Hound Dog

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For the last few weeks I’ve been working on a brand new play presented by Ars Nova: Hound Dog. We are currently in previews and open this coming Saturday. Here’s the official blurb:

In Melis Aker’s world premiere play HOUND DOG, a young musician returns from abroad to her hometown of Ankara, Turkey to look after her widowed father. Forced to reckon with the family and community she left behind, an investigation into her grieving parent’s strange pilgrimage to Graceland unravels into a sonic mirage of memory packed with humor, nostalgia and the love we cultivate across generations.

I’ve made a lot of new friends on this show and get to play with a really excellent band, including lead singer Sahar Milani, guitarist Maya Sharpe, and Mel Hsu on bass.

Here are some setup shots:

I’m playing a delightfully acoustic setup: 5-piece Gretsch kit with darbuka, triangle, tambourine, and wood block.

The view of our lead singer, Sahar Milani, from my seat. We are on the second story of the set that has windows that open up to reveal the band.

Of course I need the Miller Machine to make this show happen!

The array of sticks I’m using

Me with Maya Sharpe and Mel Hsu. We are the Flaming Sultans!

Out Today: Her Sound, Vol. 3

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The final installment of Ethan Carlson’s Her Sound project is out today! These 3 albums (more about the first two here) were a great professional achievement for me, as I tracked every single percussion instrument—and there were many—by myself.

When I was asked to record Vol. 1, I had one single USB microphone and could only use my weekly allotted slots at a studio space that I shared with others. I made it work. It wasn’t easy. In fact, it was downright frustrating. So frustrating that it was the impetus I needed to invest many, many dollars into recording equipment and my own studio space that I can use around the clock. These two improvements were game-changers. It was still incredibly difficult to perform and engineer at the same time, but I could now record at my own pace with much higher quality gear.

I’m really proud of this project, and of Ethan, and of producer Ryan Scott Oliver who I’ve known for quite some time. Give a listen below!

That's a Wrap: Between the Lines

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I had the great pleasure of subbing for the wonderful Adam Wolfe on an off-Broadway show called Between the Lines for the last month+. I first met Adam in 2018 while he was playing percussion for another off-Broadway show. We both come from an orchestral background and really value applying our knowledge in that realm to the theater world.

Between the Lines features a massive percussion setup, including drum set, several mallet instruments, hand drums, and electronics. While there were certainly some technical passages in the show, the hardest part was getting down the “choreography” of the book: knowing when and where to pick up which mallets, when to flip pages, which conductor camera to look off of for queues, etc… Learning this show really taught me that my MM stands for Mallet Management in addition to Master of Music :-)

Here I am with my wife and the set of BTL. I was so excited for her to see the shows because there are few things she likes more than musical theater and books, and this show is a combination of the two!

I had a blast learning and playing this book and will certainly miss the show. I am hopeful that it lives on in one way or the other after it closes this coming weekend.

Up next: Hound Dog at Ars Nova.

Six at the Tonys

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Major congratulations to everyone at Six: The Musical on an excellent night at the Tonys, including wins for Best Original Score (Toby Marlow & Lucky moss) and Best Costume Design of a Musical (Gabriella Slade). It is a true honor to get to play this show from time to time. Thank you to Elena Bonomo for trusting me with your chair when you’re away and to the rest of the band —Julia, Michelle, Kimi, and Marianna—for always making me feel welcomed. Here’s a little clip from last night’s performance ICYMI. I can’t wait to get behind the drums there this week!

That's a Wrap: Dory Fantasmagory

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I just wrapped a 4-weekend run of Dory Fantasmagory, Russ Kaplan and Sarah Wordsworth’s adaption of the popular children’s book. We even got a nice little Times write-up going into the last weekend!

Even though it meant giving up weekend mornings for a month, I loved showing up to work at Theatre Row to play for the kiddos. The best part was that I could see the audience from the drum booth! Each show started with an imagination exercise led by one of the teachings artists of New York City Children’s Theater and it was so fun and hilarious to get to watch the kids participate. I’m hopeful that this show will live on and I hear there may be a sequel in the works!

March Photos

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March has already been full of many wonderful gigs so I thought I’d share some pictures!

L to R: Your truly, Najee Gabay, Mason Griffin, Sean Stephens, and Beda Spindola

First up, Sean Stephens’ Redemption of a 90s Kid at 54 Below. To say I had the perfect shirt for this show is an understatement! This set was an absolute blast to play. We opened with Reba McEntire’s “Fancy” and I haven’t been able to get this video out of my mind since I started working on this song. Absolutely epic.

L to R: Or Matias, Shoba Narayan, James Mohamdein, and Tim Basom. Photo by Rebecca J. Michelson.

Next, I got to play with literal Disney Princess Shoba Narayan at 54. Shoba is the first ever South Asian to play Jasmine in Broadway’s Aladdin. She is stunningly gorgeous and has the voice to match! My personal highlight was playing Stephen Schwartz’s “When You Believe” with Shoba and Lindsay Heather Pearce who currently stars as Elphaba in Wicked.

Then, I got to celebrate the third anniversary of Brass Queens on International Women’s Day! Major shouts to Wandering Barman, a lovely cocktail bar here in my neighborhood, for being exceptional hosts.

I left Wandering Barman as soon as we finished playing because I had to get up at 6am to drive to PS 277 Gerritsen Beach to play with Dawn Drake’s ZapOte for the third grade class. Dawn talked about the music of the Americas and we demonstrated salsa, funk, and samba. They asked a lot of great questions and picked up on the rhythms impressively quickly! Thanks to the Brooklyn Arts Council for sponsoring this engagement.

Video: Brass Queens at Brooklyn

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I played Brooklyn Bowl for the first time since 2016 last week with Brass Queens. It felt so good to be back on the stage there, a place where I’ve seen countless incredible shows, ate so much delicious fried chicken, and probably had, oh I don’t know, one or two beers over the last 10+ years (it looks like Brooklyn Blast is no longer on tap which is honestly probably for the best).

I made a little highlight real from some of the clips my wife was kind enough to shoot. I was so proud of the Brass Queens that night! Everyone brought their A-game. I’m hopeful that we’ll be invited back soon!

That's a Wrap: Season 5 of The Grinch!

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My fifth season of the Grinch has come to a close. It is such an honor to present this production across the country. I continue find such joy in this music, year after year. It was a shorter than usual tour this year, but I made the best of my time in Paducah, Charlotte, and Atlanta. Much love to my entire Grinch family. Fah who foraze!

Layoff!

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Due to union regulations, the entire Grinch orchestra minus the Music Director and Associate Music Director had a two-week layoff at the end of November. The rest of the company traveled to DC for two weeks at the National Theater where they picked up local musicians, including Danny Villanueva, my friend and mentor from my University of Maryland days, who took over the drum book.

I didn’t mind at all as it meant I could travel to California to spend Thanksgiving with my wife and her family. I had a nice time in the warmer weather, but I did need to practice a lot as I am starting to sub on the new Broadway show, Six (more on that when the time comes). Special thanks to my in-laws, Alex & Alicia, for letting me set up shop in Alex’s studio so I could practice on a rental kit. Here I am with some of Alex’s record collection. There’s some good stuff in there!

After a week out west, I got back to New York and had just enough time to fit in a recording session at Power Station before hopping back on Grinch tour. It was a mini Lightning Thief reunion with Wiley Deweese (keys and MD), Yuka Tadano (bass), and Kevin Wunderlich (guitar). We recorded a new anthology for The Michael Friedman Collection with a group of fantastic singers. Here I am set up in “the Motown Room.”

Of course my favorite part of the project was that my lifelong friend Ian Kagey, Director of Operations at Power Station, was behind the board. We’ve been working together for over 20 years!

Now I am in Atlanta and about to open the last week of Grinch at the Fabulous Fox. Stay tuned for a little Grinch write-up once I’m back from tour next week.

We are definitely back

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I just wrapped what was certainly my busiest week of playing since the pandemic began. If my calculations are correct, I logged 4 gigs in a week which doesn’t sound that crazy until you factor in the 19 hours of rehearsal (actual number!) that these shows required.

On Monday, I had a morning rehearsal for Prospect Theater’s Tuesday night REIGNITE concert. Before the concert, we had a 5-hour tech rehearsal where we worked out the staging for 15 different songs, each featuring a different vocalist or vocal ensemble. It was my first time playing at Symphony Space in at least ten years! I thought the drums looked great on the stage!

On Monday and Thursday, I had rehearsals for the Selena project I’m in. We played a Dia de los Muertos party on Saturday night at what is normally a restaurant in Ditmas Park. It turned out to be a great place for a concert. We sold the place out! I didn’t take any pictures except for this blurry one with percussionist Neil Ochoa. That dude can play.

Before the Selena gig, I played a super fun Halloween gig with Brass Queens at the Zo Loft in Rockefeller Center. I thought one of the coolest parts was that I got to venture down to the loading dock that services all of RocCen to load in my drums and park my car while I was at the event. It blew my mind that I entered the loading dock at 50th street and drove a block and a half underground to get to 1 RocCen. There’s a whole world down there! Brass Queens repurposed their custom Stella McCartney jumpsuits made for the Met Gala into “Brasstronaut” suits. I LOVED IT!

The final show of the week was Drew Gasparini’s show last night at “Broadway’s Living Room,” 54 Below. This has become the cabaret spot in NYC. The energy in that room is always electric and Drew really brought down the house. I last played with Drew in the Bahamas in February 2020 for a presentation of his coming-to-Broadway show, the Karate Kid.

The craziest part of the week, perhaps, was the rehearsal for Drew’s show, which was at Euphoria Studios, the place I was rehearing on 3/12/2020 when it became suddenly clear that the world was shutting down. On my way in I passed the Sweetgreen we ate lunch at that day and the matcha shop that we stopped at for a quick pick-me-up. Coincidentally, the bass player on Drew’s gig, Justin Goldner, was the MD for that rehearsal in March. It was all very surreal.

Again, I only took one photo last night and it was with Erica Rotstein, Drew’s manager and one of the producers from Hundred Days, who happens to be married to my lifelong friend Ian Kagey. It was great to get to catch up over a drink at the end of a very long week!

I think that’s it! Thanks for following along. Now it’s time to pack for Grinch tour which kicks off on Saturday!