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| Top: Karl Perazzo
& Raul Rekow Bottom: Zoro |
For seventeen years
the Modern Drummer Festival
Weekend has treated drummers and percussionists to the finest performers
in the field. This year, on May 28 and 29, the festival relocated to the elegant
New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. Fans packed the main level, plus
the mezzanine and balconies of the stately, modern facility. As with past MD
festivals, LP artists were prime attractions.
Zoro adopted
an engaging humility in his selfless performance. Instead of coming on with
a swagger about his past performances with Lennie Kravitz, he instead expressed
appreciation to the crowd and to organizers for his first appearance at a MD
Festival Weekend.
Zoro chose
to educate as well as entertain the crowd with a demonstration of a basic pop
groove, the half-time shuffle. The standing ovation that followed indicated
he had peaked the “wow meter!” Slowly and methodically, he deconstructed
some particularly hard variations of his chosen rhythm, then reassembled them,
exhibiting enormous command over all four limbs. In fact, some of his drumset
demonstrations elicited spontaneous applause. One such instance was his weaving
of an LP cowbell into a particularly complex shuffle, spiking the rhythm and
making it dance. (See free online
lesson by Zoro.)
Raul Rekow and Karl
Perazzo, best known as the rhythm section behind Santana, appeared together.
Their performance, largely improvised over Latin themes, was memorable. It
was an instance of tremendous rapport and individual prowess as Raul and
Karl, playing LP congas (the turquoise glitter signature drums were looking
very nice!), timbales, and a variety of bells and toys. Whether each was
soloing or accompanying, it was the final word in expert collaboration. None
of this was lost on the crowd, who chose to interrupt the duo with applause
at various junctures. (See
free online lesson by Karl Perazzo.)
This year, LP artists gave stirring performances that spoke of the power of
communication. And at LP, in turn, we'd like to communicate our thanks to Zoro,
Karl and Raul for delivering top shelf performances. Once again, LP salutes
the organizers of the MD Festival Weekend for a stellar event.
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