I caught up with Keith Carlock this past Tuesday Nov. 17. Keith was in Akron Ohio playing with Steely Dan for two nights. Keith’s dad Henry died in early October (our condolences, Keith) and Keith and his new wife Lynne were married in September. Keith also lost sixty pounds over the last six months and is looking quite svelte . This was an eventful year for the young drummer. Not only has he been playing for James Taylor and Steely Dan but he also managed to released an instructional DVD; The Big Picture; Phrasing, Improvisation, Style and Technique.
I was Keith’s drum teacher during his high school years. I’ve seen Keith with Steely Dan, Sting, and Donald Fagen over the last five years. To say that he has developed his own style is an understatement. With Steely Dan, not only is he nailing, nailing, nailing the signature grooves and parts, but also throwing in his signature “flurry of cliff hanging precision fills” when appropriate. While I enjoyed listening to Dennis Chambers and Peter Erskine playing drum with earlier versions of this outfit, Keith is now THE Steely Dan drummer, as evidenced by his playing on ALL of the last Steely Dan album and both Becker and Fagen’s solo albums and all their tours for the last five or six years. His big wide Mississippi groove and his commanding authority and tall presence on the drum sets a high benchmark that will be difficult for other drummers to reach.
The Steely Dan Orchestra has become a well oiled machine and is just a glorious experience to listen to. As the Dan achieved perfection in their compositions, arrangements and recordings, they have achieved close to perfection in their live performances. Playing to a packed house at the EJ Thomas hall on the Akron University campus, a sold out audience of musicians and music lovers was on its feet after every song with shouts of Bravo! and rock and roll woo hoos! The first night the band performed the whole AJA album in sequence before knocking out another hour and a half of hits, favorites and crowd pleasers. The next night featured the entire Royal Scam album opening the show. To review every song would be way too long for this blog, but I must make mention of the performance of “The Royal Scam”. I have always considered this song to be one of SD’s crowning achievments; the height of their sinister obtuse lyrics combined with strange and unusual funk rhythms, this one a backwards voodoo snakey groove with the drums playing mostly on only beats one and three. Carlock and band nailed it with such intensity that I and the rest of the audience were mesmerized and a roaring standing ovation ensued.
I encourage you all to go catch this master drummer and this masterful band. It is a must see. Also Keith’s new video is very well done and he explains his approach well with lots of solos and lots of band performances with Wayne Krantz and Tim LeFevre.
George Lawrence
Keith Carlock driving the groove bus
