Lea Mullen has been busy with debut ‘Jooks’ album release ‘Soft hands with Luis Conte’, workshops and teaching. As well as playing/touring with Vanessa Mae, Alan Leach, Paul Ryders ‘Big Arm’, ‘Rebel MC’, ‘Rachael McFarlane’ and writing reviews for drummer magazine. Lea was touring the USA with George Michael.

Happy Birthday

Happy 90th Birthday to the late great Vic Firth. Everett Joseph "Vic" Firth was an American musician and the founder of Vic Firth Company, a company that makes percussion sticks and mallets. He was also the former timpanist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. You can donate in his name to help fight cancer.

Happy 79th Birthday to Charlie Watts, drummer for the Rolling Stones, he is an English drummer, best known as a member of the Rolling Stones since 1963. Originally trained as a graphic artist, he started playing drums in London's rhythm and blues clubs, where he met Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards.

Educational Spotlights

PAS (Percussive Arts Society) has an events calendar, for things like PAS Presents and FUNdamental Fridays.

Vic Firth’s instagram page has weekly challenges, and the Zildjian page has some other interesting content.

Product Reviews

Last week, Aaron Sterling’s “The Bucket” samples were talked about.

This week, Robby Ameen’s latin drums loop packages are now available from Toon Tracks (also featuring Richie Flores on percussion).

Iconic Recordings

The first is “Say it Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)” by James brown. The story goes, he calmed a rambunctious crowd in Boston by playing this song. You can read more about it HERE.

The second is “Fight The Power” by Public Enemy, featured on the soundtrack for the movie “Do The Right Thing”. You can read more about the making of that video HERE.

Music News

(The next #BandcampFriday is coming up on June 5. We’ve put together a list of artists and labels preparing special releases for Friday, including those donating their share to organizations in support of racial justice and change.)

Facebook’s experimental app, Collab’s primary pitch is that you can create short-form videos split into three simultaneous sources, so you can perform a single song by playing three different instruments and stitching it all together. Or you and one or two other friends can collaborate together by each supplying one of three parts.

As dozens of American cities grapple with intensifying protests over racial injustice, Congress is indefinitely delaying discussions of a second $1,200 stimulus check. The pause is erasing hopes of a quick second payment.

As part of a proposed settlement with the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) & SAG-AFTRA, certain session musicians and background vocalists will receive a total of nearly $46 million in owed, previously unpaid royalties.

What started with a a sprinkling of major label divisions has now stretched to cover a broad swath of music and entertainment companies. Now, ‘Black Out Tuesday’ is being observed by a substantial number of entertainment industry professionals — and could become an annual event. Here are some things to be aware of. Looking for ways to help? Then CLICK THIS LINK HERE!

Jazz musicians have always faced systems of discrimination in America. One insidious example was the cabaret card, a form of identification required for any musician to work in a New York nightclub from 1940 to 1967. The New York Police Department administered these licenses and revoked them for any minor infraction. As a result, some of the biggest names in the music at the time, like Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker, lost their right to work at a crucial points in their careers.

Under the cabaret law, owners of establishments that wish to allow dancing must apply for a special "Cabaret License" through a notoriously difficult process. Before the license is granted, applicants must jump through several bureaucratic hoops, like seeking approvals from the building and fire departments, installing surveillance cameras, and paying fees ranging from $300 to $1,000.

Lea Mullen Interview

The song leading into the interview is called “Pot N’ Pans” off of a collaborative album featuring Lea, and friends of the show, Pete Lockett, Luis Conte & Bashiri Johnson.

Lea brought up the great percussionist Paulhino da Costa, a Brazilian percussionist known for playing with Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie and tons of other greats. The song Damon and Lea are referring to is “All Night Long” by Lionel. Damon thought the bell patterns were inspired by “Batuka” pattern played by Santana. You can see more of an explanation in THIS VIDEO at the 42:00 min mark. Lea clears up that what is being played (for the main groove) are pitched wood blocks, cowbells and log drums. He also mentions a few other instruments including the LP Cricket.

Lea is a collector of percussion instruments and brings up the gato drum, which is a type of tongue drum. He talks about being a collector of percussion instruments and also giving them as gifts. He is a fan of soundscapes and film scores. He brings up the Ocean’s 11 soundtrack by David Holmes. Friend of the show Luis Conte, and Zach Danziger are on the soundtrack for that trilogy of movies. The other film soundtracks Lea really enjoys are Out of Time by Graeme Ravell and Predator 2 by Alan Silvestri. Lea has been fortunate to work with film composer, Craig Armstrong. In talking about British film composers, Damon mentions the great Danny Elfman.

The other film composition which is only drums and percussion is the Birdman soundtrack by the great Antonio Sanchez.

In addition to Alex Acuna, Luis Conte doing a lot of film dates, Lea mentions Walter Rodriguez and Pete Korpela, doing some as well out in L.A.

Shout-out to Matt Nolan and the musical creations he makes.

Keep on the look out for the forthcoming album, Ear Candy. In the meantime you can check out the album called “Ponds Between Us” that Lea describes the recording process.

Lea is originally from Manchester England and refers to Danny Cummings growing up about 30min away. Damon brings up the concert he saw, Don Alias and friends featuring Don Alias, Alex Acuna, Giovanni Hildago, and Steve Berrios on drums and percussion, Michael Brecker on sax, Randy Brecker on trumpet, Danilo Perez (last min replacement) on piano, Mitch Stein on guitar, and Carlos Benavent on bass.

Lea’s other passion is football (soccer for the USA). He is a qualified coach as well and worked with Manchester City for nearly 20 years and the Blackburn Rovers for a year. He started as a football player and then moved to drumset before taking up percussion.

Two inspirational videos were Roxy Music by Avalon (featuring Andy Newmark on drums) and Three Sides Live by Genesis (featuring Phil Collins on drums).

Lea also mentions the late Jimmy Maelen, and how great his career was.

Lea talks about playing to records with drummers like Jeff Porcaro, Tony Thompson, and even John “J.R.” Robinson. The drummer, Armand Grimaldi with Chaka Kahn at the time was also inspirational. Lea started checking out percussionists in the 80s (which was a staple to have in pop bands) and how they conversated with drummers. Danny Cummings, Martin Ditcham, Luís Jardim, Miles Bould or Frank Ricotti. The video “Stop Making Sense” sealed the deal when Lea saw Steve Scales.

Lea brings up some of the newer styles of hybrid percussion playing. One of the groups he enjoys is Bokante and talks about their percussionists, Jamey Haddad, Keita Ogawa, and Marcelo Woloski, all friends of the show. Here’s a great example of some of the textures Lea describes. Marcelo and Keita also both play with Snarky Puppy.

Lea starts talking about some of the more eccentric instruments he has or makes and where some of their inspirations are from or what shops he stops in to try and find new sounds. One of Lea’s favorite drum shops to visit is Pro Drum Shop in L.A.

Damon talks about capiz shells and how they can be made into wind chimes. You can order them separately or assembled. Leo Percusso makes some interesting instruments.

Lea drops some Pro-Tips and most of them revolve around things that don’t have to do with how well you play. One of Lea’s idols that he gets to play with is Mel Gaynor.

Lea uses Pearl Percussion instruments, ZIldjian Cymbals, Promark Sticks and Mallets, J.Leiva Cajons, Roland Electronics and Remo Drumheads.

You can follow Lea on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The song leading out of the interview is called “Jack’s Jungle” off of the same aforementioned collaborative album.