Steve's Music Celebrating it's 40th Anniversay - Drum Clinic Sunday,
May 15

Sunday, May 15, Steve's Music & Pearl Drums present a drum clinic and
performances by Mike Mangini, named the fastest hands in the world
formerly of Steve Vai, Annihilator and Extreme, and the Latin
Superstar Horacio Hernandez of Santana at the Opera House, 735 Queen
St. East, Toronto. Doors @ 3pm. $10 Tickets available at Steve's
Music or the door. Tons of 40th Anniversary Door Prizes. Save your
ticket stub for draws.

**Mike Mangini**

Mike Mangini has successfully applied Rhythm Knowledge to all styles
of music, from classical to speed metal. He has consistently
developed both the melodic and rhythmic sides of his musical
personality. He devotes his music time (which pretty much matches his
breathing time) to drums, percussion, keyboards, programming, and
writing.

He has been both teacher and student. He has been studying music
since the age 5. He studied percussion privately with Walter
Tokarczyk (Public School System, Waltham, MA), from age 10 through
18. Since 1987 he has given private instruction to drummers,
guitarists, and pianists. Michael completed his first drum clinic
tour in 1996, and since then he has traveled the world as a
clinician. The principles on which he based his extraordinary style
can be found in his publications entitled Rhythm Knowledge Volumes I
and II. Michael is currently finishing the final touches on his first
instructional video.

His numerous awards include: Boston's Best Drummer/Rhythm Section;
All Eastern United States Percussionist - First Chair; All
Massachusetts Jazz Band Drummer - First Chair; All Massachusetts
Concert Band Percussionist - First Chair; All Massachusetts (N.E.
District) Jazz Band Drummer - First Chair; Concert Band Percussionist
(N.E. District) First Chair. and on, and on ...

He has spent a positively unhealthy amount of time in the recording
studios. His more celebrated credits included Fire Garden and G3 Live
by Steve Vai, Waiting for the Punchline by Extreme, and Set the World
on Fire by Annihilator. He has also worked with numerous artists in
the Pop, Country-Rock, Jazz, and Classical fields.

When Mike speaks of the importance of being able to relate to
others "in and out of the limelight ", he is talking from experience.
He has toured with Steve Vai, Extreme, Dale Bozzio/Missing Persons,
and Annihilator, to name a few, and is an active clinician for Pearl
Drums.

He has accepted a teaching position at Berklee and still teaches
privately in the Boston area.

Other Mangini Clinic Dates:

Friday May 13
The MusicStop
Halifax

Monday May 16
Sherwood Music
Kitchener

Tuesday May 17
Long & McQuade
Winnipeg

Wednesday May 18
Long & McQuade
Saskatoon

Thursday May 19
Music Centre Canada
Calgary

Friday May 20
Mother's Music
Edmonton

Sunday May 22
Long & McQuade
Vancouver

Mike Mangini Official Website: http://www.mikemangini.com/

**Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez**

Mention the name Horacio Hernandez to any of today's best-known
players and they will smile. In his brief two years in the United
States, Horacio has earned the respect of his American heroes. His
latin, afro-cuban style is unique and absolutely unrivaled. His
experience with such greats as Paquito D'Rivera, Arturo Sandoval and
Gonzalo Rubalcaba, has now provided him an opportunity to tour the
world with the Michel Camilo Trio.

Born in Havana, Cuba, in 1963, Horacio 'El Negro' Hernandez was said
to be the most talented and innovative percussionist in the world,
even before being awarded a Grammy in 1997. Whether performing with
jazz-legends like McCoy Tyner or Michel Camilo, rock-stars like
Carlos Santana and Stevie Winwood or in notable Latin American
ensembles like the Tropi-Jazz All Stars of the late Tito Puente,
Horacio has also shown himself to be one of the most forceful and
versatile musicians in the international music scene today.

Horacio was born in 1963 in Havana, Cuba, in a very musical family:
His grandfather played the trumpet in, for instance, the famous
Septeto National, and brought the traditional Cuban influence into
the family. His father compered jazz programs on Cuban radio, and his
elder brother was fond of rock-music from the Beatles to Led
Zeppelin. Horacio got his nickname 'El Negro', The Black, even before
birth as an affectionate reference to his brother's best friend, who
lived in the neighbourhood.

Already in his earliest youth Haracio showed a talent and preference
for percussion. He began with the percussion instruments in the
family, practised later on a lent drum-set and finally took lessons.
These were at first with Fausto Garcia Rivera, who had been trained
in America, then with Enrique Pla, the percussionist of the legendary
Cuban group 'Irakere', to which Arturo Sandoval and Paquito D'Rivera
likewise belonged. Horacio began studying at the National School of
Arts in Havana, but even during his years of study he began to play
with the saxophonist Nicolas Reynoso, to whose band belonged also the
pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba.

A big chance of letting off musical steam and showing his versatility
came, as Horacio Hernandez worked as resident percussionist for EGREM-
Studios, one of the biggest groups of studios on Cuba. Here he
drummed for many rehearsals, sometimes for as many as 20 hours a day,
travelling between studios and snatching intervals of sleep on an old
mattress rolled up in an adjacent room. At last he became the full-
time drummer in the Rubalcabas group 'Proyecto', with which he
appeared for the first time abroad and made an international
reputation for himself in music circles. For seven years he toured
the world with this group and recorded seven albums, astonishing his
hearers both with his unusual way of playing as also with his unusual
set of drums. Horacio is truly ambidextrous, being able to play the
leading pattern with either hand or to play the basic rhythmic figure
of Afro-Cuban music, the clave-beat, with his left foot on the high-
hat or the cowbell with the foot-pedal, while his right foot supports
the base line, and his hands quite independently play highly complex
rhythms on the bongos and timbales, which he often includes, instead
of the classical toms, in his drum-set.

In 1990, Horacio felt it high time to let his talent be recognised
beyond the borders of Cuba, so during a tour in Italy he applied for
political asylum in the USA, whose officials, however, felt that they
had enough musicians already and refused entry. His wrangled with the
authorities lasted three years, during which time he taught
percussion in Rome in the Timba Centro di Percussion. In 1993, he was
then allowed to move to New York but not to move on from there, so he
had to turn many offers of tours down. This had, though, the positive
effect of intensifying his studio work and his presence on the New
York podiums with musicians like Dave Valentin, Paquo Vazquez, Daniel
Ponce, Ed Simon and Dizzy Gillespie's United Nations Orchestra under
the baton of Paquito D'Rivera.

After the restrictions on travel were lifted, Horacio 'El Negro'
Hernandez soon became one of the most wanted and well known young
percussionists in the country. Especially worth mentioning is his
work with Michel Camilo, as also on Kip Hanrahan's Deep Rumba
project. His big breakthrough outside the jazz-scene came as a
percussionist in 1997 for the album Supernatural from Carlos Santana,
which brought him his first Grammy Award. Besides giving concerts and
performing in the studio, Horacio Hernandez finds time to issue
teaching-books and videos about his special drum technique.