Led by respected, globe-trotting drummer Scott Pellegrom, the fusion trio creates wondrous, no-holds-barred music. The band, nearing completion of a new studio album, plays Muskegon’s Watermark 920 Friday. (Podcast, video)
Rhythmists: Scott Pellegrom, center, with Ryan K. Wilson, left, and Kevin Kozel. (Photo/Local Spins)
Grand Haven drummer Scott Pellegrom puts his band’s music in terms that every exuberant percussionist would appreciate.
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“We go for blood,” he says. “No boundaries, no limits when it comes to playing.”
That attitude has served the much-lauded West Michigan musician well over the past decade or so, whether touring the globe to stage drum clinics and perform as a solo artist, being named a finalist in Guitar Center’s national “Drum Off” competition, working as a session drummer or having a signature cymbal adopted and marketed by Dream Cymbals.
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It’s also driving the completion of a rich and diverse new studio album – a project appropriately titled, “Rhythmist, Inc.” – that the 2000 graduate of Spring Lake High School is recording with guitarist Kevin Kozel and keyboard player Ryan K. Wilson of the Scott Pellegrom Trio (previously known as SP3).
“We all have a lot of different side projects, we play with a ton of people and when we get together to write, we just have a lot of fun. We usually start by jamming, Kevin will come up with an idea or Ryan and then we start putting a song together,” Pellegrom says of the album being recorded at Grand Haven’s Redwall North Studios.
IT WON’T BE ‘A SPASTIC DRUMMING RECORD’
“For me, this isn’t going to be a spastic drumming record. I actually kind of want people to enjoy it. … It’s really going to be focused on what these guys are doing. I’m pretty excited about it.”
To preview that new album, which could be released later this year or early in 2014, Pellegrom, Kozel and Wilson packed into the studios of News Talk 1340 AM (WJRW) for Local Spins Live this week to perform a stripped-down rendition of the song, “Creepin’.”
Pellegrom showed off his versatility by accompanying his bandmates via a Laptop Practice Snare Drum, a coffee cup and “mouth percussion.” For proof, view the video below and check out a full podcast of the show here.
The trio performs a headlining show with Grand Rapids’ Blue Molly at 7 p.m. Friday at Watermark 920 in Muskegon in the kickoff to this fall’s Inside the Mitten concert series spotlighting Michigan artists. Admission to the unique concert is $10 in advance, $12 day of show. Get more information online here.
Pellegrom jokingly maintains that his career as a professional drummer actually started before he was born.
“I literally have been playing my whole life. The story I always tell which people get sick of hearing is when I was in the womb, my mother said I’d play soccer or drums,” he says. “By the time I had some control to play, I was playing pots and pans and pulling everything out of the cupboard.”
THE BIG BREAK: GETTING TO THE NATIONAL ‘DRUM OFF’ FINALS
He went on to study with Michigan drummers Tim Froncek, Tim Johnson and Derico Watson (who plays with Victor Wooten), and perform with his high school jazz band and marching band.
The Scott Pellegrom Trio in-studio for Local Spins Live. (Photo/Local Spins)
But his big break came in 2006 when he entered Guitar Center’s Drum Off competition, winning local and district competitions and winding up at the national finals in Los Angeles, which gave him the opportunity to meet renowned drummers and idols Stephen Perkins (Jane’s Addiction) and Travis Barker (Questlove).
“I kind of think that’s what opened up the doors for me for what I’m doing now,” namely, hosting drum education clinics and solo performances in places as far-flung as China, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and the United States, as well as conducting drum research and development.
In fact, the signature “Scott Pellegrom Crop Circle” cymbal he developed is being marketed by Toronto’s Dream Cymbals (for whom Pellegrom works as a clinician) as part of its Re-FX series of recycled cymbals. It’s a two-inch wide circular cymbal cropped out a larger cymbal to which can be attached jingles that create an effect “that is out of this world.”
Pellegrom and his Crop Circle cymbal.
That might also describe the Scott Pellegrom Trio’s rock-to-jazz musical approach, a style inspired by the likes of such varied artists as John Scofield, Radiohead, Portishead, Mars Volta, Metallica, Dave Weckl Band, Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis.
“It is a fusion of something, I don’t know what you would call it. But we definitely like to get people dancing,” says Pellegrom. “It’s basically a freedom for all of us to just take risks and chances with music.”
Get more information about Pellegrom on his Facebook page and watch more videos of him performing at his official website. The trio also performs at Billy’s Lounge in Grand Rapids on Sept. 28.
In addition, Wilson (who often plays with Grand Rapids hip-hop artist Rick Chyme) will perform at 3:45 p.m. Friday in St. Cecilia’s Royce Auditorium as part of the ArtPrize Musicians’ Showcase; he’s entered his song, “Best Foot Forward,” in this year’s competition. See the full showcase schedule at Local Spins here.
The multi-instrumentalist Kozel, meanwhile, is working on a new solo album as well as a revival of the Grand Haven indie-rock/electronica outfit Death By Dancing.
Email John Sinkevics at jsinkevics@gmail.com.
Copyright 2013, Spins on Music
