volumes about the indescribable joy of playing music.” -  Harry Saddler (Pocket Jury). April 1, 2012

Tommy Clufetos

Tommy Clufetos (born December 30, 1979) Currently plays drums for Ozzy Osbourne, and previously played for famous rock artists Ted Nugent and Alice Cooper. He also played drums for Rob Zombie, and was featured on the 2006 album Educated Horses; Zombie’s first live release 2007’s Zombie Live; and 2010’s Hellbilly Deluxe 2. In March 2010 it was announced that Tommy had quit Rob Zombie and been replaced by Joey Jordison of Slipknot for the forthcoming Zombie tours. Tommy is now drumming for Ozzy Osbourne replacing drummer Mike Bordin who is currently touring with Faith No More.

The Song Played from HELLBILLY DELUXE II

This close to ten minute song has a five-minute drum solo in the middle, and an orchestra at the end. Zombie explained why: “I was listening to a bunch of different music for other reasons, working on a different project, and I had been listening to Iron Butterfly in the car and the drum solo [from 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida'] came on while I was driving. Everyone always makes fun of that like it’s a joke or something, but I was stuck in traffic listening to the whole thing and I was really digging it. So it was fresh in my mind when I went into the studio that day, and I said to Tommy Clufetos (drums), ‘Let’s put a drum solo on this song.’ And he thought I was kidding, I think, at first, but then he went in and did it and the only thing was, he kept - I could hear that he was starting to wind down the drum solo after a minute, two minutes, three minutes, like he was thinking, how much does he want? And I just kept screaming out there, ‘Keep going! Keep going!’ So he went for about five minutes or whatever it turns out to be, and then he came in and he thought for sure I was gonna chop it down or not even use it and I just left it as is. It’s in the song.”

He added: “It’s actually the longest record I’ve ever made as a solo artist. It’s more than ten minutes longer than any record I’ve ever made. We were just in a groove, crankin’ out songs. But I figured, how many kids these days have ever picked up a record and had a drum solo on it? Probably none. So what the hell! That one, in contrast to some of the other songs that are so stripped-down, has a 100-piece orchestra playing and a drum solo, we decided, ‘let’s just pile it all into the last track.’ Tyler Bates, the composer who had done music for some of my films and Watchmen and 300, he composed the string section and we went into a different studio with a full orchestra and recorded it. They sat there and played along with the song.”

Billy Cobham

William C. Cobham (born May 16, 1944 in Panama), is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader. Coming to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with Mahavishnu Orchestra, Cobham is, in the words of Steve Huey, “generally acclaimed as fusion’s greatest drummer with an influential style that combines explosive power and exacting precision, but in fact, his technical virtuosity was such that his flash could sometimes overwhelm his music. Cobham branched out to jazz fusion, which blended elements of jazz, rock and roll and funk, playing and recording with the Brecker Brothers (notably on their 1970-founded group Dreams), and guitarist John Abercrombie, before recording and touring extensively with trumpeter Miles Davis. Cobham’s work with Davis appears on A Tribute to Jack Johnson, among other recordings. Cobham is also one of the first drummers to play open handed lead: a drummer that can lead (or ride) with either hand and begin or end a beat or fill with either hand (most drummers lead with 1 hand). He was also one of the first drummers to play with 3 or more snare and/or bass drums and multiple hi-hats.

Trilok Gurtu

A world class, virtuoso percussionist, now in his mid fifties, Trilok has attracted a world class set of collaborators over a long career; these started with John McLaughlin in whose trio, Trilok flourished as the featured soloist for 4 years, other jazz greats continued this path - Joe Zawinul, Jan Garbarek, Don Cherry, Bill Evans, Pharoah Sanders, Dave Holland were all attracted to Trilok’s burning sense of rhythm. Of course he is deeply rooted in the Indian tradition, so it is no surprise to see that collaborations also took place with the glitterati of Indian musical society - his mother, Shobha Gurtu, Zakir Hussain, L. Shankar, Shankar Mahadevan, Hariprasad Chaurasia, The Misra Brothers and Sultan Khan. World music has become an established genre in which Trilok has further “ploughed his own furrow” with his own group, to great effect, performing and recording with Salif Keita, Oumou Sangare, Angelique Kidjo, Neneh Cherry, Omara Portuondo, Tuvan throat singers, Huun Huur Tu, to such effect that. Rita Ray of BBC Radio described him as “a serial collaborator.”

Mark Mondesir

Born: December 12, 1964. Immersed in music before birth but discovered the drums at 12 years old by fluke but took it seriously at 16. He was largely self-taught by listening to records, tapes and watching drummers. “After years of playing more groove orientated music (Prog Rock, Funk and Fusion) I focused on learning about Jazz after attending the Weekend Arts Centre Workshops run by Ian Carr. This is where I met Julian Joseph, who in turn, introduced me to Courtney Pine, Steve Williamson etc. We would meet after the workshop to conduct our own jam sessions honing our ‘jazz chops’.” This led to playing jams at the Atlantic pub in Brixton with Courtney at a time when the media started to pay attention to him. “Before long the jams turn into gigs and that’s how my career started. I received the best education by playing at many of the major jazz festivals around the world, meeting with all the true jazz legends at the time and absorbing all I could. YOU CAN’T LEARN JAZZ IN A CLASSROOM! There’s no greater teacher than experience! The Drum Set as an instrument was born in the Jazz era. A desire to master the drums led me to play Jazz. BUT DON’T GET ME WRONG… I play and love ALL MUSIC! Hence the following: Artists I have been blessed to have played/recorded with include: Courtney Pine, Jazz Warriors, Julian Joseph, John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck with Jan Hammer, Ronnie Wood, Imogen Heap etc, McCoy Tyner (Tonight Show’s), Kevin Eubanks with Dave Holland, Bryan Ferry, David Sylvian, Toni Childs, Ravi Coltrane, Gary Thomas, Matthew Garrison,The Jazz Crusaders with Wayne Henderson and Wilton Felder, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Mike Del Ferro, Thijs Van Leer (Focus), Andy Sheppard, Annette Peacock, Joanne Brackeen, Ray Bryant, Ronnie Matthews, Art Farmer, Hamish Stuart, Chante Moore, Joe Zawinul and London Symphony Orchestra, John Scofield, Mike Stern, Leni Stern, Keith More, Ron E Carter, Scott Henderson & Gary Willis, Barbara Dennerlein, Loose Tubes, Art Blakey, Yes No People(Creators of “Stomp”), Gary Husband, (Director/Musician)Mike Figgis with Tom Jones, Van Morrison, Lulu, Jon Cleary etc, Pee Wee Ellis, Fred Wesley with Bobby Byrd, Vicki Anderson etc, Hermeto Pascoal… and the rest I can’t remember at the moment. Numerous drummers at numerous drum clinics, too many to mention but all wicked!!”