Terry Bozzio: Composer Series

Terry Bozzio
Composer Series
(WARD RECORDS)

You might know Terry Bozzio from his drumming with Steve Vai, Jeff Beck, and Frank Zappa, as leader of Missing Persons, from his many drum clinics, or his one-man live drum performances on his massive set. Bozzio is also a composer of considerably wide-ranging talents, as is evident on his four-disc package Composer Series. As Mr. Bozzio told me about how he composes, “You have to do it and not think about it. For me the songs build like a jigsaw puzzle.” And the puzzles here are quite fantastic, really. The discs here, “Fusion 1,” “Fusion 2,” “Classic,” and “Ambient,” are chock-full of some of the wildest flights of instrumentals and sweet melodies, not to mention blisteringly fast and innovative percussion (Bozzio’s trademark). There are wooden block flights mixed with buzzing synth leads on “North 101” and full fusion workouts like “Marked Man.” The “Classic” disc gives us the sprawling synth interplay of “East” and the quick-running of “The Courier.” The last disc (“Ambient”) is chock-full of music with it’s 18 songs (like “Classic”). Tunes like “Silenced,” with its roiling, sha-shunking percussion and scrapes, “Anime” with it’s plinking, simple key lines, blopping bass, and gurgles and “Yon wa no Karasu (4 Crows),” which is built around whirling gong sounds and tiny bells, make this more than just a disc of sounds. As Mr. Bozzio also assured me, he has composing and his artwork to fall back on when old age hinders his drumming abilities (Bozzio is 65). But Terry Bozzio’s drumming and composing, as heard on Composer Series, are still pretty much in top-notch shape, which will be quite evident if you catch the man on tour in America presently.