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Cindy
Blackman is a gorgeous woman with a charming demeanor
and a great drummer with an aggressive style of
playing. She has has a wonderful musical resume.
She has a very positive attitude about being a
female drummer in a man's world. "It
doesn't matter, male, female or whatever, I love
the competitiveness." Originally from
Ohio, she is now living in Brooklyn.
One
of the main things that brought her to New York
was her competitive spirit. Cindy believes
that competition pushes her to better herself.
She has played with great musicians such as Joe
Henderson, Jackie McLean, Hugh Masekela and Lenny Kravitz.
I
was able to relate to Cindy because jazz has always
been one of my first loves. Jazz is an art form
that is forever evolving.
It
is always vital. Of course, jazz is not
always accepted by the mainstream or is the standard
music played at soccer stadiums. Nevertheless,
Cindy has played drums behind Kravitz at
a soccer stadium in Europe, on the
same program as Aeromith.
To
Cindy, jazz is best performed in intimate, small
clubs. In this setting she gets a feeling of the
people who are there, and the other musicians.
She believes "It's an acoustic situation.
You are close-knit and you are creating one hundred
percent of the time -- so to me it just doesn't
really get any better that!"
I
imagine that when Cindy plays jazz, she has the
thrill of living in the moment -- a joy that people
like myself rarely ever experience. As a
photographer I must wait for the picture to develop.
As a product developer, I must wait for the product
to hit the stores. Gratification is delayed.
However, as a musician, Cindy can experience fulfillment
in the moment and that is wonderful.
Many
great drummers, great musicians and great musical
personalities influenced and shaped Cindy's playing
style such as Tony Williams, Art Blakey, Philly
Joe Jones, Roy Haynes, Max Roach, Dizzy Gillespie,
Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Billie
Holiday and Pete La Rocca. In other words,
Cindy draws from a wide variety of jazz legends.
Pete
La Rocca also has a reputation as a timbale player
that has translated into his particular style
of drumming. That is one of the things Cindy
loves about him. He plays what Cindy calls
a one-handed timbale style on drums. She
describes it as incredible. Some of the
people who know La Rocca well are aware that his
original name was Pete Simms. He made up
the name "La Rocca" so that it would
sound more Latin. As a seventeen your old,
Pete would do battle on timbale with the King,
Tito Puente a the Park Plaza ballroom in New York
City.
Regarding
Latin music performers, Giovanni Hidalgo amazed
Cindy. She thinks his playing is incredible.
She also likes Fort Apache Band and thinks Jerry
Gonzalez and Steve Berrios are terrific.
Drummer Steve Berrios showed her ways to get different
sounds out of different drums.
Cindy
Blackman is a very productive woman. Not
only has she worked with Lenny Kravitz for six
years, she also leads her own groups, has her
own recordings and CDs, and freelances with different
people. She has 5 CDs out, the latest is called
"In The Now" from High Note Records.
Playing on the CD are established, great musicians
like Ron Carter, Ravi Coltrane, and Jackie Terrasson.
She also has another CD that will be released
within the next couple of months.
http://www.jazzcorner.com/blackman
To
learn more about Cindy Blackman,
CLICK
HERE.
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