#197 Lenny Castro- Touring and Studio Percussion Legend!
This week’s guest is Lenny Castro. Born in N.Y.C., N.Y on Sept. 19th. 1956 Son of musician, Hector L. Castro, who was pianist and Musical Director for Johnny Pacheco and Celia Cruz as well as having his own group, Conjunto Candela. His first conga and drum set were given to him by his stepfather, George Cordero. Lenny went to the same high school his father attended, Fiorello LaGuardia High School of Music and Art. Lenny also attended Mannes College Of Music, Third Street Music School, All-Boro Band and Orchestra, All High School Band and Orchestra as well as playing in Salsa bands like Johnny Colon, Eddie Palmieri and other local NY bands at the age of 14. At age 19 he was discovered by Melissa Manchester working at the Frank Ippolioto’s Pro Drum Shop. Shortly after that Melissa and the band moved to L.A. where he met musicians like Steve Lukather, David Garfield, Carlos Vega, as well as The Porcaro Family, Chuck Delmonico, and many other. Soon becoming a part of the L.A. scene himself. He Started to work for many producers in L.A. like Richard Perry, Leon Ware, John Stronach, Vini Poncia, James Newton Howard, Bill Schnee, Tommy Lipuma, Russ Tittleman and Lenny Worenker, John Stroud and others. He has toured and recorded with countless artists.
R.I.P.
Rest in peace to the great guitar God, Eddie Van Halen.
Of all the things Eddie did with his own band, and played for, don’t forget he played the “Beat It” solo for Michael Jackson.
In one take.
For free!!!
Grammy Nominations
If you are a NARAS voting member, you can start voting for the Grammys. Morgan James has a new album out that Damon played percussion on, and it is nominated in 2 categories. Please take a listen and vote for it, if you so desire.
Gig Alerts
Bonnaroo has been pushed back for a third time, to September 2nd through 5th, 2021. And although the famed music festival is about 11 months out, some are questioning whether the new dates are still too soon. -Article
Educational Spotlight
You still can register for PASIC’s virtual convention this coming November 13th and 14th. There are tons of people to check out in the schedule including friend of the show, Keith Aleo, and soon to be friend of the show, Brian Frasier-Moore.
Product Reviews
Zildjian has come out with the K Sweet Cymbal pack.
Also, (friend of the show) Neil Grover, and his company Grover Pro Percussion, have come out with a free standing set of sleigh bells.
The tambourine Damon mentions is the Bantamweight series.
Iconic Recording
The iconic recording for this week is “Africa” by Toto. The song was recorded in 1981, for their fourth studio album Toto IV, and released as the album's third single on September 30, 1982, through Columbia Records. The song was written by band members David Paich and Jeff Porcaro.
The personnel on the album was:
David Paich – lead and backing vocals, synthesizer, piano
Bobby Kimball – lead and backing vocals
Steve Lukather – electric guitar, backing vocals
Steve Porcaro – synthesizers
David Hungate – bass guitar
Jeff Porcaro – drums, cowbell, gong, additional percussion
Lenny Castro – congas, shakers, additional percussion
Timothy B. Schmit – 12-string acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Joe Porcaro – percussion, marimba
Jim Horn – recorders
The playlist that Damon mentions of Iconic Pop Percussion tracks can be found on Spotify by CLICKING HERE.
Music News
If you’ve ever played on a recording as a hired gun, you are entitled to more than just the check you got for the session. You are guaranteed (up to) 5% of all the performance royalties that recording ever makes. If you haven’t been getting these checks, this is part of the problem I’m going to get to. But even if you have been receiving this money, a good chunk of it has been withheld from you and pocketed. By whom? How did they get away with this thievery? -Article
After years of attempts to achieve balance and fairness in the broadcast television industry, a majority of the house band musicians, members of the American Federation of Musicians, have signed an “Open Letter to the Networks” calling on Disney/ABC Television, NBCUniversal, CBS Entertainment Group, and ViacomCBS to return to the bargaining table to create true pay parity for the musicians and dismantle the structural racism that still runs rampant in the television industry. -Article
Metallica has donated $250,000 to support wildfire relief across three West Coast states through their All Within My Hands charity. They handled the donations, which will fund five organizations spread across three states. Those organizations include:
California Community Foundation’s Wildfire Relief Fund
Oregon Community Foundation’s Wildfire Relief and Recovery Fund
Community Foundation Santa Cruz County’s Fire Response Fund
Community Foundation of North Central Washington NCW Fire Relief Fund
North Valley Community Foundation Wildfire Relief and Recovery Fund
Other organizations you can lend help to for the wildfires are: Article 1 - Article 2
This was supposed to be the article to give you some sense of relief that help was coming, BUT it was abruptly derailed by the person occupying the white house.
You can check your voter registration status, request a mail-in ballot and even work the polls for this upcoming election by going to: CAN I VOTE (dot) ORG.
The song leading into the interview is “Ride like the Wind” by Christopher Cross (featuring Michael McDonald). Lenny plays percussion on this track.
Lenny Castro Interview
The interview starts with Lenny talking about heading into the studio and not just recording from home. Don Was called him recently to record at Henson Studios for John Mayer. He talks about some of the new Covid protocols.
Jordan Silva used to help Lenny record. Recently Shannon Forrest has helped Lenny get his home studio in check.
Damon asks Lenny if he has one of the silicon shortcut keyboard covers for ProTools (They’re also available for Logic). Lenny uses Avid Control on his iPad (its also called Logic Remote for Logic users) to control his DAW from behind his setup.
Lenny’s setup consists of Protools on his computer, and the Quartet by Apogee. As for mics Lenny has an assortment by Beyerdynamic and also for his hand percussion, he uses an EV (Electro Voice) RE320. He also uses the Beyerdynamic MC 840s on congas. Damon was using 2 Sennheiser 421s on his congas up close and the Sennheiser MK4 over the congas a bit further away, but has recently swapped out the MK4 for an AEA R92. For those of you who use Logic, Music Tech Help Guy and his tutorials, have been a endless source of help for Damon. In addition to Shannon Forrest, Paul Brown has also helped Lenny at home.
Lenny grew up in NYC and attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. The sister school downtown was the inspiration for the TV show FAME, which later merged with LaGuardia High.
Lenny’s father Hector L. Castro was a piano player for artists like Johnny Pacheco, Celia Cruz and more. Unfortunately his parents split up. But, his stepfather George had a great record collection that Lenny used to listen to and learn from. The album Lenny talks about is called “Shearing on Stage” recorded in 1957 at Claremont College in Southern California. A few other albums Lenny mentioned are “Moanin’” and “The Jazz Messengers” both by Art Blakey. “Milestones” by Miles Davis. Even artists like Cal Tjader. Some of the radio shows were hosted by Dick "Ricardo" Sugar and Symphony Sid.
Steve Jordan, Ray Chew, Paul Kimbarow and Lenny all went to High School together. Justin DiCioccio also taught Steve and Lenny in percussion ensemble. Lenny talks a bit about the Cabaret Card. In 2018, the Cabaret Laws were FINALLY repealed in NYC.
In addition to high school, Lenny went to Mannes Prep on Saturdays. He even had a run in with Chano Pozo. Rachel Ticotin and Nancy Ticotin went to high school with Lenny as well.
Before heading to L.A., Lenny worked at Frank Ippolito’s Professional Percussion Center. Elvin Jones used to teach drums there among other greats, and Lenny talks about his experiences there. He got the gig with Melissa Manchester from an audition at Carroll Music.
Lenny talks about the constraints and freedoms of being a band member vs. a sideman. He also talks about his relationship with Jeff Porcaro and how the Toto members were Boz Scaggs backing band.
A lot of what is considered Yacht Rock was recorded between 1977-1985. Lenny played on a good chunk of that music. Damon mentions some of the artists as well as a song from an album by the Jacksons that is a deep cut called “This Place Hotel (aka Heartbreak Hotel)”. Damon asks about Gaylord Birch during Lenny’s time with the Pointer Sisters. Damon asks about the differences in live vs. session playing when Lenny was coming up. Lenny reflects on what he misses most about touring.
Besides Don Was, Lenny enjoyed working with Tommy LiPuma. Lenny talks about how he and Don were in the movie A Star is Born.
Drummers that were inspirations for Lenny as a kid were Billy Cobham, Lenny White, Philly Joe Jones, Art Blakey. Now Lenny would say Jeff Porcaro, Shannon Forrest, Richie Hayward, Steve Gadd, Ralph Humphreys and Carlos Vega.
Lenny talks about his relationship with Carlos Vega and mentions a couple of tunes they played on together like “Let’s Get Physical” by Olivia Newton John and “Strut” by Sheena Easton.
Lenny talks about the relationship with some of L.A.s premier percussionists like: Luis Conte, Kevin Ricard (both friends of the show), Paulinho Da Costa and Michito Sanchez.
Lenny discloses that he is a huge fan of SpongeBob SquarePants and Domo Kun. He also talks about how big an influence Jimi Hendrix was on him.
Lenny talks about John Jr Robinson and working with him along with Rufus and Chaka Khan.
You can check out the album Lenny has out there “Hands of Silk and Stone”. Stay tuned to Lenny’s website for the albums he’s recorded on recently that will be coming out soon.
You can follow Lenny on his Website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Lenny uses Gon Bops Percussion, Innovative Percussion, Paiste Cymbals, Remo Drumheads, DW Drums and Hardware, Beyerdynamic microphones and Avid.
The song leading out of the interview is “Endangered Species” by Wayne Shorter from the Atlantis album.
