Mar 30, 2026 10:30 PM
Flea Finds His Jazz Thing
In the relatively small pantheon of certifiable rock stars venturing into the intersection of pop music and jazz, the…
Silverman said that all proceeds from Drumology Volume III will benefit the Neil Peart Fund for brain cancer research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
(Photo: Courtesy Rob Silverman)Drummer-entrepreneur Rob Silverman has garnered loads of attention of late for his St. Louis-based label, Autumn Hill Records. It comes on the strength of a series of three Drumology recordings he made with a Who’s Who in fusion and prog-rock drumming.
While the first two volumes carried such high-profile names as Billy Cobham, Dave Weckl, Steve Smith, Simon Phillips, Kenny Aronoff, Gregg Bissonette and Mike Mangini, the recently released Drumology Volume III boasts a potent lineup of drummers Roy “Futureman” Wooten, Gavin Harrison, Greg Sobel and Budapest-born fusion monster Gergö Borlai.
Weckl returns for this latest edition of Drumology, playing alongside his former Elektric Bandmates Frank Gambale, John Patitucci and Eric Marienthal on a searing tribute to Chick Corea. That powerful, Spanish-tinged homage, “The Alchemist,” written by keyboardist and longtime Weckl collaborator Jay Oliver, also features drummer Steve Gadd, a key Corea sideman since 1976. Silverman and his keyboardist-composer brother Michael both play on all seven tracks of this epic gathering of drumming brethren.
As with the first two volumes, all proceeds from Drumology Volume III will benefit the Neil Peart Fund for brain cancer research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. “Neil Peart and Dave Weckl are my two biggest influences, though Neil is probably much deeper in my DNA,” Silverman said.
The Drumology projects are just one aspect of what Autumn Hill Records has done since its inception in 2008. The catalog also includes 2020’s Rhythm City, featuring the Silverman brothers with keyboardist Ptah Williams, electric bassist Larry Kornfeld, saxophonist Marienthal and trumpeter Randy Brecker; Italian songstress Clivia Tanisi’s 2020 album Learning How To Fly with Weckl, electric bassist Tom Kennedy, saxophonist Bob Franceschini and keyboardist George Whitty; guitarist Scott Jones’ 2020 album Fictional Characters with keyboardist Steve Hunt, bassist Romain Labaye and drummer Archibald Ligonnière; the Dave Weckl Band’s 2021 album Live In St. Louis; and Kennedy’s 2021 outing Stories, featuring Randy Brecker, saxophonists Bill Evans and Ada Rovatti, drummer Weckl and guitarist Mike Stern. In 2022, the label released In These Times by the Michael Silverman/Eric Marienthal Band, as well as the Pat Petrillo Big Rhythm Band’s The Power Station Sessions.
Rob and Michael’s other ongoing concern is Bach to the Future, an adventurous group featuring saxophonist Marienthal and electric six-string violinist Tracy Silverman that reimagines familiar classical music pieces like “Flight Of The Bumble Bee,” “Jesu, Joy Of Man’s Desiring” and “Pachelbel’s Canon.” Silverman exclusively plays the wireless Zendrum MIDI controller in this innovative ensemble. As he explained, “The Zendrum is the commercially available version of the SynthAxe Drumitar, which is the instrument that Roy Wooten introduced in The Flecktones. And it just gives you an unlimited array of sounds at your fingertips.” DB
“Cerebral and academic thought is a different way to approach music,” Flea says of his continuing dive into jazz. “I’ve always relied on emotion and intuition and physicality.”
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