Steve Smith Drum Legacy - Standing on the Shoulders of Giants DOUBLE DVD + CD

Featuring brilliant performances and insightful commentary by one of today's most accomplished and acclaimed drum artists, Steve Smith's Drum Legacy: Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants provides an unprecedented perspective on the history of jazz drumming and much, much more. By combining Smith's exceptional drumming and musicianship with his in-depth analysis of major innovations made by jazz drumming giants Art Blakey, Philly Joe Jones, Max Roach, Elvin Jones and Tony Williams, this extremely educational, double-DVD will give players of all styles a greater awareness and deeper understanding of jazz drumming as well as a sense of its impact on many forms of popular music over the past 50-plus years.

"A fundamental part of becoming a musician is learning to assimilate the vocabulary, concepts, and techniques of past generations in order to understand how the musical language of today evolved," explains Smith. "This is especially true for drummers. The pioneers of modern drumming were clearly influenced by the players that came before them and were only then able to build on those foundations to create their own new ideas, sounds and techniques."

"For example, players like Earl Palmer, Carmine Appice, Charlie Watts, Ginger Baker, Mitch Mitchell, Bernard Purdie, John Bonham, Clyde Stubblefield, 'Zigaboo' Modeliste, etc.- the prime innovators of rock and funk drumming in the 1950's and 60's- came from jazz backgrounds and developed those new styles out of the jazz concepts and 'drumming vocabulary' that existed at that time."

"We didn't just get here in the last 5 years or the last 10 years," Smith continues. "It's been a long process, a long development. When you are informed of where we come from you'll have a better perspective of where we are today and how we got this point. As we move into the future, it's important to have an understanding of how we got here and where we can go."

The five-hour Drum Legacy program features the complete live performance of Steve Smith's Jazz Legacy group from the 2006 Modern Drummer Festival (including two previously unreleased compositions) plus additional material recorded exclusively for this project. The music on the DVD are songs originally associated with jazz drumming legends Art Blakey ("A Night in Tunisia"), Elvin Jones ("Three Card Molly"), Philly Joe Jones ("Two Bass Hit"), Buddy Rich ("Moments Notice"), Joe Dukes ("Soulful Drums") and Tony Williams ("Sister Cheryl"). Two drum solos in tribute to Max Roach ("Drums Unlimited" and "For Big Sid") plus two original solo compositions are also included. Following each performance Smith, aided by master jazz drummer, educator and author John Riley, offers thorough discussions and demonstrations of the unique style and significant contributions of each artist.

This special-edition three-disc package contains a wealth of bonus footage and also includes:

• A 40-page printed booklet containing written examples of Steve's demonstrations in the DVD along with text, written by Steve, further explaining the examples.
• A 47-page printable eBook featuring bios, viewing and listening guide of the influential jazz drummers discussed in the program, written by respected author/drummer Mark Griffith. The eBook also includes printable PDF versions of the written examples and text contained in the printed booklet, as described above.
• A 60 minute new "Live On Tour" Jazz Legacy audio CD featuring Steve Smith (drums), Walt Weiskopf (tenor sax), Andy Fusco (alto sax), Mark Soskin (piano) and Baron Browne (bass). The songs included on the CD are: Two Bass Hit, Sister Cheryl, Insubordination, For Steve (Marcus), The Peacocks, Inception, Ascendant, A Night In Tunisia, and Moanin.'