Billy Ward Trio live videosI remember, years ago, Billy was getting ready to go on the road with Joan Osborne, and he sent me a last minute email. I’m an editor so he asked me to give him advice on a good, affordable DV camera. This was a time well before the advent of YouTube, and I thought it was cool that Billy was into using the power of digital video as a creative outlet and a teaching tool (it was some time after that tour that Billy and I got together to work on “Big Time” - Billy’s camera ended up as the all-important “footcam”). After two instructional videos and a few side projects, I’ve seen a lot of Billy-footage, but nothing from a live gig. Before I even met Billy, I saw him play with Joan Osborne a few times, and I’ve often told drummers: “you have to catch Billy on a gig!”. I was struck by how Billy handled himself on the bandstand, and always thought that was the final piece to all of the great info that he has covered on his DVDs. The Cutting Room gig in New York was sort of a warm up to the Trio’s ’08 Modern Drum Festival appearance, but it ended up being more than that. Billy sensed an opportunity to flex his video muscle, so he called on fellow drummer Charlie Mills (Iron Sound Productions) and myself to put together a video shoot to capture this rare NYC engagement. It was a guerrilla-style shoot and Charlie quickly got his DP Andy on board, recording engineer Bob Smith brought his laptop, a couple of mics, and they ran with it. Charlie handed off the footage and after a first round of rough cuts, I quickly noticed how great these videos are. The coverage is there but the footage has an intimate feel to it – it’s where the drummer would hang if he or she were in the club. From this position, it’s an opportunity to get a clear view of Billy’s techniques on the gig, useful ideas that he’s previously discussed on video and in his clinics. One definitely will see how he drives the band and navigates through this difficult, but beautiful music, keeping everyone together with his great onstage vibe. So there you go, finally a great way to catch Billy on a gig! An added bonus is the new material. Of course, some of these songs are not on “Out the Door” and they also were not played at the Modern Drummer Festival, so you’ll only find them here! Hope everyone enjoys it! - Neil Miller ...pay hereIt is up to YOU to set the price for this video footage. It costs money to produce this stuff, so I hope you are willing and able to help out with the costs. You won’t hear music played well in this world if the musicians cannot afford to play it, or record it, or videotape it. Pay securely, using your credit card and PayPal here: or send a check to: ...download here01_Shanti.mov (5:02) 100MB To download these to your local hard-drive, right-click (or cmd-click, on a Mac) on the link, and choose "Save link as..." Please note that these are some big files, but are a very high quality--please be patient.
You'll probably want the latest version of QuickTime or iTunes in order to play these files. Check out the Rehearsal TapesThese recordings were made by the BW Trio, while rehearsing for the 2008 Modern Drummer Festival. They were captured live from the floor of Billy's living room on Wednesday, September 17th 2008.
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