11/01/06

CHINA EXPERIMENTS WITH ROCK N ROLL WITH LIBERTY

Shanghai MESSE, the third biggest musical instrument trade show on the planet started on 18 Oct, 2006. K.H.S. MAPEX invited one of the most important Rock and Roll drummers, Liberty Devitto, to highlight the K.H.S spirit of “spreading the joy and fun of playing music around the world.”

Liberty is the drummer for Billy Joel whose unforgettable songs include Uptown Girl, Honestly, Running on Ice, Just The Way You Are, New York State of Mind and many more. To win the Grammy song of the year and album of the year you need the input of a creative drummer in the band. Like Ringo to the Beatles. The contribution of Liberty to the development of Rock and Roll drumming can not be ignored.

On 17 Oct, Liberty landed at the Shanghai Puton International Airport. This is the first time he visited China and he was totally impressed by the modern and advanced airport. Due to the late arrival time of the flight there were no other plans for that night, except for letting him get a good rest in the hotel and prepare for the upcoming experience of 10 days.

Liberty’s trip to China included participation in the following: Shanghai MESSE, Shanghai Drum Festival (featuring Kenny Anroff, Budy and Liberty) and 2 additional clinics in Kunming (Yunnam Province, Southwest China) and Harbin (Heylongchang Province, Northeast China).

At each performance Liberty explained how important it is that a drummer shouldn’t see himself as just a drummer but as a band member. The responsibility of a drummer is not to put all the cool pattern and beats he knows into the song or to put as many fills as possible in the pattern. The drummer shouldn't see himself as an athlete of extreme game. Chop and speed are just half of what professional drummer needs. Knowing how to play soft and slow is another half part that completes a professional drummer. The responsibility of the drummer is to make the song come alive. All the expression from drumming must depend on the feel of the song and the lyrics.

Liberty demonstrated several songs to show how he played the drums to create the feel of that song. With “Running On Ice” he created the tenseness of how difficult it is to run on ice. With Fishing Boat, he imitated the sound of a diesel engine fishing boat and the dangerous feeling of the boat navigating against the big waves of the Atlantic Ocean. In Honestly, he vividly showed the difficulty of looking for a person that will always be honest to you and who you can totally trust.

In Kunming, the Yunam Art Institute served as the venue, just like last year when Walfredo Reyes visited. Liberty gave special thanks to Mr. Cheng, director of Modern Music School, for his endeavors to bring all different styles of music to his student. When Liberty began learning drums, Jazz was the only style taught at drum schools so he learned by himself using different albums as his text books.

Liberty constantly mentioned that drummers must listen to all different kind of music because the only way to make yourself a professional drummer is to learn all different kinds of rhythm. The only way to stand out from all Rock drummers, Jazz drummers and R & B drummers is to listen to all different kinds of music and incorporate them into your own style. Liberty has played with Billy Joel for 30 years and Billy writes in many different styles. Liberty thinks that if he never listened to and learned about  the many kinds of music, there is no way that he could work with Joel for 30 years.

In Kunming the clinic attracted more than 600 people who enjoyed the music and ambience. The drum set that Liberty played on was pre-sold at Shanghai MESSE. All MAPEX drum sets in the booth were all sold out after t Liberty’s show there. The buyer of the set that Liberty played was bought by a 10 year old boy. He came up stage played on his drum set and had a photo with Liberty. During the Q&A section, a 6 year old boy asked Liberty how to practice if you don’t have a drum set. Liberty said to just go to your mom’s kitchen and hit on pots and sooner or later your mom will bought you a drum set. More than 700 people attended Liberty’s clinic in Harbin.

Liberty will be going to Canada for the Montreal Drum Festival where he will be play a duet with Dom Famularo. For more information, click here.