#285 Scott Kettner- Percussionist for Nation Beat, Educator, Author and More!
This episode is sponsored by Dream Cymbals.
This week’s guest is Scott Kettner. When Scott Kettner looks at a map, he sees a direct line that connects the rivers of northeastern Brazil to the parishes of New Orleans and the streets of Brooklyn. A master percussionist, bandleader, producer and songwriter, Kettner is the guiding force behind Nation Beat, a band whose teeming, vibrant rhythms find common ground in the primal maracatu rhythm of Brazil’s northeastern region, the Big Easy’s funky, hypnotic second-line and strolling Mardi Gras Indians, and the unfettered freedom of big-city downtown jazz.
For Kettner, the discovery of maracatu was a life-changing experience. The great jazz drummer Billy Hart, who served as Kettner’s instructor at New York’s New School University, first informed him of the mysterious music. “He was turning me on to African music from different regions,” says Kettner, “and we started getting into Afro-Cuban rhythms and Brazilian rhythms. After a couple of years studying samba and bossa nova, I asked him, ‘Are there any other rhythms from Brazil that I should be learning?’ He said, ‘Yeah, man, there’s this music called maracatu!’ I pointed to his drumset and said, ‘Show it to me,’ and he said, ‘I don’t know how to play it! I just know it’s a badass rhythm and you have to go learn it, then come back and teach it to me.’”
Intrigued, Kettner began asking Brazilian musicians based in New York how he could learn about maracatu. Even most of them knew nothing of it. The only thing to do, Kettner reasoned, was to go to Brazil and find maracatu. Upon graduating in 2000, he spent a year living in the country, based primarily in the northeastern city of Recife, living in a favela, studying maracatu and other, even more obscure Brazilian rhythms with his new mentor, Jorge Martins. Upon his return to the USA, Kettner implemented maracatu in NYC and began performing and conducting workshops throughout the country.
As a side-man, Scott Kettner has performed and/or recorded with Willie Nelson, Cyro Baptista, Stanton Moore and Galactic, Frank London, The Klezmatics, Cascabulho, Vieux Farka Toure, Maracatu Nação Estrela Brilhante and many more.
His new book entitled “Maracatu for Drumset and Percussion” is now available by Hal Leonard Publishing. This is the first in-depth percussion book about the rich culture and music of Maracatu de Baque Virado from Brazil, with photos, history, recordings and an instructional CD-Rom.
Scott is also a recent recipient of a prestigious NEA (National Endowment for The Arts) award for his project entitled “A Tale of Two Nations” which brought together his group Nation Beat and the traditional maracatu group from Recife, Brazil Estrela Brilhante. The grant helped fund a tour that had it’s world debut at Lincoln Center Out of Doors in the summer of 2013. This tour was historic in that it was the first time that a traditional maracatu group from Brazil had ever performed in the United States.
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday to Marcus Santos. A contemporary percussionist and educator, Marcus, is a native of Bahia, Brazil. He commits his life to the study, teaching and performance of his hometown's Afro-Brazilian music and heritage.
Marcus performed with several world renown artists such as the Gypsy Kings (Spain), Daniela Mercury (Brazil) and the Brand New Heavies (England). He has also performed for the president of Brazil, TEDx and with the “One World Band” produced by MTV. Marcus also played at the Sony Pictures Oscar nominated movie ‘Rachel's getting Married’ with Anne Hathaway. He has been honored with the 2013 KOSA Recognition award, Outstanding Arts Performer Award by the Brazilian Immigrant Center (2008) as well as Outstanding Percussionist Award by Berklee College of Music in 2004.
Marcus currently teaches in the Boston area at New England Conservatory, Middlesex Community College and Somerville High School. He is the author of the DVD ‘Modern Approach to Pandeiro’ and performed in the music education DVD ‘Musically Speaking II’ by BOSE. Marcus has lead workshops on Afro-Brazilian percussion and music for Social Change in festivals, universities and conventions around the world such as Fiesta Del Tambor (Cuba), Carnegie Hall (NYC), PASIC (USA) and Harvard University. He is currently the artist director of the Grooversity global drumming network project that includes twenty four drumming groups from the US, Canada, Germany, Mexico and France.
Happy Birthday to Clifford Koufman. Clifford is a Nashville-based, award-winning drummer who founded Sound & Rhythm Drumming School in 2000. With over 20 years of experience, Clifford carries a world of experience to every scenario, whether creating music, performing or teaching. He's honored to be the recipient of multiple grants, the Thrive award to build community through community drumming classes, performances, and drum circles, and the Regional Arts & Culture Council professional development grant to study music in Guinea, West Africa. He's toured internationally, throughout the US, and in Alaska. Clifford has spent time living and learning from master musicians in Ghana and then Guinea, West Africa, and has performed, taught, and worked with thousands of people as well as working with numerous bands, songwriters, and composers throughout the United States. In an effort to share in his musical experience, inspiration and to connect with creative people through conversation, he began "Clif Chats" where he's has conducted over sixty interviews of creative people at the top of their fields. Clif Chats can be watched on the Sound and Rhythm YouTube HERE
Clifford teaches people in Nashville as well as traveling to schools, colleges, and universities (pre-pandemic) as well as teaches internationally online. He creates play-along tracks for drum circle facilitators as well as making music for licensing. Clifford embraces the spirit of collaboration in Nashville, performing and recording and writing, collaborating with songwriters, bands and composers. He is continually experimenting with a hybrid drum set, incorporating percussion and drum set elements with various hand drums. He facilitates leadership development events using the drum circle as the vehicle. Clifford continues to teach students all over the world and is excited to collaborate with songwriters, bands, and composers. He continues Clif Chats and is always looking to geek out about people living creatively, drums, art, and music.
Happy Birthday to Bernard Purdie. Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie is an American drummer, and an influential R&B, soul and funk musician. He is known for his precise musical time keeping and his signature use of triplets against a half-time backbeat: the "Purdie Shuffle." He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2013.
Gig Alerts
Scott is having a book release party on Saturday June 18th, 2022. You celebrate the release of his new book "The Essential Pandeiro Method" on Saturday, June 18th at The Burgdorff Cultural Center in Maplewood, NJ. He'll be performing solo compositions, improvisations and waxing poetic about the book. He'll also be joined on stage by some amazing musicians. The performance will take you on a rhythmic journey thorough Brazil, New Orleans and more.
The performance will be interactive and is family friendly.
For more details and tickets, CLICK HERE.
The Jackie McLean Youth Jazz Orchestra is looking for instrumentalists, vocalists and percussionists between the ages of 14-21 years old. You can participate in the JMac YJO "Let Them Play" Creative Music Summer Program from July 5-Aug.12 2022, 9:00-4:00pm There are 11 stipend($) slots still available. Please contact Anna at the Artists Collective: 860.527.3205.
Damon has some UPCOMING GIGS, including, speaking at the DIY Musician Conference in Austin, TX from August 26-28 (Damon’s birthday is the 28th). He will also be doing a live podcast interview with a very special guest.
To find out more details and get reduced tickets, CLICK THIS LINK.
Damon will be giving a clinic/performance at PASIC this November. You can REGISTER HERE if you would like to attend.
Educational Spotlight
Scott Kettner has a new book out July 1st called, The Essential Pandeiro Method. It is the complete pandeiro guide. Designed for educators and students of all levels. You can get it at a discounted price by entering the code: panderio-discussions.
More information and details are available HERE.
Conga Chops has being doing an ongoing soloing/vocabulary series. Lesson 10 is now live! Classic, simple sixteenth note chops for every conga player!
Watch their new Conga Soloing 101 Course FREE All-Access Trial at the website.
Iconic Recording
The iconic recording was picked out by Scott. It is called, “Olho De Peixe” by Lenine and Marcos Suzano from the album with the same name.
Music News
The first installment in a series of posts about TikTok’s best tips for indie musicians is over on Digital Music News. If you don’t know already, TikTok is an ocean of amazing content for producers, songwriters, and musicians who need help with the business and promotion side of things. So to kick off this series, here are some of the best music production tips on TikTok -Article
The 65th Grammys are set to move forward with five new award categories, according to the Recording Academy, which has also detailed further procedural and eligibility changes. -Article
Tony Awards 2022 Complete List of Winners: ‘A Strange Loop,’ ‘The Lehman Trilogy’ Earn Top Prizes -Article
Special shout-out to (friend of the show) Bryan Carter, who had a hand in helping with the music for “A Strange Loop”.
Scott Kettner Interview
The song leading into the interview is, “The Royal Chase” by Nation Beat from the album with the same name.
Scott was first a guest way back in episode 9.
Damon and Scott met at NAMM during a CD Baby Seminar on music business.
Damon will be speaking at the DIY Musician Conference as mentioned above.
Scott talks about how to keep a gig. Spoiler alert, it isn’t always solely based on your playing. Things you do off of the stage matter.
Scott and Damon talk about having significant others join you at your gigs and how important communication is.
Scott leads the band Nation Beat. They released a new album called ‘The Royal Chase’.
This is an example of the dirge into the second line. And here is some history on how it came to be.
Damon and Scott mention Ned Sublette. He has written some really amazing books. Scott makes reference to his New Orleans one.
Scott mentions the diversity in music from Lafayette, LA.
Damon tells a bit about “Jelly Roll” Morton.
Damon brings up Be An Arts Hero.
Scott Kettner talks about the method he came up with for his new book (out July 1st) called, The Essential Pandeiro Method. Designed for educators and students of all levels. You can get it at a discounted price by entering the code: panderio-discussions.
More information about the book, and details are available HERE.
Damon and Scott talk about feel, and length of notes as well as the space between the notes.
Shout-out to the “Swing-o-meter”. Scott mentions Stanton Moore doing a lesson on this.
Shout-out to (friend of the show) Michael Spiro!
Scott talks about how he wrote the book and how he built the team to produce it with him.
Scott talks about some editing tricks he uses. He edits in Adobe Premiere.
The movie Damon refers to with the car alarm in time with the score is, The Italian Job.
Scott has been video editing and working with the Entrepreneur Academy during the pandemic.
He talks about knowing some of the business-side of music.
Scott talks about the importance of having a team.
Scott talks about some of the factors involved in tuning and choosing a pandeiro.
Scott picks out the iconic recording for the week. You can see that above. The honorable mention is track #9, “Leão Do Norte”.
Shout-out to Michael Carvin, Billy Hart, and Michael Spiro.
Scott uses Tama drums, Sabian cymbals, Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Remo drumheads, and Meinl percussion.
You can follow Scott on his Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. You can check out his band, Nation Beat, as well as his World Drum Lessons site.
The song leading out of the interview is “Morô Omim Má” by Nation Beat from ‘The Royal Chase’ album.
