TheDrumland.Com

       THE MAKING OF GREGG BISSONETTE

"MUSICAL DRUMMING IN DIFFERENT STYLES"



                      DVD- Hudson Music

         Written by Rob Wallis exclusively for Percussioni Magazine and TheDrumland.Com

Over the years, many people have asked me and my partner, Paul Siegel, to explain how our we make our videos and DVD's. As founders of DCI Music Video, we began making videos for drummers in 1982. We've produced hundreds of programs, switching several years ago to the production of DVD's. The DVD format is the perfect medium for the types of programs we produce-whether its an instructional program like one we did with Thomas Lang, a documentary like the Classic Jazz Drummers series, a performance like the Drummers Collective 25th Anniversary Show and Modern Drummer Festival, or a mix of all of these, as in the Steve Smith dvd. The DVD format allows for a lot more content to be put into a small package. Our programs in the "old days" typically ran 90 minutes, now we are able to put out a double DVD set with 5 or 6 hours of material. And the DVD format allows for very easy scanning as well as things like an artist commentary track, 5.1 surround sound mixes, photo galleries and so much more.

No matter the format, player or content, every program we've produced takes extensive preparation before we get to the studio. For the new Gregg Bissonette DVD that we recently shot, we began with an outline of what we wanted the content to cover. That outline went back and forth between Paul and me and Gregg. Once we had that more or less in the ballpark, Gregg went into a rehearsal studio and did a run through of the material in front of his home video camera (and his cameraman/dad Bud). This allowed Gregg to look over his presentation to smooth out things he wanted to better explain and to look at his playing to make sure he was happy with everything he was doing. He sent us the tape so that we could do the same. The run through also allowed us to think about organizing the material for the DVD-to think how the menus and "buttons" would be arranged and also to time the sections, so we had an idea of the length of the material.

While this was all taking place, we had to decide what studio we wanted to use. We had been using a wonderful studio called Beartracks, just outside NYC. But we felt it was time for a change, as we wanted to have a different look in the studio. We decided on a beautiful studio in upstate New York, just outside of Woodstock. The studio was located on the top of a mountain that took fifteen minutes to drive up to, on a one lane road that sometimes felt more like a dirt path. The mountain had breathtaking views, and the studio at the top was pastoral. But inside the small complex of barns and buildings were a state-of-the-art recording studio, a huge room for Gregg and his drums and sleeping facilities for us, Gregg, our staff and the entire crew. One of the logistics we had to deal with was food. Fifteen minutes down the mountain and then back up again would delay things too much, so we decided to bring in a cook who would make us three meals a day and we could all eat together in the dining hall.

Next we booked "our" crew. Most of the camera, lighting, and audio people have been working on all of our productions for many years. Once the crew and studio were booked, we then put together a shooting schedule based on the demo video Gregg sent us. We also drafted a "call" log which had the time each of the various crew members needed to arrive.

Gregg arrived the day before the shoot so he could get used to the time change (he'd flown in from Los Angeles) and wanted time to work on last minute changes in his outline and also start to set up the drumset that had been shipped in by Mapex and listen to the new cymbals Zildjian sent (in addition to the ones he'd brought). He also managed to get some time in the incredible pool that was built into the side of the mountain.

The crew call was 6:30 am for day 1. We had split the crew in half, with some working inside setting up the room-doing lights, setting up and positioning Gregg's drums, miking, setting cameras etc. At the same time we had a crew setting up in our first position outdoors. We had made a decision that if we were going to be in such a beautiful location, we should incorporate some of the surroundings into the production.

I arrived at about 8:30 am, driving up with our partner that is in charge on Hudson Music Europe, Ron Fry, who had flown in for the filming. The weather had taken a turn for the worse. What was beautiful the day before had turned into a light rain, but worse was the fog that got heavier the higher up the mountain we went.

Gregg started the day reviewing his outline and going over what he was going to say in the first few outdoor locations. We had decided to shoot a lot of what didn't need to be done at a drumset, outside. At 9 am, we began shooting the intro to the DVD. Gregg was to walk up a stone staircase along the side of the mountain to the pool area and talk (using a wireless clip-on mic) as he walked. The rain had stopped just before we started, but the fog continued to roll in. We wondered how it would look on camera and decided, given the setting, that people watching would understand it was "real" fog.

Gregg was great in his delivery, adding some of his best comedy routines in between takes. We filmed at several spots around the studio grounds while the inside crew was hard at work getting ready for its turn. A few pipes had to be suspended from the 45 foot ceiling and some 30 foot windows needed to be covered with a plastic film so the natural light would not look discolored on film. The indoor crew worked roughly from 9 am to 7 pm and the "outdoor" crew worked from 7 am to 6 pm. We all met up for lunch about noon. After lunch the rain picked up again so we were forced to find some interesting areas to film inside and given the age of some of the complex buildings-some were almost 80 years old, finding great locations was not difficult. Late in the afternoon, all the lighting was just about done, all the drum heads were changed by our drum tech Daniel (from Hudson Music Brazil), the drums were miked and after dinner Gregg tuned the drums. We used two Mapex drumsets-one large kit and a small jazz kit. Gregg also listened to the large assortment of Zildjian cymbals and decided on what he wanted to use for various song performances and demos.

We all tried to get to bed at a decent hour, as we know we had a long day ahead...

Our plan for Day 2 was to "roll tape" at 9:30 am, with a crew call for 8:30. At about 9 am, for some unknown reason, we discovered a hum going to the audio tape that had not been there the afternoon before. So Sean, our audio engineer, Ralph, our video engineer and Mike, our lighting designer, began to try to figure out what was causing it. Three hours later the problem was pinpointed: a certain line of lights with a dimmer was creating it. New electric lines were run. We ate lunch without a single minute of tape having been rolled all morning, but everyone was determined to try and catch up.

We did final lighting checks, Gregg warmed up at the drums and then we recorded one song to test the drum sounds. At 1:00, we finally began rolling tape.

Gregg covered a lot of ground: from James Brown's drummers to how ghost notes help create a groove. He also talked about Morris Day and the Time and drummer Jellybean Johnson and the song 777-7311 and how the groove inspired him for the song Marbles. He then demonstrated many of the song's parts. Gregg went on to discuss how drummers control the tempo, and that drummers have more control over dynamics than anyone else in the band. He showed some patterns he played and demoed double paradiddles in groups of six. He also did a beautiful demonstration about beat displacement. He had the crew clap 2 & 4 and see if they could keep it once he began displacing beats.

Gregg next moved on to discussing playing loud and its effects on your hearing, singing as a drummer, auditioning and getting gigs, choosing your equipment, riding on the crash cymbal, playing fills with your bassdrum, and Tony Williams inspired fills-not thinking but rather creating and the amazing camaraderie in the drumming community. Again Gregg was flawless as he demonstrated the parts to Submarine.

Next, Gregg talked about Latin music-the 2/3 songo and 2/3 son clave and the 3/2 songo and 3/2 son clave. He showed cascara patterns and talked about the importance of listening when playing. He also talked about listening to music in the style you want to play and in this case talked about listening to drummers like Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, Changuito, Luis Conte and his teacher, Jimmy Branly. He spoke about the importance of being open-minded to different styles of music and how many styles relate to one another and that being a better jazz drummer can help your shuffle playing. He then demoed a lot of patterns on the song No Hay Parqeo.

It was now 5:30 pm and Gregg moved on to odd time signatures. He talked about the music of Frank Zappa, Yes, Dream Theater and Joe Morello/Take 5. He showed various ways of counting in time signatures like 5/4, 7/4, 9/4 and ways to group in odd time signatures. He showed how to come up with a groove in 7/8 and then showed the parts of Noah's Ark. Everything was performed in one take. Thanks to Gregg's flawless speaking and performances, we were back on schedule.

After Gregg discussed his equipment, we broke for dinner. Gregg talked with the crew as we all ate and told stories about his touring days over the past 15 years. Some of the crew got into a doubles ping pong tournament while some others played billiards. During the break we reviewed the rest of what we needed to accomplish after dinner and everything that Gregg was going to discuss, and we listened to some of the takes we recorded.

After a great dinner and nice break, we continued with Gregg discussing his tom tom tuning and how he tried to have the pitches match the bass part in the Wayne Shorter song, Footprints. And from there he talked about drum techniques and the parts to the song Train to Willoughby. He discussed some of his favorite bands, like the Foo Fighters, and showed the New Orleans inspired second line drum break in the song.

Gregg then discussed the blues-Chicago Blues, T Bone Walker and playing Blues shuffles. He demonstrated various patterns playing "all four on the floor," a hi-hat technique he saw Steve Gadd do, and playing ghost notes before an accent to add to the feel. He talked about playing and soloing in a blues form and summed everything up by showing the parts to Cloudy Day.

It was now 8 pm, and Gregg seemed to be as energetic and fresh as he was at 8 in the morning. He then got into one of his favorite subjects, big band drumming. He talked about playing figures and setting up the band ahead of a rhythmic figure. He showed the importance of knowing how the band is articulating (playing a long or a short note) figures and showed what to do and what not to do when accenting notes. He also talked about reading a big band chart and showed many examples.

And then we were on to the last piece of the evening's work, the closing for the DVD. He talked about the importance of being musical, making the music feel good and not concentrating on soloing but playing music. He demonstrated some of the great trademark drumparts such as John Bonham/Rock N'Roll, Gene Krupa/Sing, Sing, Sing, Charlie Watts/Honkey Tonk Women, Jeff Porcaro/Rosanna and Ringo/Come Together.

We got through this and called it a day (or a night) at about 10 pm. A very long, but a very good day. Gregg's years of doing so many drum clinics helped him deliver a huge amount of information in a short period of time. Day 3 started with an 8:30 crew call and a 9 am projected start time. The main things left to do were for Gregg to perform with tracks for all of the songs he used to demonstrate the various drumming techniques and styles he demonstrated on Day 2. No small task to perform 8 songs and a few miscellaneous tracks, as well as do a free form drum solo.

We started with Gregg replaying the Gene Krupa demo again, as he felt he had played it a little too fast the previous night. We also did another take of his closing comments. Because he was fresh, both of these were improvements over what he had done the night before. He then added a discussion of "the working drummer and getting gigs," and also discussed studio drumming and tips he had for playing sessions.

At about 11:15 we began the song takes with Gregg performing Marbles. This was done in one take. At 11:45 he performed Submarine and someone in the studio pulled out an electric cord and some mics went out, so we needed to do a second take. Take 2 was fantastic. At 12:25 he played Train to Willoughby (again one take). He then played Noah's Ark and in the middle went to the wrong section, so a second take was needed. This one was perfect. At 1:10 Gregg performed No Hay Porqueo-again, in one take.

Gregg then went immediately into playing a drum solo and this was also done in one take.

Incredible !!!

We filmed him performing Cloudy Day at 1:50 and then broke for lunch. Gregg had been recording for close to three hours without getting up from the drumset, and barely missed a note! We all enjoyed another good meal and spent time planning the rest of the day and going over our check list to make sure we hadn't forgotten to film anything. We also listened back to Gregg's performances to make sure we were all happy with them.

At 3:30 Gregg did a take of Lum Lum and decided he could do a better performance, so he took another pass at the song and he was right. He had a brilliant performance on take 2. At 4 pm he performed Tribute to Tony, Gregg's tribute to Tony Williams. Another great first take, with the signature Tony tom licks and all! Gregg then did three takes of the fast big band piece and one take on the slow version and that took us to Gregg's discussion of Lum Lum. He talked about his focus on the ride cymbal when playing a swing feel. He discussed song form and sang the parts to the tune and showed a typical AABA song form. He also talked about the importance of staying focused during performance.

At 5:30 Gregg discussed the Tony Williams tribute song. He talked about flying up to San Francisco to study with Tony and demonstrated some of the things he learned, like Tony's trademark flam fills on the toms and his fast ride cymbal patterns. We finished up in the main studio at 6 pm with Gregg's discussion of big band drumming.

We filmed Gregg playing some trumpet parts for the big band section (make sure you check out his trumpet chops on the DVD). We then had a review meeting to make sure we covered everything we had planned. We went page by page thru the 20 page outline we had prepared. We also listened back to several performances to make sure everyone was happy with them.

The crew began to pack up all of the equipment-typically a 3 to 4 hour job. We also took a lot of photos with Gregg and the crew members and sat with Gregg to unwind after a whirlwind three days.

On my ride back home that night (I left the studio for the trip down the mountain in complete blackness), I thought about how comfortable Gregg was, playing so many different styles of music and how truly musical his playing was from the first note to the last. I have known Gregg for many, many years and have seen him play many times, but I had never seen anything like what he had done over these few days.

Now on to the post production...

                                     Rob Wallis

Copyright � 2001-2005 Robertopeland. All rights reserved.
Best viewed in IE5+ 800x600 32bit colors.


		THE MAKING OF GREGG BISSONETTE "MUSICAL DRUMMING IN DIFFERENT STYLES" DVD- Hudson Music Written by Rob Wallis exclusively for Percussioni Magazine and TheDrumland.Com Over the years, many people have asked me and my partner, Paul Siegel, to explain how our we make our videos and DVD's. As founders of DCI Music Video, we began making videos for drummers in 1982. We've produced hundreds of programs, switching several years ago to the production of DVD's. The DVD format is the perfect medium for the types of programs we produce-whether its an instructional program like one we did with Thomas Lang, a documentary like the Classic Jazz Drummers series, a performance like the Drummers Collective 25th Anniversary Show and Modern Drummer Festival, or a mix of all of these, as in the Steve Smith dvd. The DVD format allows for a lot more content to be put into a small package. Our programs in the "old days" typically ran 90 minutes, now we are able to put out a double DVD set with 5 or 6 hours of material. And the DVD format allows for very easy scanning as well as things like an artist commentary track, 5.1 surround sound mixes, photo galleries and so much more. No matter the format, player or content, every program we've produced takes extensive preparation before we get to the studio. For the new Gregg Bissonette DVD that we recently shot, we began with an outline of what we wanted the content to cover. That outline went back and forth between Paul and me and Gregg. Once we had that more or less in the ballpark, Gregg went into a rehearsal studio and did a run through of the material in front of his home video camera (and his cameraman/dad Bud). This allowed Gregg to look over his presentation to smooth out things he wanted to better explain and to look at his playing to make sure he was happy with everything he was doing. He sent us the tape so that we could do the same. The run through also allowed us to think about organizing the material for the DVD-to think how the menus and "buttons" would be arranged and also to time the sections, so we had an idea of the length of the material. While this was all taking place, we had to decide what studio we wanted to use. We had been using a wonderful studio called Beartracks, just outside NYC. But we felt it was time for a change, as we wanted to have a different look in the studio. We decided on a beautiful studio in upstate New York, just outside of Woodstock. The studio was located on the top of a mountain that took fifteen minutes to drive up to, on a one lane road that sometimes felt more like a dirt path. The mountain had breathtaking views, and the studio at the top was pastoral. But inside the small complex of barns and buildings were a state-of-the-art recording studio, a huge room for Gregg and his drums and sleeping facilities for us, Gregg, our staff and the entire crew. One of the logistics we had to deal with was food. Fifteen minutes down the mountain and then back up again would delay things too much, so we decided to bring in a cook who would make us three meals a day and we could all eat together in the dining hall. Next we booked "our" crew. Most of the camera, lighting, and audio people have been working on all of our productions for many years. Once the crew and studio were booked, we then put together a shooting schedule based on the demo video Gregg sent us. We also drafted a "call" log which had the time each of the various crew members needed to arrive. Gregg arrived the day before the shoot so he could get used to the time change (he'd flown in from Los Angeles) and wanted time to work on last minute changes in his outline and also start to set up the drumset that had been shipped in by Mapex and listen to the new cymbals Zildjian sent (in addition to the ones he'd brought). He also managed to get some time in the incredible pool that was built into the side of the mountain. The crew call was 6:30 am for day 1. We had split the crew in half, with some working inside setting up the room-doing lights, setting up and positioning Gregg's drums, miking, setting cameras etc. At the same time we had a crew setting up in our first position outdoors. We had made a decision that if we were going to be in such a beautiful location, we should incorporate some of the surroundings into the production. I arrived at about 8:30 am, driving up with our partner that is in charge on Hudson Music Europe, Ron Fry, who had flown in for the filming. The weather had taken a turn for the worse. What was beautiful the day before had turned into a light rain, but worse was the fog that got heavier the higher up the mountain we went. Gregg started the day reviewing his outline and going over what he was going to say in the first few outdoor locations. We had decided to shoot a lot of what didn't need to be done at a drumset, outside. At 9 am, we began shooting the intro to the DVD. Gregg was to walk up a stone staircase along the side of the mountain to the pool area and talk (using a wireless clip-on mic) as he walked. The rain had stopped just before we started, but the fog continued to roll in. We wondered how it would look on camera and decided, given the setting, that people watching would understand it was "real" fog. Gregg was great in his delivery, adding some of his best comedy routines in between takes. We filmed at several spots around the studio grounds while the inside crew was hard at work getting ready for its turn. A few pipes had to be suspended from the 45 foot ceiling and some 30 foot windows needed to be covered with a plastic film so the natural light would not look discolored on film. The indoor crew worked roughly from 9 am to 7 pm and the "outdoor" crew worked from 7 am to 6 pm. We all met up for lunch about noon. After lunch the rain picked up again so we were forced to find some interesting areas to film inside and given the age of some of the complex buildings-some were almost 80 years old, finding great locations was not difficult. Late in the afternoon, all the lighting was just about done, all the drum heads were changed by our drum tech Daniel (from Hudson Music Brazil), the drums were miked and after dinner Gregg tuned the drums. We used two Mapex drumsets-one large kit and a small jazz kit. Gregg also listened to the large assortment of Zildjian cymbals and decided on what he wanted to use for various song performances and demos. We all tried to get to bed at a decent hour, as we know we had a long day ahead... Our plan for Day 2 was to "roll tape" at 9:30 am, with a crew call for 8:30. At about 9 am, for some unknown reason, we discovered a hum going to the audio tape that had not been there the afternoon before. So Sean, our audio engineer, Ralph, our video engineer and Mike, our lighting designer, began to try to figure out what was causing it. Three hours later the problem was pinpointed: a certain line of lights with a dimmer was creating it. New electric lines were run. We ate lunch without a single minute of tape having been rolled all morning, but everyone was determined to try and catch up. We did final lighting checks, Gregg warmed up at the drums and then we recorded one song to test the drum sounds. At 1:00, we finally began rolling tape. Gregg covered a lot of ground: from James Brown's drummers to how ghost notes help create a groove. He also talked about Morris Day and the Time and drummer Jellybean Johnson and the song 777-7311 and how the groove inspired him for the song Marbles. He then demonstrated many of the song's parts. Gregg went on to discuss how drummers control the tempo, and that drummers have more control over dynamics than anyone else in the band. He showed some patterns he played and demoed double paradiddles in groups of six. He also did a beautiful demonstration about beat displacement. He had the crew clap 2 & 4 and see if they could keep it once he began displacing beats. Gregg next moved on to discussing playing loud and its effects on your hearing, singing as a drummer, auditioning and getting gigs, choosing your equipment, riding on the crash cymbal, playing fills with your bassdrum, and Tony Williams inspired fills-not thinking but rather creating and the amazing camaraderie in the drumming community. Again Gregg was flawless as he demonstrated the parts to Submarine. Next, Gregg talked about Latin music-the 2/3 songo and 2/3 son clave and the 3/2 songo and 3/2 son clave. He showed cascara patterns and talked about the importance of listening when playing. He also talked about listening to music in the style you want to play and in this case talked about listening to drummers like Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, Changuito, Luis Conte and his teacher, Jimmy Branly. He spoke about the importance of being open-minded to different styles of music and how many styles relate to one another and that being a better jazz drummer can help your shuffle playing. He then demoed a lot of patterns on the song No Hay Parqeo. It was now 5:30 pm and Gregg moved on to odd time signatures. He talked about the music of Frank Zappa, Yes, Dream Theater and Joe Morello/Take 5. He showed various ways of counting in time signatures like 5/4, 7/4, 9/4 and ways to group in odd time signatures. He showed how to come up with a groove in 7/8 and then showed the parts of Noah's Ark. Everything was performed in one take. Thanks to Gregg's flawless speaking and performances, we were back on schedule. After Gregg discussed his equipment, we broke for dinner. Gregg talked with the crew as we all ate and told stories about his touring days over the past 15 years. Some of the crew got into a doubles ping pong tournament while some others played billiards. During the break we reviewed the rest of what we needed to accomplish after dinner and everything that Gregg was going to discuss, and we listened to some of the takes we recorded. After a great dinner and nice break, we continued with Gregg discussing his tom tom tuning and how he tried to have the pitches match the bass part in the Wayne Shorter song, Footprints. And from there he talked about drum techniques and the parts to the song Train to Willoughby. He discussed some of his favorite bands, like the Foo Fighters, and showed the New Orleans inspired second line drum break in the song. Gregg then discussed the blues-Chicago Blues, T Bone Walker and playing Blues shuffles. He demonstrated various patterns playing "all four on the floor," a hi-hat technique he saw Steve Gadd do, and playing ghost notes before an accent to add to the feel. He talked about playing and soloing in a blues form and summed everything up by showing the parts to Cloudy Day. It was now 8 pm, and Gregg seemed to be as energetic and fresh as he was at 8 in the morning. He then got into one of his favorite subjects, big band drumming. He talked about playing figures and setting up the band ahead of a rhythmic figure. He showed the importance of knowing how the band is articulating (playing a long or a short note) figures and showed what to do and what not to do when accenting notes. He also talked about reading a big band chart and showed many examples. And then we were on to the last piece of the evening's work, the closing for the DVD. He talked about the importance of being musical, making the music feel good and not concentrating on soloing but playing music. He demonstrated some of the great trademark drumparts such as John Bonham/Rock N'Roll, Gene Krupa/Sing, Sing, Sing, Charlie Watts/Honkey Tonk Women, Jeff Porcaro/Rosanna and Ringo/Come Together. We got through this and called it a day (or a night) at about 10 pm. A very long, but a very good day. Gregg's years of doing so many drum clinics helped him deliver a huge amount of information in a short period of time. Day 3 started with an 8:30 crew call and a 9 am projected start time. The main things left to do were for Gregg to perform with tracks for all of the songs he used to demonstrate the various drumming techniques and styles he demonstrated on Day 2. No small task to perform 8 songs and a few miscellaneous tracks, as well as do a free form drum solo. We started with Gregg replaying the Gene Krupa demo again, as he felt he had played it a little too fast the previous night. We also did another take of his closing comments. Because he was fresh, both of these were improvements over what he had done the night before. He then added a discussion of "the working drummer and getting gigs," and also discussed studio drumming and tips he had for playing sessions. At about 11:15 we began the song takes with Gregg performing Marbles. This was done in one take. At 11:45 he performed Submarine and someone in the studio pulled out an electric cord and some mics went out, so we needed to do a second take. Take 2 was fantastic. At 12:25 he played Train to Willoughby (again one take). He then played Noah's Ark and in the middle went to the wrong section, so a second take was needed. This one was perfect. At 1:10 Gregg performed No Hay Porqueo-again, in one take. Gregg then went immediately into playing a drum solo and this was also done in one take. Incredible !!! We filmed him performing Cloudy Day at 1:50 and then broke for lunch. Gregg had been recording for close to three hours without getting up from the drumset, and barely missed a note! We all enjoyed another good meal and spent time planning the rest of the day and going over our check list to make sure we hadn't forgotten to film anything. We also listened back to Gregg's performances to make sure we were all happy with them. At 3:30 Gregg did a take of Lum Lum and decided he could do a better performance, so he took another pass at the song and he was right. He had a brilliant performance on take 2. At 4 pm he performed Tribute to Tony, Gregg's tribute to Tony Williams. Another great first take, with the signature Tony tom licks and all! Gregg then did three takes of the fast big band piece and one take on the slow version and that took us to Gregg's discussion of Lum Lum. He talked about his focus on the ride cymbal when playing a swing feel. He discussed song form and sang the parts to the tune and showed a typical AABA song form. He also talked about the importance of staying focused during performance. At 5:30 Gregg discussed the Tony Williams tribute song. He talked about flying up to San Francisco to study with Tony and demonstrated some of the things he learned, like Tony's trademark flam fills on the toms and his fast ride cymbal patterns. We finished up in the main studio at 6 pm with Gregg's discussion of big band drumming. We filmed Gregg playing some trumpet parts for the big band section (make sure you check out his trumpet chops on the DVD). We then had a review meeting to make sure we covered everything we had planned. We went page by page thru the 20 page outline we had prepared. We also listened back to several performances to make sure everyone was happy with them. The crew began to pack up all of the equipment-typically a 3 to 4 hour job. We also took a lot of photos with Gregg and the crew members and sat with Gregg to unwind after a whirlwind three days. On my ride back home that night (I left the studio for the trip down the mountain in complete blackness), I thought about how comfortable Gregg was, playing so many different styles of music and how truly musical his playing was from the first note to the last. I have known Gregg for many, many years and have seen him play many times, but I had never seen anything like what he had done over these few days. Now on to the post production... Rob Wallis Copyright � 2001-2005 Robertopeland. All rights reserved. Best viewed in IE5+ 800x600 32bit colors.