Series 103 Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith-RON PETRIDES,David Schnitter

This Series 103 of Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith's Master performances are a documentation of 1 of over 1,000 vimeos that this MASTER DRUMMER/EDUCATOR has recorded.

This is "THE TRUTH BE TOLD, BETTER THAN HOLLYWOOD" Series # 103 PART 1 OF THE MASTER SESSIONS OF MARVIN BU GA LU SMITH

The evening was very special as the ALLSTAR LINE-UP OF PLAYERS were so intense. Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith always has surprises and NOTHING IS REHEARSED, EVERYTHING IS IN THE SPLIT MOMENT, THE BLINK OF AN EYE, THE CONTINUOUS CHANGES AND COLORFUL,EMOTIONAL SOUND CONVERSATIONS THAT TAKE PLACE BETWEEN EACH PLAYER. THE ONLY THING LEFT OUT OF THIS SESSION ARE EGOS. MARVIN ALWAYS TEACHES THE STUDENTS TO LEAVE THEM AT THE FRONT DOOR. THE MASTER PLAYERS THAT ARE GATHERED HERE TONIGHT GREW UP WITH THOSE TEACHINGS AS DID MARVIN. The session starts out with Master Piero Borri playing drums and MASTER David Schnitter is on Tenor Sax with MASTER DR. RON PETRIDES ON GUITAR and MASTER LEW SCOTT ON BASS. The first song swings hard as David Schnitter plays the head and expresses himself beautifully, flowing and building up excitement playing harder than ever. I think Schnitter's background with Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers gave Dave such a strong foundation early in his career, now he has evolved into such a MAJOR PLAYER and is tremendous demand by his peers because of his individually developed way of communicating the most intense sounds to anybody that listens to him. Dave has a special gift of making that TENOR SAX SOUND LIKE A HUMAN VOICE, HIS OWN VOICE. Dave is one of my all time favorites and has earned the LEGENDARY TITLE OF MASTER IN MY BOOK. Just listen to the first 6 minutes of the first tune and see how he builds and builds and builds such "GOOSE BUMP EXCITEMENT." His beautiful tone is so rich and full of feeling, screaming out with JOY and HAPPINESS and also expressing some great balance between TRADITION and EXPERIMENTATION within the moment that exists between the SPLIT SECOND SILENCE OF SPACE NOTE AFTER NOTE. The music swings on that horn as he also has the drummer in mind beat after beat. When Dave is done with his conversation after 6 minutes of such colorful, harmonic sound, Master Ron Petrides answers those expressions with his idea of JOY. Ron starts building on what he heard coming from Dave and now the music continues down the path of HARD, SWINGING ADVENTURES AS MANY AVENUES ARE EXPLORED. Ron is continuosly resolving his statements and making it easy for each player to respond and keep everything on the move swinging harder and harder than before. Ron's sound is so unique on that guitar and his phrasing is so easy to understand. He always tries to keep the listener in mind because he has such an interesting story to tell and he uses that guitar to move your emotions in his direction. His sound and terrific CHOPS get your attention right away and you can't wait for the NEXT PHRASE and GROUPINGS OF IDEAS TO GO DOWN. In the meantime, Master Piero Borri interacts, comping beautifully on the drums and he has learned so much from MASTER MARVIN BU GA LU SMITH about playing "IN THE MOMENT, FLOWING AND ADAPTING TO CHANGE THAT Pierro is considered to be in great demand by his peers just like Master David Schnitter and MASTER DR. RON PETRIDES. Yes,Yes, Yes, Master Lew Scott solos beautifully like a LION IN THE WIND. He is so powerful and gentle at the same time. His pedal tones are always anchored and the chords that Ron lays down are beatifully backed by Lew's BASS TONES. Lew Scott is an in demand bass player because he is USER FRIENDLY. He is always a joy to swing with and he opens the door for new ideas to be easily expressed. I enjoyed the 12 bar exchanges in this piece of music and the wide open space that existed for everyone to breath through. Because the entire session had NATURAL BREATH and great excitement building throughout the evening IT WAS NO WONDER THAT BY THE TIME THE BAND WAS WARMED UP FOR BU GA LU BY THE SECONG SONG, Master Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith showed everybody HIS MASTERFUL TOUCH AND SOUND SO UNIQUE TO HIM. Marvin gets a tone out of those drums that I've NEVER HEARD ANYONE ELSE GET. He is so smooth, gentle but also STRONG WITH FORCE WHEN FELT AND NEEDED. He changes like the wind and sounds like the wind with fire underneath it. He also is constantly changing mood when necessary. Marvin is one of the MOST CREATIVE and EXPRESSIVE DRUMMERS IN THE WORLD. HE ALSO TEACHES STUDENTS TO DEVELOP THEIR OWN UNIQUE SOUND AND CREATE FROM THEIR OWN IDEAS AND TO EXPOUND AND PUSH FORWARD WITH THINKING. HE TEACHES BALANCE, LOVE AND PEACE THROUGH ACTIONS OF COMPASSION. The music tonight represents in my mind, the FIGURE 8. If you draw a line on the horizon you see all the branches of the TREE ABOVE THE SURFACE but all THE ROOTS OF THE TREE THAT YOU DON'T SEE ARE STILL PRESENT and THEY ARE in the ground moving in the opposite direction and are as long as many of the branches causing BALANCE and keeping the TREE UPRIGHT. Yeah, Balance is always there in this music because the players are balanced and able to express that balance effortlessly because THEY ARE ALL MASTERS OF LIFE, TELLING THEIR STORY TO EACH OTHER WITH BEAUTIFUL SOUND VIBRATIONS. They told a wonderful story tonight and that story is documented here forever on this SERIES 103, one of over 1,000 performance teaching videos of Master Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith. Marvin was written about in the Feb. 2011 issue of Modern Drummer Magazine and has been interviewed all over the world. Marvin has performed with all the MASTERS OF MUSIC and the proof is in the video of his drum students and DRUM CREW like Andrew Greeney, Jan Jurgielewicz, Fitzgerald Sam, Dougie Bueno and so many others that are now "ON THE SCENE". Piero Borri is one of Marvin's TOP STUDENTS. Piero came to the USA to visit Master Marvin and do The International Drum Workshop of the earlier Series 102 that was recorded a week ago and can also be viewed here on vimeo. I loved listening to this music and am honored to be called upon to write about it.
LOVE ALWAYS and ALWAYS LOVE,
HABIB