Ok, so this month we have a look at four new DVDs that have been released and you just might want to put onto your Christmas list or buy them yourself. We kick of with…

Modern Drummer Festival: Best Of, 2 DVD set

Hudson Music and Modern Drummer team up for ten year retrospective Modern Drummer festival.

This two disc, five hour, DVD pack features over 50 artists that have performed at the festival from 1997 up to 2006. Many performances have previously not been available on DVD and performances have been digitally remastered. The DVDs cover the festival in 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005 and 2006 covering clips from Airto, Charlie Benante, Jack DeJohnette, Jeff Hamilton, Will Kennedy and many more artists that I had not seen before. There is also the much sought after, and very young looking, Jojo Mayer’s first Modern Drummer performance, Steve Gadd and Giovanni Hidalgo’s performance, and Steve Ferrone as well as some of the more recent Modern Drummer festival performance including one of my all time favorite performances from the funky cat Shawn Pelton.

John Blackwell "Master Series"

This is now the third in this new series from Hudson following Steve Gadd and Antonio Sanchez.

The concept is that the performance is done live in front of a small audience so it has a masterclass and not a clinic feel. John is joined by his band Gary Granger on bass, Mike Scott on guitar and Corey Bernhard on keys. As you would expect from a John Blackwell DVD, John covers topics on groove, playing in the pocket, timing, showmanship and bass drum techniques.

There is some nice interaction with the band and the audience and John really covers some of the topics in depth that he is known for. I like the way that this series is shot from a visual point of view, as the focus is on the masterclass and performance without lots of moving cameras. It makes you as the viewer feel more part of the masterclass.

The 2 hour 54 minute DVD also features a special guest performance by John’s teacher Marcus Williams who talks about developing his amazing bass drum technique. The DVD is also available with a PDF e-book containing transcriptions of material covered and is translated in to German and Spanish.

I enjoyed this performance and find I can get a lot more out of the Master Series than just a performance based DVD.

Hudson Music

£19.95

$29.95

Mike Dolbear

Modern Drummer Festival Weekend 1997

Not one or two but three Modern Drummer DVDs turned up for review this month (next one to be reviewed next month). These performances have not all been available before and some have only previously been available on video (do you remember those?)

The 5 and half hour two disc pack opens with a very young new boy (at the time) on the block, Virgil Donati, playing some odd time signatures and odd groupings. Next up and one of the highlights for me is the Percussion Originators Ensemble featuring a rare unseen glimpse of some of the drumming industry pioneers including Ron Spagnardi (Modern Drummer founder), Vic Firth, Roy Burns, Herb Brockstein and Don Lombardi. This was an excellent and great performance and to my knowledge is not available anywhere else.

There is also a very enjoyable performance by Steve Gadd and Giovanni Hidalgo, with John Tempesta and Bill Stewart and his band closing the first disc. The second disc open with a 12 year old Tony Royster Jr. Many YouTube clips have been seen of Tony but this was his first major performance on the drum front. Next up is Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez with bass player John Patitucci, then Paul Wertico and a great performance by Jack DeJohnette, and completing the second day and disc is Steve Ferrone with his band David Garfield on keys, Carol Steele on percussion and Lincoln Goines on bass. I have seen this performance before on a video and its always great to see.

I really enjoyed this remastered DVD pack and just to have all those performances together and to see some unreleased material is worth every penny or cent.

Alfred.com

$ 19.95

Mike Dolbear

Behind The Player - Shannon Larkin

Now this is a video I have been looking forward to seeing ever since I first saw Shannon play at 2008 NAMM in LA earlier in the year. He is the most searched for artist on the Sabian website and I caught him playing at the Sabian night with his band and then performing at the Yamaha groove night. I must admit I couldn’t stop watching him.

If you don’t know about Shannon Larkin he is the drummer for the band Godsmack. His distinct approach to drumming and ballistic stage presence has made him a dominant force in arenas and in the studio. In this IMV Behind the Player DVD, Larkin gives an intimate behind the scenes look at his life as a professional musician complete with rare photos and video footage. Larkin then gives an depth drum lessons how to play "Straight Out Of Line" and "Voodoo" by Godsmack and jams the tracks with Godsmack bassist Robbie Merrill.

This is not my type of music but Shannon is a real showman and plays with so much passion that you just can’t help but watch him. The opening of the DVD gives the view an insight to Shannon’s gear, background and influences before he plays and explains the tracks. Watch out for his stick movements and showmanship.

My only complaint about this 72 minute DVD is the editing, the camera angles keep jumping around (for me) at the wrong times and I feel that you miss some of Shannon groove, power and showmanship. As drummers we like simple things and I feel that some time technology gets in the way. In this case maybe a held camera shot on the front and overhead would have been sufficient to catch everything that Shannon is so good at. Saying that I really enjoyed this DVD and have had fun showing all my students and introducing them to somebody that most of them didn’t know.

Distributed by: Alfred.com

£16.95

£24.95

Mike Dolbear