Mike Pride, Listening Party

Mike Pride, as many readers will know, is one of the leading, innovative drummers on the contemporary jazz scene. He's made a first solo album, Listening Party (Akord/Subkulturni Azil) that conceptually has more to it than one might expect from a solo drum album. Sure, it shows us a very inventive approach to the drum set as free music, but it extends outward to sound poetry via various means--electronics, glockenspiel, practice pads, natural sounds, vocalizing and so forth.

Making the drums eminently musical...it is not easy to do. Of course Max Roach and Andrew Cyrille (and Baby Dodds) pioneered such things in the recorded realm as well as live. This is Mike's own take on what can be done.

He succeeds in creating music-sound event worlds that keep you expectant through the sheer spectrum of events, making a contemporary new-music-improvisatory series of gestures that provoke and satisfy.

This is music that you can appreciate even if you are not a drummer, though drummers of course will find this fascinating as well.

Mike Pride is a creative cat, for sure, and he shows us just how imaginative, creative, and innovative he is on Listening Party. It's serious but it is fun to hear, too!

Bravo, Mike!