After a broken night because all of the noises in this area (including a group of howling coyotes in the mountains who got all the 500 dogs in the neighborhood nervous and barking… ppfffffff) and with only a few hours of sleep, around 5am I decided to get up and start the day. Although Rich would continue to work on our album, I was up to something else today. Today was my first day of the NAMM convention in Anaheim, LA.The NAMM is the US version of the Frankfurter Musik Messe, where all the manufacturers of musical instruments and software display their latest gear, and these conventions have become a gathering of the professional music and audio world. Since I was in LA I could not leave the NAMM unattended. You can only enter the NAMM on invitation of people that have a booth there, and I had gotten tickets from both Odery and Sabian, which I am very grateful for of course! I booked a hotel next to the convention centre and took a ride to Anaheim. It was a trip of nearly 1,5 hours. Beautiful weather and great to see a bit of the area.
Arriving at NAMM I dove in it. Got to meet all the people I know from the companies I endorse (Sabian, Remo, Odery, Vater, Kelly SHU & Trick Pedals. Had a chat with Mauricio Odery about the two new kits they are making for me right now. I had a great day at NAMM, saw and spoke with a lot of people, artists and saw some great performances.
It so happened to be that in the hotel where I was staying Sabian held their annual Sabian Live event, which this year had Tony Royster jr., Virgil Donati, and Mike Portnoy on the schedule, all performing with a band. So I made sure I was back in the hotel before it started, as I did not want to miss this. In the lobby I bumped into Mike Portnoy and we had a nice chat.
Next was the reception for the 30th anniversary of Sabian. Extremely happy to be able to attend that festivity and met the founder of Sabian, Robert Zildjian (son of Avedis Zildjian III and brother of Armand Zildjian) and his family. Straight after that the concert started, and until almost midnight we where treated on a great blend of fusion-prog of the three drummers and their bands. That was an awesome ending to my first NAMM day. I’m now totally fried, so off to bed, wondering how much work Rich got done this day.
The beautiful Sabian cymbal tower
With Mark Love form Sabian
With Mauricio Cunha, CEO from Odery Drums
