On May 22, 2010, the Modern Drummer Festival™ returned to the Memorial Auditorium at Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey. Hudson Music was there to capture this historic event as the world s premier drum festival returned to the venue where it all began.
The lineup for the 2010 Festival featured world-class drumming artists of all styles: the aggressively complex attack of progressive star Chris Pennie (Coheed & Cambria, Dillinger Escape Plan), a stylistically diverse set from Nashville session master Shannon Forrest (Faith Hill, Brooks & Dunn, Rascal Flatts), the unstoppable groove of Shawn Pelton (Saturday Night Live Band, Brecker Bros., Bruce Springsteen) and his band House of Diablo, the cutting-edge stylings of breakbeat/jam-band/jazz master Adam Dietch (John Scofield, Lettuce), the amazing creativity of international drum star Benny Greb (3erGezimmeR, Strom and Wasser, Stoppok), and the classic funk of New Orleans master Stanton Moore (Galactic, Irma Thomas, Joss Stone) and his trio.
At the 2010 Modern Drummer Festival™, Daniel Glass (Royal Crown Revue) and Chris Coleman (Prince) presented master classes on a separate stage from the main festival. As an added bonus, these amazingly educational performances are also included. Also included is a printable PDF eBook containing transcriptions of select performances and other educational info.
This MD 2010 DVD package is jammed with both great performances and tons of educational insight for drummers of all levels!
REVIEW 
The Modern Drummer Festival 2010 DVD package contains 2-discs with 5-½ hours of video footage from the May 22nd event.
DISC 1
- Chris Pennie — performs a free form solo, plays to several music tracks and discusses his love for composition. He also gives a nice lesson covering a unique 4-Over-5 polyrhythm concept.
- Shannon Forrest — performs with trio while demontrating and discussing beat placement and pocket, Motown-style, Purdie and funky shuffles, funk and broken rock grooves.
- Shawn Pelton — performs with live band on five tunes, and takes time to discuss some of his creative approaches and concepts.
- Daniel Glass — Master Class on the shuffle and the history of the groove.
DISC 2
- Adam Deitch — performs with a keyboardist and music tracks, discusses his approach to playing electronic music and drumming influences, and does some Q&A.
- Benny Greb — performs with three music tracks, performs a free-form drum solo, discusses his approaches and does some Q&A.
- Stanton Moore — plays six tunes with his trio, discusses his influences from Zigaboo and Ratcliff, and gives a lesson on style combinations and feel juxtaposition.
- Chris Coleman — Master Class in which he performs a free-form drum solo for over 12-minutes. He discusses his DVD, giving examples and concepts behind it.
As one might expect, each artist brings their own unique concepts and approach to drumming, so there's something for everyone in this DVD set; plenty of entertainment and education.
Worth mentioning is the fact that the PDF eBook (Disc 2) only contains select transcriptions from the event. The viewer is alerted on screen if a transcription is available for the segment currently being viewed.
The Modern Drummer 2010 DVD is one of the best MD Festival videos to date. Although you may recognize some of the same materials being covered in these artist's clinics and instructional DVDs, as a package, this is well worth the investment.
