#104 Jon Hazilla- Drummer and Faculty at Berklee College of Music
It is Christmas and we are still putting out episodes. Thank you for listening to this podcast, we appreciate you and your support more than you know!
This week’s guest is Jon Hazilla.
We have a special guest sitting in with us in the vocalist Jeremy Bosch. You can check out his new single here:
For the giving season, we have some people/organizations that you can reach out to. For the music charities:
Musicares, Jazz Foundation of America, Music Relief, and nine other organizations.
For non music related charities, Puerto Rico still needs help, Flint Michigan still needs clean water, helps separated and detained families as well as unaccompanied minors, The Salvation Army, Toys for Tots, The Red Cross or even any local group that may need help from a public school music program to a community shelter.
Gig alerts for this week, friend of the show Anthony Almonte and Jeremy Bosch are playing with the Carlos Henriquez Nonet at Dizzy’s Club in NYC. Also, the Jazz Congress is coming up in early January. When you go to register, enter promo code: ASCAP in the field on the upper right-hand corner for your 15% discount. Merry Christmas!
The iconic recording this week is Whitney Houston’s version of “Joy to the World” It is performed by Whitney, the Georgia Mass Choir and others for the Preacher’s Wife Soundtrack.
Added bonus, is the “Music Theory Song” also known as “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” (aka The Christmas Song).
New product alert. The LP Americana 3 Zone Box Kit is perfect for percussionists or drummers needing a smaller set up or even a more "acoustic” drumset.
You can use implements like the Cajon Brushes or even Bru-llets.
Music News for this week:
Find out what streaming services are actually paying artists.
Music documentaries to binge watch while you’re home for the holidays! Travis Scott was close to playing the upcoming Super Bowl with Maroon 5, but Jay-Z has tried to talk him out of it.
Jon practices Zazen meditaion, Chado, Sumi-e brush painting, & Kyudo archery.
One of the books Jon has written is called: “Rhythmic Reflections on Creative Teaching”. He just completed the manuscript to his newest book, “Music as Therapy with Percussion, Creativity and Spirituality”.
Jon, originally hailing from Binghamton “the Bing” NY and studying with Tony Monforte. While considering joining the Peace Corps, Tony introduced Jon to the Rudimental Ritual, written by Alan Dawson (who Jon studied with at Northeastern). You can get in more depth into the rudiment ritual by checking out THE DRUMMER’S COMPLETE VOCABULARY BOOK written by John Ramsay.
Jon studied brushes with Mel Brown, who studied with Philly Joe Jones. Jon has a copy of the Philly Joe Jones Brush book, “Brush Artistry” on his shelf and still uses it to this day.
Jon also got to take a lesson with another drummer who is known for his brush work, Jeff Hamilton. Damon and Jon also mention the great Clayton Cameron as well as some of the history of the brush. The clip Damon brings up from the movie “Ray” is when he gets to Seattle and before he “auditions”, a dancer is backed up by a drummer with brushes.
Jon brings up the great Jaki Byard doing a tribute to Jimmy Slyde.
Some of the impactful music (and the drummers that played it) for Jon are: Ringo Starr in the Beatles, Jimmy Cobb with Miles Davis, & Ginger Baker in Cream. However, the one who really floored Jon was David Garabaldi from Tower of Power. This is the rudiment the INVERTED PARADIDDLE.
Shoutout to John Riley for helping Jon Hazilla get oriented in NYC and also making the connection for him to Joe Morello.
Here’s a little blog post about the psychology of list making and crossing things off.
After Jon shows Damon the serenity rock he carries around in his pocket, Damon mentions THIS CLIP from the Lion King about learning from the past.
If you are interested in becoming more spiritual, you can take the advice of Jon (starting around 57.25 in the episode) or check out THIS BLOG POST (or THIS ONE TOO) for other ideas.
Damon mentions that in older times, people used to sleep in two increments.
Jon uses Grover Pro Percussion (thanks Neil for instigating the interview), Regal Tip Sticks, Remo Drumheads, and has been using V-Classic Cymbals of late.
You can contact Jon at Berklee via his office phone (617-747-8213) or email address: jhazilla@berklee.edu
