CURRENT NEWS


Moved to L.A.

Seattle has been home since 1990, but I've recently decided to spend more of my professional time in Los Angeles. Now I'm commuting a lot, but it's an incredibly positive shift. My creative output, the proximity to incredible talent, the intensity of the business - it's all good.


Drums of Compassion

For the past several years I have been composing and producing a very special project called "Drums of Compassion," which will be released in 2006. It brings together some of the world's most respected percussionists and musicians, gifted artists I've known and had the honor of playing with over the years.

The idea for the album started in a personal way. Often, after being out at night, and coming home at 2:00 in the morning or some such hour, I like to listen to choral or classical music, or another kind of calming music that puts me in a meditative space. After many nights of this, I started wondering, "If I were to create my own recording, what would I make?" It would have to fill this need for a meditative space, to create that place, and of course, it would have to use drums.

So I called my friend Jeff Greinke, who makes music that is lush and full of ambient soundscapes and proposed the idea to him. We got together and tossed ideas around. We started with a recording of me playing a set of 16 tom-toms that are set up in a semi-circle, which I play standing up. It's more pulse than groove. We recorded and it was very nice, but then I wanted more drums that represented different cultures, at least the sound of the drums of those cultures. I was blessed to get Airto, Zakir Hussain, Obo Addy, and then Jack DeJohnette to add their very unique gifts.

The title "Drums of Compassion" is a play-on-words from Olatunji's seminal record "Drums of Passion" which included the song "Jingo Lo Ba," which Santana did a version of on our first record and called it "Jingo." So for me it's a full circle. On the first piece of the "Drums of Compassion" recording, Olatunji gives a spoken invocation that sets the tone for the whole recording. I'm still working on the album, and it will be out in 2006. Here is a list of musicians who have contributed so far:

Jeff Greinke, Keyboards, Sound Sculpture and Composition
Obo Addy, African Drums
Jack De Johnette, Drums
Zakir Hussain, Tabla
Airto Moriera, Brazilian Percussion
Baba Olatunji, Vocal Invocation
BC Smith, Orchestral Arrangements
James Whiton, Bass



Writing and producing

Although I'm known as a drummer, I have always written and produced. Recently, my collaboration with Carlos Santana, "Aye Aye Aye," was on his album, "Shaman." Rolling Stone magazine acknowledged it as one of the songs that "leaps out of the album, joyful and organic without calculation," and achieves "globe-spanning euphoria." Needless to say, I liked that review.

I continue to produce and write music and lyrics for various projects, and as they're completed, I'll list them here.

NEW MONSOON, "THE SOUND"
One of the top of the crop of the groups to come out of the Jam Band scene, this San Francisco group boasts Latin percussion and tablas as well as drum set. They were introduced to me by Ari Zucher of AriSawkaDoria. It's a rock sound with great percussion, guitars, keys and vocals. These guys tour over 250 days a year and work their butts off, which is one of the reasons I took it on. This was co-produced with my buddy Paul Kimble from Grant Lee Buffalo and Pistol Star.

RUBY DEE AND THE SNAKEHANDLERS
Something completely different for me, but good is good. Rockabilly groove type of group that my friend Greg Keplinger turned me on to. A crack rhythm section, smokin' guitar player and two beautiful and talented ladies. I cut three tracks with them and had a blast. You'll be hearing more about them.

ARISAWKADORIA
Just finished this one. Guitar, drums and organ instrumental trio with some of the hottest players in Seattle. The drummer, Kevin Sawka, is also the second drummer in my band Tangletown, He's a jungle drum n' bass bad boy. Joe Doria is the Hammond player everybody wants in this town, and Ari Zucher on guitar is everywhere. Think Medeski, Martin and Wood on acid.


Elvin Jones Memoirs

Elvin and I go way back. In fact, the first time I met him I was 16 and had sneaked in to an auditorium at Stanford University to see him play with The John Coltrane Group. I was using my standard MO of getting inside the walls and ceilings to find my way to the auditorium. I not only surprised Elvin and Jimmy Garrison, but more so surprised myself when I lowered myself from the ceiling into the dressing room where they were changing into their tuxes. They laughed and were impressed!

The stories continue through the decades with Elvin and me. Long before he passed, he suggested that I write his memoirs, film interviews and record his concerts. We spent days and days together over several years. This material doesn't exist anywhere else. I'm currently putting it together and talking with publishers regarding the best way to offer it to the public.


Tangletown

Tangletown is the band I put together in 2003 - a great group of guys with enormous talent. This is how a Seattle writer describes us:

The intense and muscular world rock sound of Tangletown is influenced by Brazilian, Afro-Cuban and Middle Eastern music, and includes covers of renowned African musicians Baaba Maal and Ismael Lo.

The band's songs are dense with layers and tight with virtuosity. The sound is dominated by percussion, yet has substantive melodic lines to keep it emotionally interesting - in fact, often beautiful - a quality that is rare in music that is so relentlessly rhythmic.

Tangletown boasts an explosive line-up featuring the two drum sets of Shrieve and Seattle drum and bass phenomenon Kevin Sawka, along with percussionist Johnny Conga. Other band members are Ryan Leyva and Danny Godinez, both on guitar, James Whiton on bass, Michael Stegner on keyboards and Chris Littlefield on flugelhorn. Add to this mix the strong and compelling sound of vocalist Ernest Pumphrey Jr. and the synthesis is both fresh and powerful.

Tangletown's music has a distinctive lyrical sound owing to Godinez's guitar playing, in counterpoint to a rock edge from the guitar of Leyva. Litttlefield's flugelhorn adds a vivid jazz flavor, while Stegner's keyboards turn up the heat with a fiery Latin attitude. Whiton, who plays upright bass through an arsenal of effects, has a startling original sound that often comes through in his aggressive bowed solos.

Excerpts from a review in the Seattle Post Intelligencer
Gene Stout, music critic
Friday, April 23, 2004

Tangletown's talent pool is nearly full.

The world-music group is a work-in-progress featuring a formidable array of talent that's almost too large for a club stage.

The group isÉsurprising unsuspecting bar patrons with its taut, muscular blend of African, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, Middle Eastern and American styles.

Despite the group's evolving sound and lineup, Tangletown is a disciplined outfit playing complex arrangements. Shrieve describes the group as a reaction to the free-wheeling jam scene. "The sound is danceable, joyful, with a contemporary edge to it.