[HalifaxDrunk]

With our 3rd pick Hot Banana Thrust is happy to select in the category of Drummer, Terry Bozzio the debate over who is the greatest will rage on forever but Terry's work is probably one my of favorites. I had 3 Drummers in mind, Terry, Peart and you know Who. With Pert gone I couldn't take the chance on Bozzio being available by my next pick.









He made his name recording and touring with Frank Zappa (and appearing in the concert movie Baby Snakes), and then the band. After his audition for Zappa, all the drummers behind him in the line left, and he was accepted. He was particularly famous for performing Zappa's "The Black Page", a piece of music designed to be a "musician's nightmare" a page so filled with notes as to be almost black.

Terry performing Zappa's "The Black Page"


Bozzio went on to form Missing Persons with his then-wife and lead vocalist Dale Bozzio, ex-Zappa guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, ex-Zappa bassist Patrick O'Hearn and keyboard player Chuck Wild. After disbanding Missing Persons in 1986 after releasing "Color In Your Life", Terry joined up with ex-Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor for his solo band. He can be seen in a couple videos from that period. He participated in the official "founding members" Missing Persons reunion in July 2001 and has recorded a Zappa-influenced, as-yet-unreleased album, Playing in Tongues, with Warren Cuccurullo.

In summer of 2005 Bozzio filled in for Dave Lombardo in Fantômas for their European tour. Bozzio was inducted into Guitar Center's RockWalk in Hollywood on January 17, 2006 along with rock and roll icons Ronnie James Dio and Slash.

Bozzio has recently worked with the band Korn on their 8th studio album after the departure of their drummer David Silveria. He was scheduled to also play on the road with the band during the Family Values Tour, but he left the group and was replaced by Joey Jordison of Slipknot.

Bozzio with Korn on their 8th studio album


Like Hall of Fame drummer Gary Chester, Bozzio is noted for creating the melodic ostinato for the drum set. In most of Bozzio’s works, the ostinato is played using various bass drum and hi-hat permutations while he solos against these rhythms using his hands. Sometimes (often in the same composition) the opposite is true, where he will hold an ostinato pattern with his hands and solo with his feet. Like Chester, Bozzio developed the application for the melodic ostinato for drum set when he noticed how a pianist would solo or play counter rhythms against the ostinato or pedal point. He then applied this concept to the drum set.

Bozzio is also noted for creating orchestral compositions on the drum set by playing polyrhythms and metric modulations while utilizing his large custom kit (sometimes nicknamed "SS Bozzio"), in which the tom toms are tuned to specific notes to create the atmosphere that is Bozzio’s signature sound.

The "SS Bozzio"


Bozzio’s influence is becoming a more prominent force as modern day drummers are seeking to break the barriers of the traditional grooving drummer to the drummer that takes a more prominent role as the leader of a band, a position that in westernized music has been dominated by the guitar.

His drum clinics are legendary, often selling out the point of people being turned away. Often, this is because guitarists, bass players and other non-drummers attend these performances, something not common for drum clinics. It could be legitimately argued, that while most drummer use clinics as a side-project while their musical endeavors are on hold or on break, Bozzio's are full performances and can be considered a musical concert in and of themselves.

Drum clinic December 15th 2007