Check out music from Steven Habib

Series 38 Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith vimeo.com/bugalusmith

Greg Glassman brings a special feeling to the bandstand of gentle,deep love of the ART FORM of Jazz. In listening to the first piece I was captured by the gentle flow of the groove that Marvin and Malcom laid down. Greg's musical statements reached way down into the foundation of early BOP and I was taken back to my younger years when I roamed the streets of Midtown NY and UPTOWN Harlem as a kid. I listened to this music and it brought back beautiful childhood memories and dreams become reality.
Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith, THE BABA and THE MASTER has shown his talents as a teacher through all if the documentation here on cuts 5 through 9. Each students is presented and has an opportunity of being captured in a LIVE setting like the old days of early JAZZ in NYC. Nobody else in the world is teaching the way Baba Master Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith is doing it because NOBODY IN THE WORLD IS MARVIN and NOBODY SWINGING and TEARS IT UP LIKE MARVIN and NOBODY IN THE WORLD CAN COMMUNICATE THIS INNER FEELING THAT HE HAS AND HELP THE STUDENT TO DEVELOP THEIR OWN UNIQUE,INDIVIDUAL SOUND FROM THEIR OWN,INDIVIDUAL PERSONALITY. Marvin simply wants the students to learn how to have fun and give others joy through their musical gifts. Some students learn faster than others but TIME is truly THE MASTER and experience is what counts. Students learn how to work hard and not take short cuts. It took Marvin 60 years on earth to learn about playing because he always is playing his life's experience and tells students to play their own experience. We're always learning and always adding expression or vocabulary to our drumming, musical words. Yeah, HATS OFF TO BABA MASTER MARVIN BU GA LU SMITH as all the students sound better than ever. I know how much work and how much sacrifice Marvin has done to reach the point where jazzdrumlessons.com Marvin's school and all the other projects he has created have become global and available to the public now while this LEGEND is still with us. His record label BUMAR will be making available almost 600 music video examples of his teaching approach that exposes students directly to THE MASTERS on the bandstand each week. Teaching by DIRECT EXAMPLE and EXPOSURE IS THE TCKET TO MASTERFUL PLAYING. NO BULLSHITTIN! "GO TO THE VIDEO TAPE" as Werner Wolfe always said so here they are this week SERIES 38 with the great Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith, Master Malcom Cecil and Master Greg Glassman with student documented proof.
ENJOY THIS WONDERFUL TEACHING EXAMPLE BY ONE OF THE WORLD'S MOST GIFTED and EFFECTIVE DRUM TEACHERS. I THINK HE'S THE BEST!

LOVE ALWAYS and ALWAYS LOVE,
Steve Habib

Jazz Community: The Melting Pot Drum Group Back In The Studio — By The Melting Pot Drum Group The Melting Pot Drum Group — JazzTimes

Jazz Community: The Melting Pot Drum Group Back In The Studio — By The Melting Pot Drum Group The Melting Pot Drum Group — JazzTimes

Steve Habib Interviews Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith

Steve Habib Interviews Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith

Student Performance 3/2/10 Series 27 Terrace

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to make mention of the improvements I'm seeing in the following students of Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith and the jazzdrumlessons.com school that Marv is heading up.

Andrew Greeney appears to be on THE TOP of all the students mainly because he has paid attention to all of Marvin's teachings and has become MOST SERVING of others and less serving of SELF.
Kesai Riddick has also become less serving of self but continues to depend on memorized licks and rudiments in his playing. He has to forget technique and lose that before he can always enter into THE ZONE like Andrew has done.
Dougie Bueno has entered into the zone but occasionally falls away from it. He has started to swing a little harder and has become very good at listening to what is going on around him and contributing to the needs of the overall music supporting the main drum line and groove.
Fitz Sam has started to come out of a protective shell and has asserted himself more. His playing sounds like more confidence is developing.
Jan J. has studied more about structure and is starting to become more familiar with the songs that he is playing on. He also appears more relaxed and confient in his playing.
I want everyone to know that my critic will always be centered in TRUTH with FLOW as actuality and TIME AS MASTER. If TIME IS NOT HONORED, THERE'S NOTHING!

LOVE,
HABIB

Steve Habib: Marvin Bu Ga Lu Concert 3/2/10 Series 27 #'s 1,2,3,4

Steve Habib: Marvin Bu Ga Lu Concert 3/2/10 Series 27 #'s 1,2,3,4

Marvin Bu Ga Lu Concert 3/2/10 Series 27 #'s 1,2,3,4

March 2nd at The Terrace in Newburgh,NY Truth Be Told,"BETTER THAN HOLLYWOOD" Series 27, #'s 1,2,3 and 4

LOVE IS ALL AROUND US. IT IS EVERYWHERE. YOU HAVE IT,I HAVE IT. LOVE IS WAITING INSIDE ALL OF US READY TO BE RELEASED AND ENJOYED.
WHY WAIT! WAIT FOR WHAT! LAUGH,ENJOY AND BE HAPPY, GIVE IT AWAY. IT'S EASY TO BE SAD BUT WHY GO THERE AND FEED ANGER. WHY NOT LOVE, AND LOVE ALWAYS, AND IT'S FREE. GIVE IT AWAY. THIS CONCERT SHOWS HOW EASY IT IS TO GIVE LOVE AWAY BECAUSE THESE THREE PLAYERS HAVE COMPASSION, A DEEP CONCERN FOR EACH OTHER AND ALL THE PEOPLE AROUND THEM.

Just listen to the FLOW and the GLIDE. See the faces on the players. At times you can see the joy and laughter that's present inside each musician. All of them are PLAYING IN THE MOMENT, IN THE BREATH FROM ONE HEART BEAT TO THE NEXT. THEY ARE PLAYING LIFE AS IT'S HAPPENING AND THEY'RE SHARING AND DOING IT IN A COMPASSIONATE WAY WITHOUT SELF AND FREE OF EGO! MARVIN BU GA LU SMITH has a unique way of extracting the beauty of each individual and making them feel LOVED and NEEDED in the song. Marvin has a PRESENCE ABOUT HIM that when he enters a room, you can feel his genuineness and his compassion for everyone around him and his concern about all the people in the world. He plays the music to reach THE HUNGRY and THE SICK. He plays the music to bring joy to those that might not have it. He plays the music for FREEDOM. He plays the music to take people's minds off the loss of loved ones. He plays the music and speaks through the music without using words. Marvin has a SPARK that ignites the SPIRIT in everyone around him whether they're a musician or not. I'm only speaking from TRUTH here. Many players will tell you that they are playing on a whole higher level when performing with him. Marvin IS A WORLD CLASS MUSIC MASTER. These four tracks speak for themselves. William Tatge has not played with Marvin in over a year and has come together with Marv and Mark Hagan as if they play everyday as a band. The proof is here and it's "ACTUAL PROOF" of how THE SPIRIT TAKES OVER the mind and points the emotions toward goodness.

LOVE IS THE ANSWER TO EVERYTHING and NOTHING CAN REPLACE IT. LOVE IS TO BE GIVEN AWAY AND COMPASSION IS THAT RAINBOW OF COLORS THAT STARTS WITHIN A PERSON'S HEART. MUSIC IS THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE. I SPEAK TO PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD AND WHEN I POST MUSIC ON FACEBOOK OR ANYWHERE ELSE, IT BECOMES VOLUMES OF WORDS THROUGH A FEW SIMPLE SIMPLE BARS OF SOUND VIBRATIONS REFELECTING WHAT'S INSIDE. IT FORMS NEW,JOYFUL EMOTIONS AND EXPRESSIONS OF PEACE. LET'S SEND MUSIC EVERYWHERE. NO EXCEPTIONS. MUSIC IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE THE PEACEMAKER OF SOCIETY. IT CUTS THROUGH TO TRUTH JUST LIKE "BREAKING BREAD" TOGETHER AS A FAMILY AT A DINNER TABLE.

William Tatge is a special piano player who projects ULTIMATE JOY through the multitude of colors that he forms on those piano keys. In addition to the clusters of colors, he is also swinging as hard as one can swing with Mark Hagan's deep,deep hard hittin bass walking and Marvin's angelic,sensitive and DEEP POCKET GROOVES.
All three of these players become ONE. The first expression of each BAR OF MUSIC is accented as a unit or life-force in sync with COMPASSION and LOVE for all people everywhere. They are all TRUE PEACE-MAKERS and have set another example,documented once again under Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith's "TRUTH BE TOLD,BETTER THAN HOLLYWOOD" SERIES 27 CONCERT. COMPASSIONATE SOUND which can also be called CARING SOUND
IS WHAT WE TRULY HAVE HERE. CARING,LOVING,JOYFUL,PEACEFUL,GIVING,LOOKING FOR NOTHING IN RETURN,EGOLESS,TRUTHFUL MUSIC!
Simply listen carefully to all tracks but the spontaneity of the fourth track is amazing as breath between notes, especially on Marvin's Drum Solo, rules. Mark Hagan starts the tune out with a great solo using his fingers and during the tune, takes a wonderful solo using the bow. William Tatge is smiling and laughing and making the most joyous expressions on his face during this particular track. What a great group of players here. This was a unique and vibrant evening of playing!
Comments about THE STUDENT PLAYERS WILL BE POSTED AFTER I'VE HAD A CHANCE TO STUDY THOSE TRACKS. I WILL TALK ABOUT EACH STUDENT ON THEIR INDIVIDUAL SONGS.

LOVINGLY,
HABIB

BACKGROUND OF HABIB

Grew up as a kid in NYC. Lived as a teenager with Ruth Ellington,Steve and Michael James,Reggie Golson and with Elvin Ray Jones and his wife at the time, Shirley "DeFranco" Jones whose brother was from Elmont Queens where I grew up as a child. On Long Island, I also lived near Huntington where John Coltrane raised his family in Dix Hills and is buried in Huntington on route 110 in Pinelawn Cemetary. After spending years going to VanGelder's Studio in Englewood Cliffs, I met Lee Chester Marcus and Marvin Louis Smith,Buster Smith and so many others. Elvin was my first major influence on the drums and McCoy Tyner and Walter Bishop, Jr. on the piano. Jimmy Garrison was my mentor on bass and so the story goes that after being exposed to all these things and having the music planted inside of me, MARVIN BU GA LU SMITH, my friend since those early days, and I, started to go to FOCUS 2 on 73rd St. off Amsterdam Ave. in NYC and every Monday, we played with Walter Bishop Jr. Rodney Jones, George Coleman, Haasan Dawkins, Buster Williams,Herbie Hancock, Juan Quinones,Evelyn Blakey,Art Blakey's son young Art Jr. and so many others too numerous to mention. There are so many stories. Years ago, I played with Walter Booker Jr. and his wife Bertha Hope. Booker passed away several years ago and I miss him so much. He was also a major influence on my drumming and helped me channel my efforts into combining drumset and hand drums into one idea along with developing some compositions harmonically for drum only groups. One of my other influences was Bernard "Pretty" Purdie who I performed with on many occasions in his group and made a video with him,Mike Torrsone and Sal Giorgiani. I was a member of The Hugh Brodie Cosmic Ensemble and recorded on several of His CD's and can be seen in press releases and articles at hughbrodie.com and many other googled pages using my name,Hugh Brodie's name, African Drum Circle names and generally searching Jazz Drum Sites. Most recently after many years of recording and not releasing The Melting Pot Drum Group, I,along with Tom DeSteno and Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith, are entertaining offers from some of the major Jazz Festivals to perform along with some of the original members of Melting Pot and some new,younger players that we have all been an influence on. The experience has been amazing and rewarding spiritually. I travel much and do record often. I can't listen to my own music for at least 6 months to a year because I can't stand the way I sound compared to others. I know I am extremely self critical but I also have learned to eliminate my ego so my spirit doesn't suffer and block my creativity and flow. This was a lesson I learned from Elvin Ray Jones and most recently from a Nigerian drummer friend of mine, Emeka Inganou. The world is in terrible need of peace and it's up to all creative artists to spread the love and joy they have through MUSIC,THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE.
Steve is a long time drummer/percussionist who, as a child was raised in Jazz. He attended school with Stephen Daniel James,Duke Ellington's newphew and Ruth Ellington's son along with Reggie Golson, Benny Golson's son. Steve was friends with Elvin Jones since Elvin's first marriage to Jonny DeFrancos sister Shirley who also lived on Long Island in Elmont. During the 1960's, Steve attended practically all John Coltrane's sessions at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ produced by Bob Thiell of ABC Impulse. Many of those sessions were tremendous learning experiences for Steve as the music penetrated his soul deeply, never to be forgotten, always honoring John,Jimmy Garrison, McCoy and Elvin for their "Big Brother" love for Reggie Golson, Steve and Steve James. Today Steve has performed with and recorded on Hugh Brodie Cosmic Ensemble and played concerts with Bernard Purdie, Joshua Breakstone and so many other's too numerous to mention here. In his early 20's, he became close friends with Marvin BU GA LU Smith and Kevin Jones as he was living in The Englewood, NJ area. He is currently listed in All About Jazz and has a membership on Facebook.
The Melting Pot Drum GroupDrummers create a harmonic drum group with Timpani Bass Player
This group started out accidently becoming a drum group. During 1992 in June,Reggie Workman, Steve Habib and Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith were talking about a performance at Visiones in NYC. The result was Habib and Smith co produced the session and it was recorded by Jon Rosenberg and Thomas Tedesco. CeCil McBee was the bass player along with Kirk Lightsey on piano,Kevin Lager,trumpet,Jim Finn soprano/tenor and Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith on drums. Both Habib and Smith arranged all the music and some original work Habiba by Kirk Lightsey and The Peacemaker by Cecil McBee were also part of the original recordings of the 5 day festival. Marvin's original name for the group was The Experience but it evolved into Melting Pot Drum Group as everyone started to motivate us to form an all drum group that could play songs without other instruments. Thomas DeSteno and Tom Tedesco took an interest in the concept and recordings were made with everyone from Hugh Brodie on soprano/tenor and Steve Cohen on piano along with Kevin Jones and many others all over a period of time from the start of The War during 2001 right up to the present time. The group did perform in Montclair's Luna Space with Thomas DeSteno,Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith,Steve Habib and Tom Tedesco and was very well received by a large audience. Little has been done to promote the group and their concept and most of the players have been involved with other projects as hard times have forced everyone to do whatever they had to do to survive. The group is ready to go now. An example of the group's instrumentation protocol is Habib being the bass player,walking and doing what a regular bass player would do but Habib uses Timpani and floor tom toms as a bass player. The group sounds like it has a conventional bass player. Today, Melting Pot Drum Group is an entity that many bands have wanted to add to their trios,quartets,quintets or larger groups,having an entire self contained drum unit that adds multi dimension to the drum line as opposed to having only one drummer to enhance swing. The group will be performing at its first major Jazz Festival event in the fall of 2010. More will be said about this in the next few months.

Marvin Bu Ga Lu Concert 2/23/10 Series 26 #'s 1,2,3,4

February 23rd,2010 Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith Series 26 songs 1,2,3,4 The Truth Be Told, "Better than Hollywood". Comments by Mr. STEVE HABIB also note Mr. Steve Habib on: stevehabib.blogspot.com

Beneath the Multitudinous and even conflicting desires of men we can see the one desire which gives UNITY and MEANING,FORCE AND DECISION to all human desires. All men seek what they seek for one reason: THEY THINK IT WILL SATISFY THEM. They believe that the accomplishment of their desires will make them happy. We all know that happiness is the goal of all our activity, it is FREE FLOWING and we deliberately want others to feel our joy but some folks are SELFISH and when that SELF ISH enters it means ONLY ABOUT SELF, even when a musician trys to copy the good of another musician, he endangers himself by being so influenced because of EGO that he risks never learning enough about his own life to be able to communicate that which is truly him to others both musicians that he performs with and the listeners that never get to see the real him. A good example is when a musician practices to learn technique but falls into the TRAP of wanting to become exactly like an ELVIN RAY JONES, ART BLAKEY or MARVIN BU GA LU SMITH. When a person finds out that the inner power of each of those masters lie in the knowledge they have within themselves and who they are and how UNIQUE they are, then and only then can the player communicate that individualism that is the gift given to them. Losing the ego and becoming a servant to both the other musicians and the listener who is feeling all of the artist's emotions, becomes TRUE UNITY,TRUE HAPPINESS AND TRUE SATISFACTION. We have then learned to BE A GIVER and GIVE WITH COMPASSION. THAT IS WHAT IS BEING DONE HERE TONIGHT in Marvin's concert through these four songs. It is documented and is available for all to study including those who performed.

Tonight I have been absolutely AMAZED at the gifts and talent of the young,25 year old Sax Player Mr. BEN NEWSOME. I see a sensitive man serving all his brother musicians and the listeners and doing it with beautiful tones of INNER EXPRESSIONS so easy to relate to as he lays down harmonics in the simplest most easy to understand way and takes each one of us on a journey,adding to the basic simplicity, colors and more colors and more colors and even more colors of expression, to the HEIGHTS OF PASSION WITHIN HIMSELF then GIVING THIS JOY TO ALL. He is one of those SPECIAL MUSICIANS THAT COME ALONG WITHIN ONE GENERATION. HE IS LIKE A YOUNG JOHN COLTRANE OR "PREZ" or SONNY STITT or WAYNE SHORTER OR DEXTER GORDON or JONNY GRIFFIN or GEORGE COLEMAN or ON and ON. I can say that because John Coltrand,George Coleman and many many others were my early on friends. I grew up on Long Island and went to John Coltrane's Dix Hills, Huntington home many,many times. I tell you now, you will be hearing much about this young talent, BEN NEWSOME because I will personally see to it that everyone becomes knowledgeable about him just the way I let everyone know about my brother Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith.
Along with Marvin tonight, is Mark Hagan, and all of you know how highly I regard Mark Hagan as one of THE PREMIER BASSISTS ON THE SCENE. Mark swings so powerfully but also in the most gentle way. When he takes a solo, he NEVER LOSES THE LISTENER as he is considerate and selfless,never putting himself ahead of anyone else. His bowing is so beautiful and his overall bass playing puts him up on top in my opinion as one of the finest bass players today.
Chris Pasin is a wonderful trumpet player and has been at the session many many times before. He has such a smooth tone.
Pay attention tonight on song #2 and one of my favorite songs, #3 Softely As In A Morning Sunrise where Mr. BEN NEWSOME TEARS IT UP or as Marvin says,"BURNS IT UP". Also, song #4, Days of Wine and Roses shows such beautiful bass work with the solo using Mark's Famous Bowing Expressions. Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith has put together, as usual, another concert night of players blending together for UNITY and THE GOOD OF IT ALL, THE TRUTH,THE PEACE and most importantly, LOVE. HE HAS GIVEN IT AWAY WITH COMPASSION and drawn everyone,including myself into the CENTER OF THE BANDSTAND WITH HIS WORLD CLASS AUDIO MIXING and VIDEOGRAPHY which we all know will make BUMAR RECORDS and THE NEW 48 TRACK STUDIO, THE ABSOLUTE,WITHOUT QUESTION, THE BEST THERE IS. That is because Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith's ears are that of a GREAT MUSICIAN. NOBODY CAN ENGINEER OR HAS THE ABILITY TO ENGINEER HIS MUSIC LIKE HIM BECAUSE UNLESS THEY'RE A PLAYER OR PERFORMER, THEY CANNOT ACHIECE THE SAME INTONATION OR LEVEL OF DEPTH. YOU MUST BE A PLAYER TO HAVE THE EARS TO HEAR THE SUBTLE INTRICACIES THAT EXIST IN THE MUSIC . THE SAME HOLDS TRUE FOR A WRITER WHO WRITES ABOUT THE MUSIC. UNLESS A PERSON DOES IT AND IS A PLAYER HIM/HERSELF, HE REALLY DOESN'T KNOW "WHAT'S HAPPENING"! Again, Thank you for allowing me who is ONLY A STUDENT OF LIFE, to comment on the music and the performers.

LOVE ALWAYS,
HABIB

I AM HONORED TO BE PART OF OUR MUSIC HISTORY

I am writing this today, February 23,2010 and letting all of you know how honored I am that so many of you have selected me,a composer,performing artist,drummer,percussionist,student of the art-form, to write about your music. I can hear you everytime I listen to one of your tracks. I only speak TRUTH based on my own experiences with music and being a musician myself, I know I can do so much more for your music,helping you to communicate it and helping listeners who are not artists, better understand it.

My first project has been one that I've been involved with most of my life, Marvin Bu Ga Lu Smith,his music and his life-force. Marvin and I have been friends for over 40 years. He was a teacher of mine a long,long time ago and we recorded together,played gigs with many,many people together. We as friends, have been through alot and have similar backgrounds. We have enough in common that I became qualified to represent his musical expressions in writing. It's almost like I enter inside his spirit when I'm either playing music with him or writing about what he or others are playing. I guess that's the difference between writing about something you have experienced by doing or you are simply an observer or critic and we don't need that because the person writing MUST understand the inner workings of the music and must be "A DOER"