"Drum Master" Lee Finkelstein Interview
www.LeeFinkelstein.com
Interview by Roger Zee (04/14/21)
Top Photo: John Posada
Bottom Photo: Peter Lazos at Rukus Drums USA
Roger Zee: Who inspired you to play the drums?
Lee Finkelstein: Well as you would expect of someone born in the late Fifties, it's the usual long list of Sixties Rock & Roll, R&B and Jazz drummers. Also, indirectly, my dad Sol, who I later found out always wanted to play drums. At quite a young age growing up in East New York, my father made his own drum kit out of tin cans, old inner tubes, and whatever else worked. Everyday he would come home from school and go up on the roof where he left them set up.
As soon as he grew old enough to work in his father's garment shop, the drums stopped -- very, very bad, LOL! But not his love for music which he would continue to listen to at home, eventually go see live, and then play on the phonograph as I grew up. All those great big bands, lots of Fifties Mambo and Latin music. My mom would play much of the same along with her favorite Broadway soundtracks and operas. My parents were fantastic dancers and music lovers. Their appreciation and tastes influenced me immeasurably!
Like many five-year-olds of the day, my parents gave me big old wooden spoons and a nice metal pot to bang on. My father, with an ear for the drums, thought he heard something other than the reckless abandon associated with most kids. So he asked our neighbor across the hall, Bernie Spiegel, a busy weekend warrior drummer, to come over to show me how to hold the sticks properly and teach me some beginning rudiments. I continued on the pad and eventually joined band, orchestra, and chorus in the fourth grade. My excellent elementary school music teacher, Mr. "E" William Eisenhower, also influenced me a lot.
RZ: Do you play any other instruments or sing?
LF: I don’t play any instrument other than the drums. I'm known to sing on occasion but only a few tunes, and only when the stars and the moon align perfectly, Haha!
RZ: Talk about some of the musicians and groups you've worked with.
LF: Playing for so many years, I feel fortunate that I worked with so many musicians -- some famous, some not so much. I'm eternally grateful for their influence, talent and friendship. For the past seventeen years, or should I should say sixteen due to the shutdown, I've toured the world with The Original Blues Brothers Band (OBBB). I feel truly honored to sit in the drum chair formerly occupied by greats Steve Jordan, Willie Hall, Steve Potts, Anton Fig, Danny Gottlieb, and Keith Carlock. The OBBB features some of my musical heroes. Such an honor. Talk about "full circle!"
At the first concert I ever attended in 1971, Booker T. and the MGs opened for Steppenwolf. Here I am thirty plus years later sitting on the bus in Europe getting ready to play with M.G., Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, the architect of so many great OBBB tunes. Across from him, another guitar legend, “Smokin" John Tropea who I saw play with Deodato in '73. Then, of course, there’s Blues Brothers' "Blue" Lou Marini, Alan "Mr. Fabulous" Rubin, and Leon "The Lion" Pendarvis who all played on so many of the recordings that served as the soundtrack of my life. Special guest, the inimitable Eddie "Knock on Wood" Floyd, Rob "The Honeydripper" Paparozzi, and the late great Eric "The Red" Udel on bass, the man responsible for me getting the gig with the OBBB. Not long after that, John Tropea asked me to play in his band. Beyond thrilled getting to groove with world renowned bass players Anthony Jackson, Neil Jason, and Zev Katz. And Hammond B3 wiz Chris Palmaro, Tommy "Pipes" McDonnell, along with many of New York’s best horn players.
Working the OBBB gig led me to meet and play with such greats as Dr. John, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Paul Shaffer, David Spinozza, Joe Louis Walker, and of course Blues Brother Tom "Bones" Malone. A couple of months earlier that very same year, I got the call to play my dream "bucket list" gig. Emilio Castillo, leader of Tower of Power (TOP), phoned and asked, "Could you cut this gig in three days?" What else could I say but "yes!" So they overnighted me three mini-discs of live shows. I wrote out charts and shedded as best as I could. Three days later I found myself at The Tralf in Buffalo, NY doing a soundcheck with Tower of Power!
The reason I got the call? As drummer and co-founder of my band Funk Filharmonik, we covered a lot of TOP as well as shared some players and songwriters. Getting to play nine shows with TOP while sitting next to the great Rocco Prestia thrilled me to death. I can’t begin to describe how much I learned from being thrown into that experience on such short notice and covering for one of my all-time greatest influences, David Garibaldi -- the drummer that changed the way we all play! That gig indeed proved a game-changer for me and my reputation.
For the past 30 years, when not on the road, I've played in The Jay Prince Band at Hal Prince Orchestras. Mostly at private events and clubs around the tri-state area with some of the best players around here. On occasion, I also lead my own four-six piece group known as "It’s Finkeltime” -- funky Jazz, fun versions of standards and popular music of the 20th Century.
Prior to that, sessions and live gigs in many different genres. I did a lot of the music on the Eighties Cosby Show where I worked weekly with many Jazz, Classical, and R&B greats: Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Nancy Wilson, Grover Washington Jr., Eric Gale, James DePriest and the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, Randy Brecker, and Mark Egan, to name a few.
I also performed or recorded with Ben E. King, Blood Sweat and Tears with David Clayton Thomas, Isaac Hayes, Mary Wilson, Julio Iglesias, Valerie Simpson, Mac Rice, Frankie Paul, Will Lee, Saturday Night Live, Dave Valentine, Daryl Hall, John Oates, Don Blackmon, Buzz Feiten, Russ Freeman, John Abercrombie, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Wycliff Gordon, Bill Murray, Cornelius Bumpus, Vaneese Thomas, Pete Levin, Richie Cannata, Peter Levin, and Oz Noy.
Groups: Cosmic Oven, Derretub Snub, Hadrian Decree, Red Flannel Hash Band, Small Talk/Jim Small Band, The Paper Bag, Timberwolf, Yasgur’s Farm, Jim Pin Band 5+2-1, Eclipse, The Zen Tricksters, Mario Cruz, Chick Singer Night NYC, Ed Palermo Big Band, JT Bowen, It’s Finkeltime, Bowling for Leftovers, Southside Johnny, John Tropea Band, Funk Yeah, and Friends of The Brothers.
Locally and as of "recently," I gratefully continue to work with Felicia Collins and The Throw Down, Marc Ribler and Friends, Bobby Harden and Soul Purpose, Dave Mullen's Demolition Brass Band, and of course the band I helped co-found with Ozzie Melendez, Rich Ebler, and Alex Stewart some 35 years ago -- Funk Filharmonik.
RZ: What drums do you currently play?
LF: Whatever drums I find there. They're the best, haha! Always a beautiful thing when there's a drum set at the venue. I currently endorse and play Rukus Drums, GMS Drums, Sabian Cymbals, Vic Firth sticks, Evans drum heads, Thumb Thang, and Samson Audio.
RZ: Do you teach drums?
LF: Occasionally, but not regularly. I keep saying I should do more of it, but life gets in the way...
RZ: How has the Pandemic affected you? What's on the horizon?
LF: It’s tragic and so sad how many folks -- some I knew, some I knew of, and all the others -- that no longer live due to this horrible pandemic. My thoughts go out to their loved ones. Comparing the loss of work or income to such tragedy opens your eyes and your soul to what it’s really all about. It’s still so difficult seeing so many friends and colleagues with no gigs, trying to make ends meet. Thankfully, now we can play more remote and virtual sessions and shows. Somehow we’ll persist and get through this.
It looks now as if it’s coming back slowly and cautiously as I'm starting to get calls for dates. I try to stay optimistic, but who knows which way this could turn -- again and again.
RZ: Describe your most special and/or unusual gig.
LF: Haha, where do I begin?
Unusual gigs:
I’ve done rim shots at memorial services. An 8 AM formal, full-blown, catered Bris (Jewish circumcision ceremony) with hundreds of guests at The Pierre Hotel in NYC. A Bar Mitzvah in the Primate Reserve at the Philadelphia Zoo where they set up an ice cream sundae stand right next to the Silverback Gorillas. Notorious motorcycle gang picnics. Padua Prison in Italy. NYC Prison for the Criminally Insane. A very rehearsed showcase/competition for a record deal with this artist named Ruth something -- who never showed up! Then the promoter comes to us and says "Okay you’re on, what do you call yourselves?" Without skipping a beat I replied, "Ruthless."
Special gigs:
Funk Filharmonik debut at The Brokerage in Bellmore, NY. The first night with Tower of Power. The first night with The Original Blues Brothers Band. Every Wednesday night with Felicia Collins and the Throw Down at The Cutting Room in NYC. When Funk Filharmonik played a "Midnight Sun Festival" in Sweden with a full orchestra behind us as two Swedish Air Force jets did a fly over. Then looking up at my partner, Ozzie Melendez, conducting us! An outdoor New Years Eve in Pordenone, Italy with The Original Blues Brothers Band.
Extra special gigs:
The numerous benefits, fundraisers, awareness and charity events I so fortunately played at and/or helped organize. Priceless -- beyond special!
RZ: Do you live with any animals?
LF: We had two great cats, but now live with no pets.
RZ: Anything you'd like to add?
LF: Thank you so much Roger for this opportunity to share my story. I look forward to reading your future interviews with my colleagues and others.
YouTube - Soul Vaccination - Tower of Power with Lee Finkelstein on drums
©2021 Roger Zee
