During September-October 2007, American artist Rose Ann Dimalanta (Rad.) toured Europe with her solo Latin flavored Funk project Rad. On drums she brought former Santana drummer Billy Johnson, together with an all star line-up. Drummerszone.com made an appointment with Billy Johnson, talked about almost every topic you can talk about on drums, but always focusing on the most important issue: the groove.
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The band, besides Billy and Rad. herself, consisted of guitarist Ray Obiedo, saxophone player Eric Leeds and bass virtuous Marc van Wageningen, and set up an evening of true Bay Area sound. All names that have played with the best of the best. To name just a few: Tower of Power, Prince\'s New Power Generation, George Benson, Sheila E. and many more.
A nice Drummerszone.com detail about the band: bass player Marc van Wageningen is the brother of Paul van Wageningen. Paul is the drummer on Drummerszone.com endorser Martin Verdonk\'s latest album \'Old School New Sound\'. While having recorded in his home country several times, Marc was performing live on stage in Holland for the first time after 27 years!
Rad. - a short bio Originally from the Bay Area in San Francisco, USA, Rad.\'s move to Europe in 1991 marked the beginning of her solo career. With the encouragement of her husband and producer Michael Kirsch, Rose Ann Dimalanta released several solo albums. From \'Radified\' in 1992, to her latest - release of the month on Drummerszone.com - \'East Babe\'. Recording drummers on \'East Babe\' are John Blackwell and David Garibaldi. John Blackwell, who is a Rad. fan, introduces her to Prince and tours with Prince & the NPG from mid 2003 until spring 2004. Via the link to the \'East Babe\' album, you can listen to songs and order it.
Billy Johnson video interview Her live drummer is former Patti LaBelle and Santana drummer Billy Johnson. Billy, Pearl and Paiste endorsing artist, is one of the steadiest grooving artists in the scene. As you can watch him explaining his views on music in the video streams with this article, he talk about keeping it together, and playing with the team.
Carlos Santana enlisted Billy Johnson on three different occasions to man the traps for tours and albums. He did his first tour with Santana in 1990 and 1991, and then rejoined the band in the summer of 1994 for about two-and-a-half years. In 1999 Billy is asked by Santana to come up with a groove for the opening track of the Grammy winning \'Supernatural\' album. In a true and up most professional one taker Billy recorded the song.
In the interview Billy talks about growing up in Philadelphia, his work in New York and his visions on drums and music. As was his playing during the concert, see and hear this drummer talk in an inspiring way about his style, his backgrounds, the current drum scene and \'the luck\' he has had.
Click on the media tab to watch or hear the full interview with Billy Johnson. Of course you find many pictures on the Drummerszone.com pages of the band members as well. Have a look at the photo books of: