American drummer finds home in PH
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Wed, 06 Feb 2019 16:00:10 +0000
LARRY Gabbert
‘HE found gold in the Philippines’ and never left.
58-year-old Hollywood-born drummer Larry Gabbert’s musical journey started with him playing the trumpet while in grade school at age 8.
“Ilearned to read music and understood transpositions of C instruments from standard piano tuning,” he says.
His interest in the drums began when he saw a cousin playing one.
“From that point on I was hooked and was able to save money and purchase a small, cheap 3-piece set,” he remembers.
Larry’s early musical influences include The Animals, Bread, Simon and Garfunkel, and Three Dog Night.
“But Ireally got hooked on Bad Company. In fact the first song I ever learned was ‘Can’t Get Enough of Your Love,’” says the skin basher who originally hails from Southern California.
He got his first taste of recording at 14 laying drum tracks for a church choir.
“I was scared to death, but I did it anyway,” recalls Gabbert, who came to the Philippines in 2005.
Over the years, Larry has been able to perform with a lot of artists and have about 60 albums to his credit, mostly as a session player.
Currently, Larry pounds the skins for blues-rock quintet Charles Daza and the Revenants as with hard rock quartet Starscream.
In addition to his busy drumming schedule, he also writes and produces his own songs.
He already released a solo album in 1985. “Iam currently working on another album and hopefully, it will be completed this year,” he says.
Larry favors a 6-piece drum kit, which, according to him, is diverse enough to adapt to any musical style.
But his set up for Charles Daza and the Revenants is an 8-piece maple set combined with other percussive instruments. “Iam an ‘effects’ kind of guy. Iutilize around 14 cymbals,” he says.
The versatile time keeper is firm on keeping things simple. “I will not waste my time for a tune that tells me what to play,” he says.
He believes that in any kind of music, the key to playing drums is to set a consistent groove that compliments the song’s melody. “It’s not what but rather how you play it. This has been my approach to both recording and live performances for many years and hasn’t changed,” says Larry.
His advice to aspiring drummers: Practice. “Try to learn as much musical styles and time signatures you can,” he says.
Catch Larry with Charles Daza and the Revenants (which, apart from Larry, includes band namesake Charles on vocals, lead guitar; Jhay Jhay Miranda, guitar; Mark Ervie de Jesus, guitar; and Mark Mapalad, bass) on Feb. 8, at the Junkyard Rock and Blues Bar in Imus, Cavite. (WAKU SAUNAR)