Summer Touring
Wednesday June 18 2008 2:51 PM

Its been a busy couple of months on the road. Ive been to Burlington, Boston, Charleston SC, Greenville, Greensboro, Raleigh, Charlotte, Birmingham, Roanoke, Richmond, Baltimore, Albany, Asheville, Atlanta, Athens, Knoxville, Columbia, and many other towns I cant quite remember. I also am starting to upload some videos to the media section of this site. FUN!


Jim, Al, Tom, Dr. John
Friday January 4, 2008 12:34 AM

Just got back from a great run down south with the Jamie McLean Band - Highlights included playing at The Bottletree in Birmingham and at the Saenger Theater with Dr. John in Mobile, Alabama. Fun Shows!

Recently I have been listening to and reading more about Jim Keltner, and his [and my] hero Al Jackson. I just picked up some classic Booker T & the MG's records to get a little deeper with Al Jackson Jr's playing. So soulful. I also just picked up John Hiatt's "Bring The Family" which features Jim Keltner, Nick Lowe on bass, and Ry Cooder on guitar. I feel lucky to be inspired so consistently this past year. On another note, I recently just watched the new Tom Petty documentary, which features not only some excellent footage of Steve Ferrone, but also has some interesting background stories about the band which I had never heard before. I just got my hands on a copy of the new tracks of The Point that I recorded with my brother Kevin a while back. I put up one of the tracks on the media page.

fall touring
Wednesday October 3, 2007 4:21 PM

This past summer was pretty eventful. I played some with Carbon Leaf in Richmond Virginia. I hope to do some touring / recording with them in the near future. Also, I toured with Jamie McLean in the southeast and I am looking forward to a full October with his band. We will be playing as far north as Burlington and as far south as New Orleans, including dates on the Echo Project music festival in Atlanta and the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans. Each of these festivals boasts quite an impressive lineup. Should be a good time. I have also been making more recordings with Cuzin D for his upcoming release.

summer of leisure
Tuesday July 3, 2007 9:55 PM

Summer update - I've been having some great fun playing with Jerry Fuentes and with Jamie McLean. Also, the mixes of 4 songs that I recorded with THE POINT are now posted up on myspace. They sound great. The track titled "Toad Finds Love" features some of my samba percussion musings which I tracked one day with Ross Bonadonna at Wombat Studios. Next up is some tracking with Jerry Fuentes for some of his newer songs, and a 2 week tour in the southeast with Jamie McLean.

back in town
Sunday March 4 2007 7:52 AM

I just got back from Rio last Sunday. Yet another great trip. I had a great zabumba lesson from Durval Pereira and a great repinique lesson from Macapart, who plays with the Rio de Janeiro based group Monobloco. I got to perform with some blocos and witness the global phenomenon known as rio carnaval. NOT TO BE MISSED!
Check the media page for 2 new tracks Irecorded in november with Jonti Siman on elec. bass, Erick Deutsch on piano and Aaron Jennings on elec. guitar.

I'm excited to get back in the studio with Dewey Kincade and producer Bob Brockman on Dewey's upcoming record. More to follow...

new sounds
Thursday November 30 2006 12:04 PM

In the last few months... a tour out west with the Navigators, some recordings with Neal Carlson and Cuzin D, some fun performances with Kevin Kendrick's "A Big Yes and a small no." We recently started tracking some songs at cowboy technical in brooklyn. Looking forward to the final mixes. I have also been playing some with Naçao do Samba, a great pagode group who plays at samba le in new york. Its been a great experience to learn more pandeiro from a true master, Carlos "Caco" Oliveira. I was also recently in the studio with Jonti Siman, Aaron Jennings and Erik Deutsch to experiment with some new pieces of mine. I will be sure to include some cuts on the site as soon as the mixes are complete.

In the kitchen
Wednesday May 31 2006 12:47 PM

Had some fun gigs this past weekend with my brother Kevin Griffin's band The Point and with Pablo Cubarle's Contramano. Looking forward to some more gigs with the Navigators in the next few weeks.

Check the media page for a new percussion experiment I conducted in my kitchen...

Brazil!
Thursday April 27 2006 12:01 PM

I just got back Tuesday morning from a terrific 2 week trip to Brazil. I had the tremendous experience of studying percussion with some true masters in Rio de Janeiro and in Salvador:

Junior Teixeira who plays tamborim and percussion with Monobloco and the Samba School Mangueira
Bernardo Aguiar, a master pandeiro player [check out some videos of his playing at http://www.pandeiro.com and http://www.brasilritmos.com]
Nelson Pestana, a great percussionist who I studied cuica with.
Gabriel Policarpo, the lead repinique player from the Samba School Viradouro [see videos of him at http://www.brasilritmos.com]
Antonio Kinhones Santo - a great samba drummer from Salvador who taught me some of the modern drum playing that is happening in Bahia.

Many thanks to
Mark Stehle
Chuck Silverman
Alex Shaw and Mike Stevens from Alo Brasil
and Philip Galinsky of Samba New York
for all of the help in finding great music and great musicians there.

I can't wait to go back.

some new music
Friday February 17 2006 12:49 AM

For those who did not know, Chris Whitley passed away in November 2005. His music has been inspiring to me, and I hope to spread the word and keep his music alive. I'm glad I got to see him perform a few times, and I hope to meet more people who are also touched by his art.

Some great additions to my music library:
Mike Viola - just before dark: beautiful singing, writing and arranging by one of new york city's finest voices.
Seu Jorge - cru: a terrific brazilian pop album with sparse arrangements with only traditional brazilian percussion.
Escola De Samba Mocidade Independente De Padre Miguel - Fantastica Batucada: possibly brazil's tightest samba bateria.
Martha Wainwright - Martha Wainwright

The past few months I have started learning some middle eastern and brazilian percussion which has been quite fun. I also played on some recordings with Wells Hanley, The Navigators, and Neal Carlson, which are all hopefully soon to be released.

back in the digital saddle
Monday October 3 2005 2:57 PM

So its been 10 months since my last update. Been busy with the Navigators, Neal Carlson, and some jamming with the Jon Alexander Band and the Disco Biscuits. I'm looking forward to jamming at one of their sold out shows this coming november in Atlantic City. Also, the Navigators are headed into the studio next week to cut some tracks with producer/guitarist Eric "Roscoe" Ambel.

I recently picked up some custom drums by Nodar Rode. a 12" rack tom, a 14" floor tom and a 20" kick drum. Great tone. Easy to tune. Check out his stuff!

left coast bound again
Tuesday November 30 9:20 AM

Headed to San Diego soon for a week of RVing.

I finished a two week run down the east coast with the Navigators ealier this month. Despite some transportation horrors, there were some good times and some good learning experiences. Many thanks to The Clumsy Lovers for all of their help.

I'm recording in two weeks with Bob Sabin, Mark Stanley and Jason Rigby for a new project of Bob's. It should be quite interesting. Also, Big On Sleep made some serious headway into tracking our first full demo. I got to track some using a vintage Ludwig kit with monstrously huge drums. It was quite fun.

whats up
Monday September 13, 2004 9.22AM

I recorded yesterday with Ross again for the Wombat Recording Workshop. It was a lot of fun. He gets such a great sound over there, and he is getting deeper into experiminting with popular song themes but in a very open and exploratory format.

I've also been quite busy rehearsing and learning songs for The Navigators, which is a country/rock band that I just started playing for. They have some great songs and some great gigs coming up. Its fun to be involved with a band with an upright bass player but in a more pop setting. It lends to having more "air" in the sound, which makes me think of more open and ringing drum sounds.

left coast bound
Sunday July 18, 2004 6:31PM

I'm Headed to L.A. at the end of this week to do a brief tour with Boston-based band The Tint next week in and around Hollywood. Check their site http://www.thetint.net for details.

foot action
Thusday, May 27, 2004 12:30 AM

I've found some new ideas for rudiments to practice. Using a random number generator, I've come up with some sticking patterns which employ left, right AND both sticking. For example, instead of endless LRLL RLRR sticking combinations which yield a more "linear" sound when applied around the kit, Ive been thinking about using L R and B, where B stands for "both".
This way, there are more flams and double stops involved, producing a thicker sound. the simplest permutation of this which I've been working out is just practicing flam taps between my feet. [LBRB LBRB]
and I hope to work that up with plenty of other sticking combinations with my hands around the kit. I like the thicker sound it gets, since now there is more possibility for more drum sounds to hit at all the same time. I have learned this idea from Bob Moses and from looking at some of John Riley's transcriptions in his book "Beyond Bop Drumming."

ELVIN JONES
Sept. 9, 1927 - May 18, 2004



Elvin, you inspired so many of us. Thank you.

superbowl sundae
Sunday, February 1, 2004 2:16PM

...and I know my plans are to go see project grudge at CBGB's tonight. It features Jon Golberger, Jason Gillenwater, Russ Johnson, Eivind Opsvik and Jeff Davis. I can't believe I haven't caught them yet.

On another note, I've finally started editing the sidecar demo. It should be quite interesting. I'm also considering writing a little more, and recording some more with them, to add to the demo. We'll see. I've spent some time recently with Wayne Krantz's latest album, Your Basic Live. Everybody's playing is fantastic. I'll always be fascinated and drawn toward Jack DeJohnette style fragmented post bop drumming. And Keith takes it to a unique place when he is with the Wayne Krantz trio.

I'm looking forward to a few New York gigs in the next few weeks, including the debut performance of Big On Sleep at the Luna Lounge. Check "events" for the deets.

happy holidays
Sunday, December 28, 2003 11:49AM

I just put up two more excerpts from the sidecar session last spring on to the media page. As for the tech realm, I've continued entertaining the saga of protools v. digital performer for a future investment. I'd like to start recording here at home, and I'm quite sure that I'd like to be able to swap files with other studios. It looks like pro tools wins out on that one.

As far as live triggering goes, it looks like my korg sampler is going to move over and make way for this bad boy powerbook. It's been a little too easy to use software samplers to play files when triggered by a drum controller. And thanks to the OS X developments, there is not nearly as much latency when triggering drum sounds from my computer as there was with Apple's OS 9.
Other than that, I recorded a few songs with Bret Reilly last week, which was a tremendous experience. He is a clever songwriter and a great singer. You can hear some of his music in the films Dumb and Dumber, Me Myself and Irene and There's Something about Mary I hope to play and record with him in the future and I'll be sure to include a cut on the media page once it is finished.

Over the last few weeks I have been listening to a live Donny Hathaway album, which features Willie Weeks on electric bass. Recently, I decided to look him up on the internet to see what other bands he has been involved with, and what I found is a wealth of recording credits. Click here to look at a list of all the diverse talent that WIllie Weeks has worked with. It is trully impressive.

all day sucker
Monday, November 17, 2003 1:41AM

I just walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, and had the opportunity to work on some screech/falcetto singing along with my iPod (graciously donated by Pants). I've never taken my singing too seriously, but occasionally after a great shower or car vocal session, I'll feel the need to put in some time to see if I can get to a higher level of Stevie Wonder impersonation. As the title of this entry suggests, I've been stuck on Stevie Wonder and also a live Donny Hathaway album. They both feature some really incredible singing and some deep pocket rhythm section performances.

I had a great time playing with Lila at CB's Gallery on Saturday night. I'm looking forward to recording some new songs that Naren has been working on. I met James Genus on the street the other day. He's an incredible bass player whose career has spanned electric bass fusion projects like Steely Dan and the Brecker Brothers to some virtuosic doublebass playing in a few of the Dave Douglas ensembles.

Tonight was Michael Ross's birthday hang at his place in Bushwick. It was great to reconnect with some trully creative forces whom I haven't seen in a long time. Michael, who used to live here on Dean street, is an incredible artist and musician himself. His work can be seen on the Madagascar institute site http://www.madagascarinstitute.com and on his personal site http://nonson.rickety.net. Also in attendance were John from the 00agents, Nicole Whelan from Fur Cups For Teeth and Dean Street veterans Gus and Steph of the band Aqui.

As for my own news, I successfully integrated some live triggering with acoustic drums with a certain low end sampler and drum trigger system on Saturday afternoon with the band(?) Big On Sleep. It was a big moment. I've triggered some fx before on the occasional Sidecar session, but this is the first time that I have triggered fx and loops in time with a full band playing a through-composed song. I must admit it was pretty fun.

beach
Monday, November 3, 2003 12:16PM

Just got back last night from a great weekend at Bethany Beach with the McLaughlins. Music highlights included an allstar porch jam with Tim Lyons of Dr. Awkward and Shane Mclaughlin of Band of Blue. Adventure highlights include my first ever excursion to the "Punkin Chunkin". For those who have never witnessed it, the Punkin Chunkin is the NASCAR of homemade pumpkin throwers. I kid you not. Pumpkin funnel cakes, corndogs and a cooler of rootbeers are the mainstay snack for a spectator of these inventions in action, which range from faulty/deadly garage-style catapult thowers to NASA-configured neumatic pumpkin canons.

In other news, last Wednesday was the first Rev 99 performance, which was quite inspiring. It has a brand new look and a brand new feel this year.

hella busy
Friday, October 24, 2003 8:12PM

Last night I got together with Eivind Opsvik and Aaron Jennings and recorded some snare drum for their upcoming Opsvik/Jennings release. Their music is beautiful, and I can't wait to hear the finished result. You can read more about them on www.eivindopsvik.com.

In addition to finishing my first commercial web project last week, I played in Atlantic City this past week with Smit-Haus for a party for a radio show. It was a late, but fun one. I'm looking forward to working on some new songs and also playing with the boys at the Mercury Lounge this coming week. Check here for details.

The Rev 99 season is also now in full swing, and Hooker and Donald have created some incredible concepts and some pretty stimulating if not stunning and shocking imagery for us all to work with. I'm quite excited about lending some electronic noise to the whole outfit. It seems a lot clearer, sharper and vivid so far. Stay tuned to the events page for future performances. Thanks to Jaybill for joining Rev 99 on audio creation and manipulation as well as lending his online community space for intra Rev 99 banter and media testing.

I've played once with "Big on Sleep," a new band featuring Jonathan Goldberger and two of his buddies, Andy and Jason. The music is pretty intriguing. Their guitar parts are all singable and line-oriented, and they have an uncanny approach with samples and protools editing. They maintain some grit and classic rock sense with some slightly urban sounding beats and some comical samples behind their songs.

Other than that, I'm looking forward to playing with them this weekend and playing with Force Theory at a private party on Saturday night. On Sunday is the DV Walk, which I will be volunteering at with Oyster Arts for their Arts fair. You can read more about that event at www.dvwalk.org

soho sightings
Wednesday, October 8, 2003 6:55PM

Ok, so there hasn't been a whole lot to update, but now I feel its necessary to mention the people I have met/bumped into/or seen on the street near broadway and houston within the last three weeks.
(1) Christopher Walken. There's no mistaking true genius when it walks in SoHo carrying a Prada bag.
(2) Natalie Portman. What a doll. Had she not been on her cell phone I might have taken the leap to invite her to some soft-serve.
(3) Anthony Kiedis. The guy looks good. I welcomed him to New York. He said thanks.
and today, (4) Dennis Chambers. One of my long time personal Heroes. Drummer extraordinaire. Check out is amazing feel on Steely Dan's "Alive in America".

the davieses
Saturday, September 27, 2003 9:23AM

Congratulations and best wishes to Jeff and Kris Davis on their wedding day today! I am looking forward to a great memorable wedding, and seeing lots of good friends who happen to be some of New York's most tremendous artists.

Thanks to everyone involved with the Dave Matthews concert in Central Park on Wednesday night. It was a remarkable experience.

dub bass and no hurricane
Saturday, September 20, 2003 1:42PM

The gig last night with Sidecar was a lot of fun. As always, I learned a bit more about what my tendencies are in a completely improvisational situation, and where I have plenty of room to grow. I did have moderate success improvising with and playing my Korg ES-1 along with Aaron and Eivind. I particularly enjoy the hands on live feel that this drum machine has, and I was able to pull off some tempo matching when I wanted to switch from playing a beat on my drums straight to a sequenced beat. Thanks to all who came out.

This morning I practiced some bass along with some pop records and a little dancehall reggae which my roomate was listening to. I'm a bit fired up about playing some bass, since my fender jazz bass was just completely overhauled by world renowned luthier, Carl Thompson. It plays great and it sounds great.
Other than than, not much on the docket for this weekend, some more practicing and perhaps some partying.

Swiss Triplets
Wednesday, September 17, 2003 9:19AM

First off, its my sister Kerry Griffin's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIDDO! I sat in last night at Freddy's with "Weve" a funk jazz group featuring Sean Nowell and Vinnie Sperrazza. I must say Vinne sounds incredible. And he got me thinking about swiss triplets and a few other rudiments [that I don't know the names of] and how to start moving them around the kit more creatively. At times his playing reminded me of Joey Baron. Other than that, still slaving away for a certain unnamed designer in Soho, wishing I could be practicing or rehearsing or at least playing frisbee somewhere.

Take 2
Tuesday, September 16, 2003 0:42 AM

So here is my second entry. Haven't had much time to practice much in the last day or two, but since seeing Jojo Mayer, I have been thinking about digging more heavily into "Future Sounds" which is a terrific funk method book by none other than David Garibaldi. Its amazing that there is so much material to digest for just snare, kick and hi-hat. I just came from Naren Rauch's place, and he played me some of the latest mixes of the Lila album we have been working on. It sounds terrific, and I hope to have some cuts available up here soon.

Opening Ceremonies.
Sunday, September 13, 2003 7:02 PM

Hey y'all, welcome to brinoceros.com. I'm new to the web world, so don't expect much in the way of design. I just thought I'd pick a corner of the web to share some of my music ideas and experiences. So here goes: I played with Force Theory last night in our first live performance. It was the first time I have performed live with a click track. I was thrilled to have a Janet Jackson / Brittany type of playing situation with a live band in addition to a sequenced track. Some of the rehearsals were very successful, but I did learn that the nervousness of not knowing the material cold lent to a tendency to jump ahead of the click a touch. Thanks to everyone involved for this great new experience.

This morning I stopped by Ross's place to hear his latest efforts in our Wombat Music Workshop recording. About a week ago, he and I ran tape while we played free on electric bass and drums. Since then, he has overdubbed saxophones, some piano and some electric guitar on top of the existing tracks, without editing or changing the initial duo performance. I was blown away by his compositional playing on both saxophones and guitar. I'm quite inspired by this project and I'm looking forward to playing and collaborating more with Ross.

I 'm headed out tonight to check out Jojo Mayer's latest party in Brooklyn. For those who don't know, Jojo sits at the head of the table in New York's live electronica scene. His live breakbeat drumming lends itself toward some live breakbeat drooling. Should be a good time.