NEIL PEART: A WORK IN PROGRESS
Released 1997
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Volumes 1 and 2 (VHS)
(DVD)
THE VIDEOS
Produced and Directed by Paul Siegel and Rob Wallis
Executive Producer: Sandy Feldstein
Pre-Production: Liam Birt
Audio Engineer: Cliff Norrell
Drum Technician: Larry Allen
Cameras: John Kosmaczewski and Daniel Welch
Lighting: David Levine
Video Engineer: Ken Coffelt
Avid Editor: Dan Dome
On-Line Editors: Bruce Tovsky and Phil Fallo
VTR Operator/Grip: Scott MacKay
Script Supervisor: Holly Mclanson
Assistant to the Producers: Alphonse "Al" Giordano
Assistant Audio Engineers: Scott Gormley and John Chiarolanzio
Hi-8 Camera: Spike, Mudslide, and Lucky D
Filmed at: Bearsville Studio, Bearsville, New York
Production: Langa Communications, Rhinebeck, New York
Postproduction: National Video Industries, New York, New York
Archival Photos and Film Clips of Neil Peart Courtesy of: The Peart Family
Archival Rush Photos and Film Clips Courtesy of: Anthem Entertainment
Song Title Graphics: Hugh Syme
Cover Design by Hugh Syme
Photography by Eleonora Alberto
Featuring Music from the Album Test For Echo by Rush:
Geddy Lee - bass guitar, vocals, synthesizer
Alex Lifeson - electric and acoustic guitars, mandola
Neil Peart - drums, cymbals, hammer dulcimer
Test For Echo Produced by: Peter Collins and Rush
Engineer: Cliff Norrell
Mixing Engineer: Andy Wallace
The Music: All Songs Written by Lee/Lifeson/Peart © 1996 Core Music Publishing (SOCAN) except where noted
"Test For Echo" (Lee/Lifeson/Peart/Dubois) © 1996 Core Music Publishing (SOCAN) Pysart Music (SOCAN)
"Xanadu" (Lee/Lifeson/Peart) © 1977 Core Music Publishing (SOCAN)
"Color Of Right", "Dog Years", "Virtuality", "Half The World", "Driven", "Totem", "Time And Motion", Resist", "Limbo", "Carve Away The Stone"
Closing Music "Momo's Dance Party" Written and performed by Neil Peart © 1996 Desmodromic Music
Thanks: Jennifer Ahn, Val Azzoli/Atlantic Records, "Brutus", Ray Danniels and Anna LeCoche/Anthem Entertainment, John Good, George Langa and Nancy Southard, David Levine/Full Circle, Mark McKenna, Bill Miller/Modern Drummer Magazine, Matt and Derek, Colin Schofield, Judy Smith and Paul Northfield/Studio Morin Heights, Quebec, Canada, Joe Testa, Allan Weinrib, The Bear Cafe, Bearsville, New York
Special Thanks: Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee, Pegi Cecconi, Liam Birt, Larry Allen, Fred Gruber
Neil Peart plays DW Drums, Zildjian Cymbals and Pro Mark Drumsticks, and appears courtesy of Atlantic Records/Anthem Entertainment
The soundtrack from Test For Echo is used by kind permission of Atlantic Recording Corp./Anthem Entertainment
© 1996 DCI Music Video, Inc. A Division of Warner Bros. Publications Inc. 15800 N.W. 48th Ave. Miami, FL 33014
RUNNING TIME: 3 HRS./40 MIN.
This two video set documents the "work in progress" of recording Rush's Test For Echo album, as well as the "work in progress" of Neil himself, and his "endless apprenticeship" to the art of drumming. During a year-and-a-half hiatus from performing, Neil worked with master teacher Fred Gruber to build a completely different approach to the drumkit. Neil: "I'd reached a point, after thirty years of playing, where I was feeling a bit restless. I'd honed a style my own, and I felt that I was doing that style about as well as I could. It was time for a change.
Neil uses the songs from Test For Echo as examples to discuss these changes, in addition to themes such as constructing a drum part, selecting rhythmic approaches, technique, spontaneity, orchestration, creative timekeeping, and ornamentation. A complete studio performance of each song is captured by four cameras, as Neil lays down the fiery, creative drumming for which he is known-but with new finesse gained from two years of devotion to study and practice. Following each performance, Neil presents a specific analysis of the drum part's relation to other elements in the song, as well as breaking down and demonstrating key sections, fills, and solos.
Other topics include a discussion of Neil's DW drumset and why he completely changed his setup, Neil's approach to odd times, playing with a vocalist, and a "guided tour" of Neil's warmup routine. These tapes provide an opportunity to "get inside" the creative mind of a great musician. A booklet with each video provides transcriptions of the main grooves and fills for evry song.
THE BOOKLETS
Companion booklet to A Work In Progress, a video available from DCI Music Video
Booklet Edited by Dan Thress
Music Transcriptions and Engraving/Wally Schnalle
Design/Jack Waltrip
Cover and Song Titles Design/Hugh Syme
Distributed by Warner Bros. Publications. 15800 N.W. 48th Ave. Miami, FL 33014
© 1996 DCI Music Video, Inc. A Division of Warner Bros. Publications Inc.
Introduction To A Work In Progress
In a beat-up old folder labeled "Drum video," I found a letter from Paul Siegel dated September 1984, when this project was first proposed. Yet it has taken twelve years to get around to actually making it, but I have to say that I’m glad. I don’t know much now, but I knew nothing then!
By the time we worked together on Burning For Buddy, I had become friends with Paul and his partner Rob Wallis, and once more they raised the subject of an instructional video. I told them that I wasn’t very interested, mainly because I would have no idea what to do in such a medium. By that time I knew that I knew nothing, and considered my self more of a student than a teacher. If I had anything to show anyone it could only be through "teaching by example"
Well, Rob and Paul came back with the idea of filming me at work in the studio as I recorded a Rush album. "That would be ‘teaching by example,’ wouldn’t it?"
The rats-they had me there! I saw how it could work, how we could show the ‘Work in Progress" of Test for Echo, as well as the "Work in Progress" of my own adventures in Drumland over the years.
The three of us put together a ‘lesson plan" which used the songs to illustrate various aspects of my approach to creating and performing drum parts, and the whole production team assembled at Bearsville Studios to recreated the recording process-this time for both the microphones and the cameras.
That was the easy part, recording the whole album again-that’s just playing. Then I had to look that camera in the eye and try to express the internal world of Drumland: all the abstractions and non-verbal processes involved in making music out of all that banging. This was the most demanding task my poor brain has ever been asked to perform, and made for and exhausting few days.
However I did enjoy the challenge, and I also enjoyed being part of the process of "stitching it all together" in the following months, working with Paul and rob and their team of professionals.
We’ve all been waiting a long time for this, and we hope you find the result worthy of your time.
Yours Truly
Neil Peart
Volumes 1 and 2 (VHS)
(DVD)