Mojo 2023 07

 

 

 

 

 

Gary Ogan On John Guerin

 

 "With the release of Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark, I had become a big fan of Guerin's playing. I could hear in the tracks that he was doing something magical with his feet that I had never heard from any drummer, and whatever it was threw his grooves into overdrive. John promptly returned my call, was happy to help, mentioned looking forward to seeing Leon, and we set up a session. I was grateful when toward the end of our session, he volunteered to come back for another, and as none of the work we had him do at the first session incorporated the groove with the magic footwork, I recognized that I suddenly had a couple of days to write a new song that would require him to play that groove. I quickly wrote the song "Everybody Wants Your Love" and when John came back, we laid the basic track down for that song with just the two of us -- drums, Wurlitzer piano, no click, and I made sure to set my piano up slightly behind his drum kit so that I could watch his feet. After he was gone, I couldn't wait to check out the drums and solo up "the feet." It was a sweet moment when I figured it out."