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Photo Credit: Tom Dube
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New England / February '05
Hello everyone ... HAPPY NEW YEAR ... I hope this finds you all in good health.
As always, I'm grateful to you with the patience to wait for these news pages / up-dates - I'm pleased to say my schedule has been rather full the last few months - including a house move - hence only now getting around to writing this. I'll start off with a look over my shoulder ...
The second half of '04 was taken up with enjoyable live dates, recording sessions & some co-production work. The further-afield live dates included a MOST enjoyable Richard Thompson tour - short (just under a month) but very sweet. It was the first time in eight years the line-up of Richard, Danny Thompson on upright, Pete Zorn on everything-else-under-the-sun & yours truly had got together (with Tom Dube on monitors / Simon Tassano tour-managing & mixing front-of-house) & the genuine joy was very evident. As I remarked after, I hope RT doesn't leave it another eight years before he re-assembles us! I also did some dates with New Orleans pianist Henry Butler ; for those not aware, Henry is akin to Dr.John-meets-McCoy Tyner & he kicks some serious bottom, to paraphrase Basil Fawlty. Other stand-out live work (closer to home here in Boston) included some Dennis Brennan dates & as always, gigs with John Troy's band.
[Co-] production wise, do look for CD releases over the next couple of months from Brian Rolland & - in particular - the new one from Jon Shain " Home Before Long " , co-produced once more with my good friend engineer Tom Dube. Tom & I put in some serious hours on this - we hope you'll agree the end results have paid off. An additional good piece of news - the CD I co-produced with ( artist ) Jared Mason won the Los Angeles Adult Alternative Music awards in November - to hear some tracks & find out more on Jared, go to www.jaredmason.com .
Reminder #1 : I choose not to send out music events to a compiled / regular e-mailing list, but for those interested you can always check my live schedule by clicking onto " gigs " at the side bar on this site ; it's the one thing I nearly always find the time to update on a monthly basis. I prefer not to put my recording schedule on the site - you'll hear of recordings either when they're out or about to be released / escape!
Regarding my studio work (out now* / out soon),do look for - among others - Todd Thibaud, John Jennings* ( I'm not long back from a most enjoyable promotional Washington DC date with John J., Jon Carroll, Kevin Barry & JT Brown ), Kimberly Rew* , Thom Enright, Grey DeLisle ( recorded in LA ), Jennifer Cutting*, MaryAnn Redmond*, Jen Cass, John Troy, (the 2nd) Super Genius - & hopefully / finally [!] Rob Laurens this spring. You can likely find out more on these good folks by " google-ing " them.
One CD release in particular i'd like to bring to your attention is a live concert by the Dave Mattacks Trio - the first under my own name. This will probably be a summer release ( I'll be reminding you nearer the time ) & was recorded in Marblehead, Mass' @ the Arts Centre. It's a CD of jazz standards & features Tim Ray ( Piano) & Marty Ballou ( Upright Bass ) ; I'm very proud of this trio & the recording & I'll be telling you more upon release.
Reminder #2 ; I continue to enjoy communicating with drummers on music & equipment & if your leaning is toward the latter, check out the " Tech' Notes " side bar. All aspects of the instrument continue to interest me ( & i hope I've not reached platinum " drum nerd-dom " status quite yet ) but as keen as I am, I always remind myself " it's the indian, not the arrow ". You can reach me through this site - though please do be patient for a reply.
Looking forward, I'm pleased to let you know that once more I'll be joining " Feast of Fiddles " for their UK tour. Dates run March 29th through to April 10th & for the first time in ( can it be? ) twelve years, we'll be [1] playing some Northern dates & [2] doing a London gig. For the line-up & concert details : www.feastoffiddles.com .
NB for UK drummers : before returning to Boston & after the final FOF date, I'm doing a low-key drum clinic/master class just outside Brighton,Sussex on Monday, April 11th . If you're hoping for a Portnoy / Lang style demonstration best look elsewhere, but I will be concentrating on drum tuning, talking of my experiences & offering advice for working in the recording studio. If you're south coast based & this sounds appealing, contact my friend Phil Solomon [ in the UK ] on 01273-608 916 for the details.
Finally, thank you again for your interest & patience ... carry on watching this space !
Dave Mattacks
Coda - RIP Elvin Jones, Bill Eyden.