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Terry Bozzio: Prime Cuts When you’re listening, don’t look so much for signposts in a musician’s development. It’s more as if you’re witnessing concepts come to fruition. And for that thing to happen, that goal of all serious musicians, there must be a forum. Magna Carta has provided that forum. After all, it’s not just any record company that’ll stick its neck out for such daring tracks as some that you will find in this collection of Bozzio drum treasures. Enjoy this “Terry Bozzio retrospective”, which consists of Terry solo and Terry in the best of possible company. Newly recorded especially for this album, “Sick Jazz Surgery” sees Terry making a rare return to the jazz ride cymbal rhythm. The “surgery” begins when that triplet-based vamp changes to straight ahead rock. Orchestral bells solo and chime uncannily. The vacillation between triplet and eighth notes creates tension, as do the eerie, “rolling clouds” synth pads. A Zawinul-ish keyboard theme emerges. Sixteen bars in, it is jarred by progressively challenging drum statements, until the breakdown to languid, hypnotic synth lines. “Bleeding from the ears,” the doctor observes. You - the patient - feel cast adrift, perhaps towards that white light above. In “Dangerous” (From Bozzio Levin Stevens’ “Situation Dangerous”), a message comes through the radiophone: “The situation is dangerous”. Immediately we launch into a rollicking Zeppelin-ish vamp. Respite comes with a half-time groove, during which Terry and Tony nail it down while Stevens spins triplets over top. Ostensibly, Terry is plundering on bass drums and rimshot snare, but listen closer and catch the subtle extrapolations on metal percussion. Next is “Dreaming in Titanium” (from Jordan Rudess’ “Feeding The Wheel”). Titanium—well, yes, there is a bright sheen hovering over this lithe bit of funk, with its percolating bells and synth. Before long it yields to lush piano, the soundtrack to a forties movie. Terry, ever the percussionist, is executing timp parts on pitched toms, punctuating with orchestral hand cymbals. A frisky theme, initially in 6/8 takes us back to the sheen, and to a compelling Rudess solo. “Last Call” (from Explorers Club’s “Age Of Impact” ) marks the entry of “proper” vocals and the allegoric theme of human struggle that rivals the journeys of Tull and early Crimson. An all-star cast on this album includes Billy Sheehan, John Petrucci, Steve Howe, James Murphy, Matt Guillory, and Derek Sherinian. The vocals are courtesy of Dream Theatre’s James LaBrie. Terry leads this heady team firmly, his drumming exhibiting pure power in its strong-handed reconciliation of diverse parts. And now for an unreleased gem, originally recorded during the sessions for Bozzio Levin Stevens’ “Blacklight Syndrome”: “Walking Dream” from Bozzio, Levin (and a tacet) Stevens. Levin gently chords while Bozzio strays lightly to the surfaces of his cymbals and metal percussion. The duo nudges and probes, careful not to sever the tenuous nocturnal thread. “A Glimpse into a Deeply Disturbed Mind” is a solo track from Terry culled from Drum Nation Volume 1. The performance calls up memories of Terry with Missing Persons and Zappa, yet derives equally from Terry’s solo work. A raw and haunting examination, this Bozzio composition mines the gamut of his influences, from twentieth century classical to twenty-first century electronica. In “Edge of a Circle” (from Bozzio and Sheehan’s “Nine Short Films”) we witness Terry on all manner of drums, percussion, and synth, to boot, while Sheehan has his hands full with bass, baritone and lead guitar. Finely detailed, it nevertheless rocks the hardest of any in this compilation. “Melt” indeed! Re-mix wizard Mark Gage assembles and convolutes sonic bits (from “Sonic Residue From Vapourspace”), recreating a compelling mix of Bozzio Levin and Stevens. It’s effective in preserving the essential melodic components of the original, yet allows Gage to “paint” in the manner of Salvador Dali, creating lumpy forms, soft transitions, and segues where none hitherto existed. Notes by T. Bruce Wittet, contributing writer, Modern Drummer magazine, Associate Editor Muzik Etc/Drums Etc.
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