Joshua Van Tassel

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Here comes a point form no frills update my friends, it seems there’s never enough time for time for all the things that need time, you know?

- had a great  holiday, lots of hugging and walking and eating. Lots of eating.

- I got a boatload of new music that I’m really excited to listen to. Quasimoto ( which I know came out in 2000 but I missed it), Sam Cooke, Black Milk, Bill Frisell, Andreya Triani, lots of stuff

- read a great book called Annabel about a hermaphrodite growing up in Newfoundland. Touching, scary and beautiful writing. Very much recommended. Started a book by Daniel Lanois called Soul Mining. Part memoir, part instructional guide, part geek music talk. It’s great so far.

- 2011 is all about output for me. I’ve spent the past few months practicing hard and reading lots and thinking. Time to act goddamnit. Jan. 3rd it’s on. I’ll be keeping the page a little more interesting too, more video, more music. More more.

- Christine Bougie somehow managed to write an insightful and meaningful blog post every day in December. That’s a really really difficult thing to do and she deserves to be congratulated publicly. Good work Boug, thank you.

- headed to Fredericton tomorrow morning to play an NYE show with David Myles. If you’re downtown in NB looking for fun come find us.

- I’m writing articles for Toronto.com now. Once they start getting posted I’ll direct you to ‘em if you’d like

- I joined twitter and I find it totally fascinating.

OK, gotta go. I hope you all had a safe and wonderful holiday. This has been an amazing year and can’t wait for the next. Happy to be sharing it with you. xo

ps – I found this on the sidewalk last night and it works yessssssssss. The fan is louder then the actual notes but I’ll deal with it.

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I’m taking a bit of a computer/holiday break for a few days until the 27th, but just wanted to say happy holidays to everyone. It’s been a really great year and looking forward to lots more great stuff in the new one. January is all about writing/recording some new music, and trying set a schedule of super productivity and keep up with it. Enjoy your break wherever you may be, I know I will. xo

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Played a completely crazy show in Hamilton last friday with a full men’s choir, children’s choir, string group, horn quintet, and Carly and Mark. And music I’d never heard before in front of a whole lot of  people. Stressful but fun. The kids choir was amazing though, here they are and the space as well which actually sounded amazing with drums. The sound man used a one mic set up which made me very happy and comfortable. Happy.

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And you thought getting a good plugin was hard. Read this page from this super entertaining history of recording. and get bitch slap-backed. I’ll never complain again.

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* this post is part of a project called Special for You, my homage to the amazing Soundway compilation “Nigeria Special – Modern Highlife and Afro Sounds 1970-76*

Today’s tune is a super crazy piece called “Amalinja” by The Don Isaac Ezekiel Combination. This band was formed by three ex members of afro beat hero Fela Kuti’s group, and as far as I can see only released three singles but no full record. This was a particularly hard one to try and hear the percussion on, because of it’s super low place in the overall mix, but also because there’s a weird phase effect happening that probably is due to a really old tape master that could be damaged or warped. It gives the original an even more psychedelic vibe that I love though, kind of another layer of counter rhythm over top everything else. Great for listening and enjoying, hard for transcribing or even knowing what instruments are playing at what time. Due to all of this, the percussion blends together to make what feels like one big rolling instrument, and it’s something I’d love to try to get in the future. Didn’t quite find it today but it’s a start.

and here’s mine – - -

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(on facebook? go to www.joshuavt.com for the full post)

* this post is part of a project called Special for You, my homage to the amazing Soundway compilation “Nigeria Special – Modern Highlife and Afro Sounds 1970-76*

Today ‘s tune was hard, really hard, and personally I think what I’ve recorded sounds pretty terrible. I don’t really have the same types instruments they had, and instead of a cowbell I’m hitting my music stand. I guess that’s part of the learning though, and I’m sure in 60′s nigerian recording studios everybody was making the best use of whatever was on hand so no more complaining. Here’s the orginal, a tune called Okwukwe Na Nchekwube by Celestine Ukwu & His Philosophers National. Say that 3 times fast, or even once. What I love best about the piece is that you settle in to a dreamy instrumental thing for about 3 minutes with some psychedelic slide guitar and great horns, and then out of nowhere come some beautiful kind of haunting male vocals which take you through to the end of the tune. This tune totally exemplifies what I love about this music, super interesting rhythms, the surprise elements, a healthy dose of experimentation, and really nice arrangements.

and what I’m doing. We’ll hope for better tomorrow.

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(on facebook? go to www.joshuavt.com for the video)

(on facebook? go to www.joshuavt.com for the full post)

* this post is part of a project called Special for You, my homage to the amazing Soundway compilation “Nigeria Special – Modern Highlife and Afro Sounds 1970-76*

A common phrase you hear is that imitation is one of the highest forms of flattery. You also hear a lot in the art world about appropriation of certain aspects of another culture into your own work and how that can be morally wrong, and insulting. In times like these (what am I 80? jesus) when we have access to information about any kind of culture/art/music etc, it’s really hard not be constantly bombarded with non western influences, and it’s only natural and good that these influences show through in what we do.

More then once I’ve had a link up to the Soundway Records site, in reference to the insanely good world music (if I was living in China, would Neil Young be “world music”? Because it’s from another country?) compilations that they keep releasing. All of the discs are amazing in their own particular way, but one, the Nigeria Special – Modern Highlife Afro Sounds, and Nigerian Blues keeps me coming back for more. I’ve been trying to figure out why that is lately, and to help do that I’m trying to get as inside of the music as I can. Because I’m a drummer, the best way to do that is to focus on the percussion, of which theres more then plenty of. It’s one thing to listen and note take, but it’s another to actually play along to try and let the ideas soak in the muscles a bit more. It’s a whole other way to learn to essentially try to re-create the tracks from the album in my own way. I’m lucky enough to have home recording capability and a place where I can make some noise, so why not try to be part of the music I love in any way I can?

For a number of reasons, the biggest being musically, what I make won’t really sound that much like the record. The feel is INCREDIBLE on this stuff, and there’s usually anywhere from 3 to probably 6 people playing percussion on everything, interacting together and pushing ( or pulling) each other along. It’s not quite as exciting to do it by myself, but even from today I’ve learned a ton drum wise and recording wise, so this is good, no? There’s 26 tracks on the album, and I’ll keep doing this until I have them all. Then will I be an african drumming master? Shit no. But I’ll have played and learned from some of my favorite recordings, and made a whole bunch of rhythm tracks that I can potentially use for countless other things. Here’s the first, called Ayamma by the Anambra Beats. I wish I was in a band with a sweet name like that.

and here’s what I did

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And when you put the original and mine together HOLY SHIT it sounds nothing like it. I can’t find any info on this band on the internet, but the way they lay waaaaaaaay back on everything is incredible. Humbled. Bitch slapped by an over 40 year old recording.

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The first book I’ve read that gives a totally clear and layman’s explanation of how the auditory system works using the example of a John Bonham drum track. Awesome. Greg Milner has a great style, lots of wit without being too glib, and has definitely done a whole lot of homework in a lot of fields musical and medical.

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For the past couple months I’ve been slowly and sometimes painfully working through a classical guitar method book. The reason for this isn’t because I have visions of myself mastering the classical style and changing my career to nylon string soloist, but because I wanted to take some more responsibility as a musician to music.

To be honest, it’s easy to be a drummer sometimes. If a band leader or artist comes to me with a brand new tune that has tons of chord changes and a complex harmony, but all they want is a straight rock beat ( think boom crack boom boom crack), it’s admittedly going to be a lot easier for me to play then for the guitar player in the band. That isn’t to say I’m not going to do my best to make it feel as good as possible and insert my own sensibilities to shape the tune, but on a straight up harmonic and reading level it will be simpler for me to get it right the first time. Having been out of school and playing drums professionally for quite a while now, I found that my abilities to communicate ideas on a musical level to other musicians had all but gone away. The minute I’d try to bring in another musician to work on a piece I had recorded or was writing, I realized that I could barely tell them what key the tune was in let a lone what chords I was playing. I’m lucky enough to have a crowd of unreasonably talented and creative people in my musical community, and they deserve better goddamnit.

So, this summer I started plunking away whenever I could at a method book of pieces and exercises. I found that for some reason I’m drawn to finger picking and quiet playing, maybe because I bash away like an angry ape for so much of my usual musical time. It’s coming along quite well so far, and the best part about it is I’m having fun. It’s nice to practice an instrument that 1) doesn’t drive your neighbours or girlfriend totally insane 2) allows you to hear yourself playing a song 3) requires no lugging of giant instruments and metal up or down any stairs. There’s some really pretty pieces of music I’m coming across, and all the skills of reading, sensitivity, dynamics, and time are totally transferring over into my drum playing, and vice versa. Anything you do musically feeds everything else. Here’s a piece that I was learning this week that I find very dark and simple, but really quite nice.

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