In our second of four Pete Lockett specials, Pete talks and plays 'Stairway to Seven' in two videos. This time we see Pete playing drums.
The videos were recorded at the Wienfelden International drum festival in Switzerland in 2016 and Pete shares them here on Drummerszone. We created a series of Director Cuts from those videos with commentaries on the music and rhythms from Pete himself.
'Stairway to Seven' has quite a mathematical approach, but the story behind it and when you hear Pete explain his idea, it isn't that difficult to try it yourself.
The Math of Stairway to Seven Based on an idea from Pete when waking up in Calcutta one morning, this track is a bit mathematical because of the theme or formula that he came up with.
In this exercise, you just pick a time signature and add half a count to it. After that you reduce the count with one, repeating each phrase four times. Pete explains it in the Commentary Version of the video and demoes how this idea translates to rhythm.
You can hear this phrasing in the track called Treke-Tay on the 2017 album 'Melody of Rhythm' that Pete recorded with Indian tabla player Fazal Qureshi. Perhaps more of us should spend a few nights in Calcutta and wake up with creative ideas like this...
Stairway to Seven [ Commentary Version ]
Stairway to Seven [ Live ]
Treke-Tay from 'Melody of Rhythm'
Pete Lockett Pete Lockett is without any doubt one of the best musicians there are nowadays. As percussionist, drummer and musician he is on the forefront for many years already. His resume reads like a musician's dream. Here is a shortlist of references in music, movies, instruments and tutoring.
He has recorded and/or toured with: Björk, Peter Gabriel, Nicko McBrain, Robert Plant, Russ Miller, Bill Bruford, Jeff Beck, David Torn, Viku Vinayakram, Selva Ganesh, Texas, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Mel C, Kula Shaker, Evelyn Glennie, Errol Brown, Rory Gallagher, Gary Husband, Pet Shop Boys, Andy Gangadeen, Steve White, Sinead O'Conner.
He virtually plays every percussion instrument equally good and also works with electronics/samplers, both live and in the studio.
He is the creater of the DrumJam App, a rhythm factory with all the individual percussion parts recorded by Pete. With the app you build layers from a wide range of authentic ethnic percussion and drum kit loops to jam away over the top of the grooves you create. https://www.drumjamapp.com/
Pete Lockett has also worked extensively in the film industry and has three Bond movies on his credits: Die Another Day, Tomorrow Never Dies and The World is Not Enough. Other movies are: City of Angels (Nicolas Cage, Meg Ryan), The Insider (Al Pacino, Russell Crowe), Plunkett & Maclean (Robert Carlisle) and The Bone Collector (Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie)
Since 2014, Pete is Honorary Professor at Shanghai Conservatory of Music, China.
