Morello: ‘You’re Everywhere. Like Tapeworm’

Joe Morello

SKF NOTE: “Scott Fish?” Joe Morello said, shaking my hand. “You’re everywhere. Like tapeworm.” It was 1979-1980. As a freelance writer I interviewed Joe Morello in 1979 for a Modern Drummer feature interview, later moving to Saratoga Springs, NY.

It was a tough transitional time in my life, personally and financially. I had given up on my lifelong dream of earning a living as a professional drummer and I had no backup plan. Age 28, starting life over.

So when I read in a local newspaper Joe Morello was playing in Schenectady, NY, I scraped together the money to go. The venue might have been the still existing Van Dyck Lounge.

An indication of my state of mind at the time, I can’t be sure if Morello had a trio or a quartet. Neither do I recall anything about Joe’s drumset except for his natural wood snare drum. I was surprised to not see Joe playing his signature Ludwig 400 Supra-Phonic snare drum.

When Morello’s group took a break, I went up and re-introduced myself. “Hi Mr. Morello. Scott Fish. I interviewed you for Modern Drummer a while back.”

Shaking my hand, cocking his head to one side, Joe said, “Scott Fish? You’re everywhere. Like tapeworm.” I asked Joe about his snare drum. He said it was an Eames snare drum and he asked how it sounded.

“It sounds a little choked,” I said. Joe was making adjustments to the snare several times during his group’s first set. To my ears, the drum did not sound as open and crisp as Morello’s Ludwig .

Joe nodded, telling me it was a new snare drum built for him by a “a kid,” I learned later  was Joe MacSweeney.

“How does the group sound?” Joe asked me. “It sounds good,” I said. “You could bring the mic on the acoustic piano up just a bit. It’s hard to hear when he solos. The volume is fine when he’s comping, but not when he’s soloing.”

I went back and rejoined friends at my table. A few minutes later, Joe Morello is standing at my table with the club owner. “This is Scott Fish,” Joe says, introducing me to the club owner. ” Joe asked me to repeat to the club owner what I said about the piano mic volume. So, I did.

It seemed to me the club owner was not pleased with this meeting, not sure why he should care what Scott Fish thought about the club sound system levels. Had Joe Morello not been standing there, my sense was the club owner would have told me to get lost.

“Just a little bit,” I assured the club owner. “It sounds great, but instead of being able to enjoy the whole group while the pianist is soloing, I have to strain to hear the piano solos. And that takes away from hearing the group sound.”

During the second set the piano volume was indeed a bit louder. Just right.

Looking back, that Schenectady night was a unique convergence in the world of drumming. Not long after, I was offered and accepted the newly created Managing Editor’s spot at Modern Drummer. Joe MacSweeney went on to a great career building legendary Eames drums and drumsets. And Joe Morello’s career continued expanding as a performer, a teacher, and as one of the Last of the Red Hot Drummers.

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Maine Musicians Memorialize Lewiston Shooting in Song

Pine Cone Records
https://pineconerecords.com

For Immediate Release
May 6, 2024

For more information:
Contact: Scott K Fish, 207-458-7185 
scottkfish@gmail.com

Maine Musicians Memorialize Lewiston Shooting in Song

TURNER, ME — “Private Person,” a new song by Maine musicians Jason J. Carey and Scott K Fish, tells the story of the October 2023 Lewiston, ME mass shootings by Robert Card, imagining how history might have changed if just one of several authorities had heeded the warnings and calls to help the troubled Card.

“Card referred to himself as a ‘private person.’ The night Card went on his rampage, we had already been working several months on a video documentary about mental illness, particularly about the difficulty getting sufferers proper help, because of the nature of the illness, and the lack of available resources,” said Carey.

The Lewiston shooting tragedy was an awful demonstration of the worst aspects of mental illness.

A man in denial clearly in need of help
Family and friends pleading with authorities to help the man
Authorities ignoring or dismissing the calls for help
And finally, the man reaching a mental breaking point

After absorbing news stories laced with quotes from victims’ family members, Card’s family, law enforcement officials, military personnel, elected officials, and the general public – Fish and Carey responded to the shooting through song.

“Private Person” imagines what conversations might have gone through the shooter’s head, as well as conversations about what went wrong, and how we could have done better, taking place in Lewiston and Statewide.

Fish said, “Someone with mental illness often doesn’t know they’re ill. That’s part of what makes sufferers tough to help.”

“Add to that a shortage of trained mental health professionals, a lack of mental health facilities. We basically ask our neighbors with mental illness to fend for themselves,” said Carey.

“Private Person” makes clear that doing nothing is neither a strategy nor an option.

How many times should someone have to ask for help before help is given?

Carey and Fish hope “Private Person” will help persuade people to consider the wisdom, the humanity, the decency, of providing a helping hand to individuals grappling with mental illness.

Private Person is available at: https://pineconerecords.com/privateperson

Can You Find Sherrie’s Stolen Drumset?

SKF NOTE: Thank you in advance to the humanitarian who helps drummer/bandleader Sherrie Maricle get back her stolen Yamaha Bebop Kit. Sherrie tells the story at the end of this post.

Stealing a musician’s instrument, IMO, is akin to stealing someone’s ability to communicate. It is a particularly loathsome act.

If you have a Facebook account you can reach Sherrie here.

You can also reach Sherrie through her website.

Here’s my recent audio interview with Sherrie:

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Sherrie Maricle is feeling emotional in New York City.

Today I found myself seriously pining away for my stolen drum set. It’s been 12 years, but since I know a lot more people in the drum business now, I’ve reposted the info below in case anyone sees it for sale.

HELLO FRIENDS…My drum set was stolen from my car on Dec 09th from my car at 38th Street & Park Ave in NYC. PLEASE help me find it…there’s a REWARD! Yamaha Maple Custom (gold lugs w/ 1 birch rim on the bass drum): SIZES 18″ bass, 12″ tom, 14″ floor tom, 5-1/2″ snare, 4 cymbal stands, hi-hat stand, snare stand, bass pedal, throne & tom mount. Yamaha soft cases. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Keith Copeland’s Short Biography

SKF NOTE: I rediscovered my Keith Copeland interview transcript in July 2015. Keith and I spoke over dinner at a Centre Island, NY restaurant. I have forgotten the restaurant name. Neither do I remember how this interview came to pass. But re-reading the transcript for the first time in about 30 years, I am impressed! Keith and I had a good rapport, both asking very good questions and giving very good answers.

When I began posting segments from Mr. Copeland’s transcript I could not remember when, if at all, the interview was published. I left MD in October 1983. With my interviews published after that date I’m missing memories of the hands-on work of putting together the MD issue involved.

Then by year 2017, Copeland’s interview was available in MD’s archives.

This is Copeland’s handwritten “short biography.” I came across it in a box of drum business papers and wanted to add it to the worldwide web for present and future searchers of Keith Copeland information.

DeChristopher: Remembering Freddie Gruber With Special Guests! Part 1

SKF NOTE: Thank you, John DeChristopher, for hosting a long overdue podcast tribute to Freddie Gruber. This two-part Zoom session with some of the world’s great drummers is a must see, especially for Gruber skeptics. The conversation, the sharing of stories about hanging with Gruber, taking drum lessons from Gruber, in Part 1 includes Vinnie Colaiuta, Dave Weckl, Jim Keltner, Steve Smith, Bruce Becker, Don Lombardi, Mark Schulman, and others.

I’d probably be remiss if I didn’t also mention there are a number of Gruber posts, audio and text, on this blog. These Gruber excerpts are taken from my interview with Gruber for Modern Drummer.

Keltner on Rich

Screenshot

SKF NOTE: Re-reading drummer Jim Keltner’s interview in the November 1981 Modern Drummer, something he said about Buddy Rich made me smile. I decided it warrants reposting.

Here’s part of what I wrote about Keltner at the start of his MD interview:

Trying to establish a representative interview with Jim Keltner requires a sense of humor. The way he plays drums and the way he is seem to be so alike. Talk to Jim on Monday about drum heads, for instance, and you’ll get a different answer than you would if you asked again on Friday. We conducted this interview on and off for several months, putting the finishing touches to it only weeks before publication.

I had forgotten all about our interview preparation, and how much I enjoyed talking about life and drums with Jim Keltner.

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Jim Keltner: Let me tell you something about Buddy Rich. Everybody says that he’s real conceited and you can’t talk to him, right? A few years ago, Emil Richards took me and my wife to see Buddy play at a musician’s night in a restaurant in Glendale. All the musicians in town were there—especially drummers!

So after his set—which was incredible—we all went back to see him in the dressing room. I’m just watching him sitting there and talking and having been buzzed on how he played so incredible.

He looked real small and kind of vulnerable. So I went over and I said, “Can I kiss you, man?” I reached down and kissed him on the cheek. Everybody in the room was thinking, “OH SHIT WHAT’S JIM DOING? HE’S CRAZY! BUDDY’S GONNA KILL HIM!”

But he was so gracious and beautiful. He understood where I was coming from. He could feel what I felt in my heart, you know. He is an incredible man. Everybody’s got a reputation of some sort if they’re in the limelight at all.