Man that must have been cool. Thanks for the photos and thanks Purdie for the video. I always liked him with Weather Report. Seeing Jaco makes me a little sad though.

Great stuff fellas!!

John: He played like for like an hour and a half...Man! I thought I was dreaming! I have a video but im a little afraid he might get in to some trouble with DW because my set is a Ludwig amber vistalite in Bonham sizes...Ill talk with him about it. He dig the sound. He's with DW now and he loves the fact that he can ask for any size,plies,wood type,finish he wants...He told me he really likes the Yamaha Oak series (I agree!). He's not crazy about vintage stuff at all...HE'S CRAZY ABOUT ALL DRUMS!!!! Excited....Then we spent like another hour talking about his gigs (specially, Jaco!), His playing with Elvis (W/ Ron Tutt on the drums...Another like 40 minutes talking about martial arts (Boy ,the guy is in shape!) and then like one hour talking about...GOD...The guy is a Jesus freak just like me!...I will never forget his visit!

Drums, martial arts and a spiritual person... that one sentence tells you everything you'd ever want to know about the man! Vinny, I would have paid good money just to be a fly on the wall of your shop while Alex was there.

An hour and a half playing/jamming/rapping with Alex Acuna, what you got was a free Master-Class! And a fun/great memory to last a life-time!!!

I'll look forward to seeing a little video-clip. I hope Alex gives his permission for you to post it here. It's 'archival' (historical) footage of a great musician in a relaxed, casual moment. Playing just for the fun of it. Damn, I wish I was there. Like Scott, I discovered Alex in the 70's when he was playing with Weather Report. I was a hard-core WR fan and for awhile, Alex was my favorite drummer.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zse-meczCFc[/ame]

John

*** Hey Squint... trivia question for you! Guess 'who was Jaco's first producer' (early recordings, mid-70's)...

***Bobby Columby!

I did not know that. I always thought Jaco was a brilliant musician and can hardly bear to think that he just threw that away. The 70's were are really tough time for musicians.

As to Alex Acuna, I was very aware of him as a percussionist and I was also very into the Heavy Weather album though I did not own it. It was not until later that I discovered Alex played drums with them. I believe I had assumed it was Omar Hakim until I learned better. Man, I played "Birdland" in several bands. Big fun. Jaco's bass melody on "A Remark You Made" was so emotional and moving. Now I am sad again.

Scott - I don't want to derail Vinny's thread, but a little music history...

In the mid-70's Epic Records, (Bobby Columby's record company for Blood, Sweat & Tears,) asked Bobby to help them sign and promote jazz artists. They were trying to build a stable of jazz artists at the time.

Bobby gave them Jaco!

When Jaco recorded some of his first albums, it was Bobby Columby that produced them in the studio. Check the credits and liner notes. I love Jaco too, sad loss. AMAZING bass player.

Music history lesson over...

John

OK gang. I can make it official now. I'm going to be unloading a TON of Alex's personal gear in the next couple of weeks...The lot includes snares, cymbals, hardware, timbales, timbalitos, congas, cajones, racks, pedals, stands, single bass drums toms and floor toms, world percussion, etc, etc...Way too much to list at this point.

I just picked up the first lot and I came back home with my van full of gear and is not even a 1/4 of what is going to be unloaded...Some of the items got historical value like the Gold plated Rogers timbales he used with Weather Report in the 1975 European tour (in fair cond.) and many other items like that.

We'll go through the Latin percussion items first and then we'll unload the cymbals and snares. There's gonna be items from 50 bucks and up. All of them have been personally used by Alex. Even funny stuff such as old MIJ toms or a pair of humble Yamaha 80's bass drum pedals, however all of them have been well used by Alex!

This guy wakes up at 7 am everyday to play. This, since the late 50's, so every single item had had its fair share of use (AND abuse in some cases). I wanted to check if someone here in the forum might be interested on this kind of items before staring the process of unloading the stuff on E-bay. A part of every transaction will be donated to the forum so its not just me trying to make a buck (who doesn't?) but at the same time a fun experience of passing this items to collectors and fans like us. I cannot say that ALL of the items will be on pre-sale here before E Bay (the most expensive ones will need a wider audience like E-bay) but I'll do my best to advertise most of the list here before listing on E-bay)...Ok. That's about it for now...Questions, comments and ideas please contact me!

Vinny - First, congrats on a huge score! I hope you and Alex do gang-busters with the sale. Next, I think it's great that you're kicking something back to VDF from the sales. You & Alex don't have to do that and I think it's so cool that you are.

Last... Of all the great stuff you mentioned, what I would really want is a signed pair of Alex's sticks! Next time you're over there, ask him for me. Any old ratty set of sticks will do as long as Alex used them. Set a price for me and I'll buy them. Don't forget to get him to sign them for me.

Good things happen to good people! Break a leg with the sale Vinny/Alex.

John

Vinny... man this is really great! Thanks for offering things here too. Very kind of you. I hope I can grab something too. Pretty cool the time you are spending with Alex!! Man good times for sure.

Glenn.

I'd be interested in some of the hardware.

John: Im sure I can get those for free. Just pay the shipping.

Glenn: Ill be posting a list soon, stay tuned

Mkelley: I have racks, Timbales stands, Yamaha and DW pedals even a super cool pedal-operated 18" remo rototom...all signed by Alex...Let me know whats the type of hardware you need...