I always remember Prince's bands with Sheila E - who played some fantastic stuff on the live videos - and Prince has his classic understatement quote about "not bad for a girl!!" You would never mistake her for a guy either!!
That's John Blackwell. I'm thinking hard about buying his 'instructional' DVD...from what I've read, he & Baron Browne demonstrate various grooves. Also- Pick up Prince's Live At The Alladin Las Vegas DVD(there's a few of us here who keep recommending this!). Basically, the same band as the HOF show minus Candy Dulfer & plus Sheila E. on percussion. The solos are longer & tend to be 'jazzy'. Prince is a helluva player & bandleader.
Excellent instructional DVD in my opinion. John has amazing chops and it's awesome watching him jam with Baron. I highly recommend this DVD.
I have John Blackwell Jr's instructional dvd and it's good for certain things, like showmanship and certain shuffle beats. It's not very good for really developing your technique though, there's other dvd's that are better for that like steve smith's, or marco minneman's extreme drumming. The Blackwell dvd is very entertaining and fun to watch though. He's one of my favorite drummers and he puts on a great show. There's also footage of him watching classic drum battles and commenting on them which is cool.
I went to Berklee with John. He was a real mutha back then too. He used to play with Cameo as well. Nice to see him in such a good gig.
