Zappa Drummers Roundtable

This is really interesting, Terry Bozzio hosts a roundtable discussion with Zappa drummers Ralph Humphrey, Chester Thompson, Chad Wackerman and the lovely Ruth Underwood.

All talk about their experiences playing with "The Man". The bit about Mahavishnu Orchestra opening for them is a real hoot on how blown away they all were on Billy Cobham's playing. Check it out.


The Drum Channel

Checkout the drum jam they do, with the exception of Ruth.


Drum Channel

I love how they all maintain a rythmic pulse throughout instead of just doing a bunch of superfast random tradeoff riffs. Chester is my favorite of the 4, he seems to come up with the "groove" that the rest follow and play around on.

Too bad Ruth didn't join in, but I guess when she retired, she went all the way. I bet she had to fend off the others with a sword, "Come on Ruth, we need your marimba! Do it for Frank!"

Just watched it all. Excellent stuff. The jam was fun and the roundtable was increadibly interesting and pretty informative.

Mark, thank you so much for that link. I am a drummer and a Zappa fan since '72. I've studied, copied, and idolized all of those guys (and gal)  since I was a kid. I just loved that whole thing. Thanks for finding it for us.

It's a real shame veteran drummer Jimmy Carl Black RIP is no longer with us to have participated in that roundtable. The stories he could've told about those early goofy Mother years would've probably been hilarious.