 |
John Heward
John Heward is a
Montreal-based drummer (and painter, sculptor extraordinaire) who has
been content to let the world beat a path to his door. For over
the past two decades, John has quietly become one of the world's leading
percussionist working in the field of contemporary improvised music, new
music, and avant jazz. Music luminaries including David Prentice,
Glenn Spearman, Malcolm Goldstein, Joe McPhee, Dominic Duval, Lisle
Ellis, Paul Bley, and many hundreds of others, have sought him out
during their Canadian sojourns. As Bill Smith of Coda put
it, "John is one of Canada's foremost improvising percussionists."
Born, raised, and living in Montreal, John is both a visual artist and a
creative musician who has always explored and expanded the boundaries of
his craft. John quotes his most influential drummer as Marvin
Boogaloo Smith, who played with Archie Shepp. As John says, "he
came down on day and we exchanged notions and he said that he always
worked on the principle, gotten from Zen thinking, of working on the
figure eight, a continuous circling around and joining, and that struck
me. So I wasn't interested in just playing straight beat, on or
behind or in front of. I was interested in being able to do it, up
to a certain extent, so that there are times in the music when you want
a straight beat for a while just so you could set up something so that
you can break it, and that's really the principle of my drumming, to set
up something so that it could be broken into something else."
John's interview with Eric Lewis on Function in the Arts
|
Discography on Drimala Records
2004
Let Them Pass
DR 04-347-02
Selected Discography
1999
Chantes Caches Ambiances Magnetiques 066
2000
Utterance Cadence Records CJR 1103
2000 Undersound Leo Records
295
|
