Untitled Document

Sue Hadjopoulos

You're not getting that out of me! My age range, for acting purposes only, is 32-39!

I currently live in NYC. I was born in Queens, grew up on Massapequa, Long Island, known for the famous and infamous, such as the Baldwins, Neil Diamond and Joey Buttafuoco!

Freelance, independent session and live player, vocalist & songwriter, playwright

I've played with many artists, including Joe Jackson, The B-52s, Toni Braxton, Basia, and Cyndi Lauper. See my discography.

http://www.geocities.com/osuesana
http://sue_hadjopoulos/tripod.com
Email: osuesana@yahoo.com

Joe Jackson, Heaven & Hell, Laughter & Lust, Blaze of Glory, Joe Jackson Live 1980-1986, Night & Day, 1982-1997
They Might Be Giants, Factory Showroom, 1996
David Byrne, David Byrne, 1994
Cyndi Lauper, "Live Alone"
Laurie Anderson, Strange Angels
Michael Monroe (Hanoi Rocks), Not Fakin' It, 1989
Simple Minds, Once Upon a Time, Simple Minds Live in the City of Light, 1985-1986
Humpe Humpe, The Three of Us, 1985
Latin Fever, Larry Harlow Presents Latin Fever, 1981

My father was my first inspiration. My father played traps (full drum kit) in the jazz/swing era. I remember we always had a drum set in the basement. It was a Gretch, white mother-of-pearl kit. It was the style Gene Krupa used. My father saw my interest, so he started showing me the rudiments and taught me how to play a double roll. He taught me his jazz style. I come from a musical family where my mother plays piano, one older brother played sax and my younger brother plays drums, too. Ever since I can remember I have loved the drums: I have a family photo with my father and older brother taken at Christmas; I can't be more than 5 years old and I'm pouting because I got a toy guitar and my brother got the toy drum set for Christmas!

I play right-handed drums. I started playing congas by ear and feel, and later when I took lessons, I found that I had learned to play naturally half righty and half lefty (instead of the traditional way for right-handed players), sort of an ambidextrous style. I credit my original style of playing with my ability to play very fast now.

As I said, my father started me on drums with rudiments. Then I started playing drum set by ear to R&B and rock records in the basement. I listened a lot to Miriam Makeba records too, because there was so much percussion on them. I used to pretend that my mother's pots and pans were congas and bongos. All the pots in my house were dented! I am half-Puerto Rican and love Latin music, so I naturally got into listening to salsa and bought a conga and timbales later. But when I first listened to salsa music, I had no idea of its structure; I didn't even know there were two musicians who were playing interlocking cowbell rhythms, and so I attempted to master the entire two-person pattern myself! That was great practice. Practicing those Latin patterns helped my technique tremendously! Looking back now, I was a pretty strange child! I was always in the basement practicing drums and fantasizing that I was at Madison Square Garden and I was backing up all the famous artists! (Well, I have played the Garden a few times since then!) When I started school I took flute lessons and played in the school band and orchestra. Why didn't I take drums in school, you ask? Well, they just didn't encourage girls to play drums back then. When it was time to learn an instrument in schools they directed girls towards the flute and other "female" instruments and boys to the drums and other "male" instruments as your options … I wish I had taken drums and learned to read drum charts in school back then because I feel like I took a detour that delayed me in my true path. When I got involved in the Latin scene, I learned from some of the greatest Latin percussion players around. They taught me Latin rhythms, but more importantly, they showed me how to play as a member of a percussion section. You don't learn salsa from books, you learn it from hands-on experience, from the streets. Again I came up against blocks in my education in the very "macho" Latin field as well. For example, women are forbidden to play bata drum in religious ceremonies of Santeria, and so most Latin male percussionists will not even show a woman the authentic bata rhythms associated with these drums. But I was relentless in my determination to get the information I wanted … I eventually went to Mannes College of Music for formal music training in music theory, ear training and dictation after I graduated from college with a degree in Anthropology. And even though I took a lot of detours along the way, I was always playing in bands and doing sessions. So basically I learned to play by ear and feel, from hands-on experience, from on the job training, from formal music education and a lot of faking it!

My first conga drum was a no name brand, Zimcar, which I bought for $50 at the local music store! I also have a set of Pearl drums. Since then I have played and endorsed all the leading percussion companies at one time or another in my career. But I am very happy to announce here for the first time that I have just recently signed an endorsement deal with REMO World Percussion and Drums! They have an amazing selection of percussion instruments as well as having the new Fiberskyn synthetic drumheads which are a percussionist's dream! No more worrying about soggy conga heads during outdoor gigs or humid days! I'm looking forward to a long, productive relationship with them. I also endorse Zildjian cymbals.

I play all styles. My specialty is Afro-Cuban percussion.

Too many to mention. I watch and listen to a variety of music from Salsa to Classical to Alternative. I try to learn at least one new thing from everyone I hear, famous or unknown. So if you see me staring at you when you play a gig, I'm probably assimilating your licks into my photographic memory banks!!!

Calato Regal Tips. Their hickory timbale sticks are the best and I've used them for years. Hello, Calato...Are you listening? How about a deal? I use 7/16" dia. sticks. In a drum stick I like a light stick, 5A or smaller, jazz or symphonic.

I have a professional storage and cartage company, Complete Music Services, to take care of that.

No. I have always been pretty self-assured, but I'm also a well-known and respected player at this point in my life. But I am aware that a lot of male posturing goes on in a drum store. I think it's funny, but I can see how it might be intimidating for some.

Both. They go hand in hand. I think having the training is very important, especially in a very competitive music business. It not only gives you confidence but you need to read if you intend to be a versatile freelance session player doing record dates, jingles, Broadway or film. It helps to be a good sight-reader for auditions too. But all the training in the world is no good without feel.
When I am asked to play on a record date I listen to the song and immediately get a feel for the mood of the tune. I work with the artist and the producer, and we discuss what they are hearing and I give them my ideas on the interpretation of their material. We then come to an agreement. I want to elaborate on their musical ideas by picking the particular percussion instruments which will be consistent with expressing the mood. The constraints of the music will dictate somewhat the rhythms played and here is where training and technique come in. Unless there is a written part or a special request for a particular percussion instrument to be used, the choice of instruments, their placement at particular points in a song, and the layering of percussion sounds and interlocking rhythms, the percussion "arrangement" if you will, is left up to me. My choices as to how I creatively express myself are based on feel and intuition grounded in formal musical training. If you listen to my various recordings, you'll see my percussion arrangements have a consistently distinct "style."

Can't pick just one. I like players that play from the heart and soul, that are passionate and creative as well as having good technique. Those players excite and inspire me.

To get coffee for the rest of the group? Have you heard these musician jokes? What do you call someone who hangs around with musicians? A drummer. What does a percussionist say when he gets to work? "Would you like fries with that, sir?" Okay, seriously, I think a trap drummer's gig is to be the backbone and set the groove together with the bass player and lock-in with the rest of the rhythm section. Of course you should be able to keep time, but the blame often goes on the drummer's shoulders for time problems. I'm here to tell you that the time should be in your HEAD. You shouldn't have to rely on one person to keep count for you. As a percussionist, I see my role as an integral part of the rhythm section rather than someone who just adds "color."

Women are more polite players. They're more sensitive in their interpretation of the music. And the conversation revolves around more than just sex.

I wouldn't dignify an ignorant comment like that with a response. I just wait to see the look on their faces after I play. I've never gotten a stupid comment like that after they've seen me play.

I say BE MY GUEST! Drums are heavy! Actually, I'm looking for someone to carry my drums around when I do gigs in town. Any offers?

Hindrance. As I said before it was very hard to break in to the industry, especially as a trap drummer. People still have the misconception that you need physical bulk to play drums. Look, it is a fact that I will never play as loud as a guy. So what? That's what microphones are for! I don't compete on that level. Back when I started playing there were just not that many women musicians out there. Women were hired as vocalists primarily. Finally they started hiring women in the band as a gimmick, or for T&A purposes only; but they couldn't really play. They'd just give some girl a tambourine and tell her to shake her booty and look pretty as long as she didn't interfere with the "real" playing. I never understood why they wouldn't want someone who could really play. So when I first started gigging with male bands, I would be sitting on the drums ready to play and guys would actually say to the bandleader: Where's the drummer? You're missing a drummer. It was like I was invisible. They assumed I was "the girlfriend." That's pretty much how the beginning of every gig went until we started to play. Then those same guys became my biggest fans. They had just learned something new: girls can actually play too! But even today, I've had some male musicians say to me quite obliviously: Wow, you are good, if someone is looking for a "female" percussionist I'll give them your name. What about if someone is looking for a percussionist? Will they still give them my name? Here it is 1998 and it's the same old shit. It's one step forward, two steps back. Some guys just don't get it. If a male player doesn't cut it at a gig or audition, he's just having a bad day. Nobody ever says, well what do you expect? He's a male? But if a woman doesn't do well, it's because she's a female; she's on the rag or PMSing. It gets tiring having to prove yourself in every new situation. Guys don't have to go through all of that just to play. I think everything I went through though made me a better player and a stronger person. Definitely a more determined player! Ask any female musician and she'll tell you, you have to be twice as good as any guy to be perceived as equal. Women in the industry who are really great players are so much more visible now and that's exciting. I never set out to be a role model, I just wanted to be respected as a good player. But when the girls come up to me after a show and say they've always wanted to play drums and now they see it is possible because of me, it makes going through all the other crap worthwhile.

Not getting hired because of the sexist attitudes mentioned above.

I always knew if was the thing for me. But I actually quit my day job after college to pursue music full time in a 14-piece all women Latin Band called Latin Fever signed to the Fania label. I never went back to a full-time day gig after that.

I was playing a few years and my older brother had a cover band. They used to use me as their drummer for rehearsals, but when they got a gig I got left at home. One night I got my big break when they got a prom gig in a big NYC Hotel and the contract called for a 14 piece band. They didn't have enough guys so they hired me on congas. I only had that one Zimcar conga drum, but I played the shit out of it! From then on they used me as the drummer of the band.

Yes

No. I have my own company Where's One? Music. My business partner and I write original music. We wrote a children's play with original music called The Rose Slippers which is currently in production. It will be staged at the Looking Glass Theater from Oct-Dec in NYC. Come see it.

Drummergirl for one! I also recommend Barry Greenspon's Drummer's World on 46th St. in NYC as the best store for percussionists needs as well as drummers. Barry has or can get anything you need. He will also talk to you for hours; he's a font of percussion information. It's a very friendly environment as well. There are really not many authentic books written for learning Latin playing so I recommend The Harbor School on 105th St. and Fifth Ave. for lessons in Latin percussion and kit. They have some excellent teachers there: Louie Bauzo, Jimmy Delgado, Johnny Almendra. They are all working players in the industry as well. And then there's me! I will be giving percussion lessons while I'm in town, so if anyone's interested they can e-mail me.

I have two. Someone once told me that my style of drum playing reminded them of Tony Williams! And Tito Puente telling the audience, at a sold-out salsa festival at Madison Square Garden, he was going to have to retire after hearing me take my timbale solo! (I know he was being very gracious but it made me feel great!)

To be rich and famous! And to be respected for my creativity and my craft.

Positive: Opening for the Rolling Stones in Leeds, England with Joe Jackson. There were over 100,000 people at that concert. Bill Graham was the promoter and it was the most well-organized production I have ever seen. The backstage area was larger than the front of the house at most regular concerts, and more orderly. And everyone, artists as well as the audience, was very mellow.
Negative but funny later: Opening for the Who in Toronto with Joe Jackson. The Who audience is notoriously aggressive to all opening acts. The Who couldn't keep an opening act and the crew had started betting on how long the opening acts would last on stage. When we got out there we started playing and they were booing and throwing bottles, and pennies and all sorts of crap at us. So Joe told them it was his band, not to throw things at us, and if they wanted to throw things to throw them at him. Well, they sure did!!! He got hit by a hot dog and I don't know what else! I think we lasted about 25 minutes, which I heard was pretty good. The next day the review read: "Joe Jackson Leaves In Hail of Debris." But it was a very good review for us! And The Who were extremely apologetic that they had created this monster audience. We all took pictures from the stage that day. So if you have the Joe Jackson CD Live 1982-86, look at the picture closely next to The Night and Day Tour. You'll see that most of the audience is giving us the finger!

I would probably be Julia Louis-Dreyfus' stand-in. People stop me and tell me I look like her. Or I would probably have been studying chimps in the Congo with Jane Goodall. It could have gone either way.