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Pete
York's Super Drumming was an unlikely hit for German TV's
SWR in the late eighties / early nineties, producing three
increasingly ambitious series plus accompanying spin-off
albums. It all came about from Pete's idea of assembling
musicians to play in a live setting with the express aim
of communicating the joys of drumming in its many shades.
The dvd contains 160 minutes of highlights from the first
two series, divided into 11 tracks from the first and 14
from the second. It makes for a tidy collection, only really
missing Pete's introductions (Including an interview with
Jon Lord), and some outside footage of the performers (for
example Cozy Powell's drum solo from Whitesnake's 1983 Ludwigschaffen
show).
 There
is a different feel to both series. The first was recorded
in a disused church during February 1987, the second on
a larger budget in an old steel works during 1988. Ian Paice
makes a brief but potent contribution to series one, taking
time out during Deep Purple's House Of Blue Light tour to
let rip on two specially written jazz-rock instrumentals:
"Threezenuff" and "Ian's Shuffle", both
very much in the vain of Hardin & York's old drum battle
work out "Extension 345". The accompanying house
band are dexterous without being thrilling (old r&b
stalwart Brian Auger is sadly without his Hammond), but
it's enjoyable stuff.
Other
drummers brought in to do their thing include Cozy Powell,
who turns in a blistering 'Dance With The Devil', (here
you can really appreciate the acoustics of the setting!),
Simon Phillips, and of course Pete York himself. The overall
jazziness of the series is best reflected by Duke Ellington's
old drummer Louis Bellson, who's a real pleasure to watch.
Though I've alluded that the sound is good, and it is, the
picture quality for the first series is disappointingly
grainy, though it does improve for the series two section.
 Ian
Paice is absent from Super Drumming 2 (he returned for no.3)
,
but Jon Lord is a regular contributor. Perhaps the most
valuable addition to this DVD as far as Purple fans are
concerned, is the live performances of two tracks from Jon's
'Sarabande' album. We get strong versions of both the title
track and 'Gigue', with Jon on electric piano. He also joins
the house band on several other pieces, getting in Hammond
solos on the Indian influenced 'Curried Reels', the HM /
jazz workout 'RUN' along with Iron Maiden's Nicko McBrain,
and on the well OTT 'Amazonias Suite' percussionfest alongside
the likes of Billy Cobham and Bill Bruford. All good fun,
if rather cheesy in places. And from those descriptions
you can tell that for series two the musical spectrum was
opened up somewhat. I haven't even mentioned the bagpipes
or the girl vocalist symbolising Manaus opera house... On
a less ephemeral level I really enjoyed Hardin & York
with Miller Anderson and Colin Hodgkinson bashing out the
old Spencer Davis Group classics 'Gimme Some Lovin' and
'I'm A Man'. Nothing like a bit of variety!
The
only DVD extras are Pete York chatting about the making
of the series, disconcertingly (but very impressively it
must be said) each done in a continuous take. In both English
and 'German'.
As
for the packaging, 'sparse' is the word for that. No songwriting
credits, no venue given for series two, and most seriously
no mention if the disc is NTSC or PAL. (It's NTSC only,
for some reason). Somewhat important information you'd think.
Still, if you have the means of playing the DVD, I'd recommend
it. Beyond Paice and Lord's contributions there is simply
so much to choose from.
review:
David Browne
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