Mike Essoudry: Drummer

Conversations with Musicians, with Leah Roseman

This episode features the fantastic drummer Mike Essoudry, who is a busy performer and composer in Ottawa, Canada, playing with many projects in the funk, jazz, and improvised music scene. He’s in the funk group Gephilte with a previous guest of this series, Josh “Socalled” Dolgin, and in the Together Ensemble with his partner Megan Jerome. Today also marks the release of my bonus catch-up episode with Megan, in which she shares how she and Mike fell in love as well as her new album and great advice about an important aspect of the music business as an independant artist. Her episodes are linked here: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/megan-jerome-e10-s2This episode was unique in that Mike was sitting at his drumset during the entire episode and we talked in detail about the history of the drumset and evolution of different styles of drumming. Mike demonstrated lots of intricate grooves and finished the episode with a cool little solo. He also shared stories from his childhood and talked about how in his youth he built his drums and an intricate treehouse in a park. Transcript and Video: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/mike-essoudry-drummer

Mike's website: https://mikeessoudrymusic.com/home

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photo: JC Batista

Timestamps:

(00:00:00) Intro

(00:02:12) drum set history with demonstrations: bass drum, ride cymbal, Zildjian, Ludwig, Beatles, speed-metal

(00:12:51) tom-toms with demonstration

(00:16:54) brushes, cajon sticks, mallets

(00:20:26) the importance of drummers learning harmony and melody

(00:23:30) counting, knowing the tune

(00:27:03) Latin grooves

(00:32:32) drum solos, not losing the count, the advantage of having someone play with your solo

(00:36:09) poly-rhythms and groupings

(00:42:39) Mike’s book of beats and teaching, playing by ear and reading

(00:46:22) Foley artists, history of radio, silent movies, sound effects

(00:49:14) hand percussion, playing without shoes

(00:51:27) Mike’s childhood, rock drumming, blues

(00:55:31) drum pads substitute for drums

(00:57:45) marching bands, New Orleans, different traditions from around the world, Balkan music

(01:03:48) Mike’s parents, hand percussion on the drum set (demonstration)

(01:11:44) Mike’s father’s immigration story from Moroccon Jewish community, how his parents met

(01:17:37) carpentry skills, classic Lego, treehouse story, building his drum set

(01:23:53) visual and intuitive learning style

(01:26:24) Atlantis Jazz Ensemble, Alouette Space Agency

(01:31:24) solo drum project, balancing earning money with carpentry and writing and playing music

(01:34:39) how Mike practices and the importance of keeping your ears in shape, pushing boundaries like immitating machine beats

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