Here is my drum cover of "Proto Cosmos" from Tony Williams´Lifetime album "Believe It".

I am such a huge fan of Tony´s - and have been listening to him a lot lately - all the way from his groundbreaking work with Miles Davis in the 60´s to this 70´s period all the way up to his last solo albums in the 80´s and 90´s.
I love everything about Tony. His sound, his musicality, his dynamics, his stubborness, his drum colour, his taste in drum sizes, his ride cymbal playing, his explosiveness, his surprise in his playing, his phrasing, his hi-hat chokes, single strokes and above all - his originality. I mean EVERYTHING! True artist!

This one is a bit rough here and there - but I kept it as it was - and I tried to play dynamically yet also tried to interact with what is going in. I did change the groove a bit and didn´t really think to much about it - but tried to play what came naturally to me but also keep some of the ideas he had. Since this is recorded without a click it was a bit hard to follow some places, but that´s how it is.

Regarding the sound - I have recently dug out my Ludwig Supraphonic and tried to go for an kinda Alex Van Halen type snare sound (with his gaffa tape pattern on the underside of the batter black dot head etc), and I kinda feel there are some similarities with Tony´s and Alex´s snare sound (different I know, but somehow kinda similar, yet both totally unique), so I kinda tried to morphe those ideas/sounds into one.

On a more serious note - some years ago a musician friend of mine and a fantastic bass player asked me if I could play a cover of something from "Believe It" album and that he´d really like to hear me play that stuff, and I basically said "No, I haven´t tried or thought about that "- but he kinda kept going and pushing me about doing it from time to time, but I still thought it was a bit too difficult or something - I don´t really know, but he kept inspiring me and sending me messages that "you will fix this even though I am sure it can be feel a bit daunting to do something from Tony".
However - sadly a couple of years ago my friend shockingly and devastatingly decided to leave this world, and of all the little things one tend to remember when time goes by - this "you should do some Tony" thing kinda came back to me. So this one is for him.

RIP Ronny M Sveen

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