Abba drummer found dead in Spain

Reuters via Yahoo News ^ | March 17, 2008 | Jason Webb

[period end of story]

MADRID (Reuters) - A former drummer for 1970s Swedish pop group ABBA, Ola Brunkert, has been found dead after an apparent accident in his house in Mallorca, Spanish police said on Monday.

Brunkert bled to death from a throat wound which police suspect was caused after he accidentally smashed a pane of glass, a spokeswoman for the Civil Guard police said, adding that authorities were awaiting the result of an autopsy.

[Rebelbase]

I didn't know you sang?

[Revolting cat!]

"A good drummer is better than no drummer at all!" -- Chet Baker

[monkapotamus]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKDdaVRNGwE

[P.O.E.]

RIP for being part of rock history

Ola Brunkert’s biography

Ola Brunkert had been a jazz drummer, also being a member of the blues band Slim’s Blues Gang, before joining pop group Science Poption in the mid-1960s. Then, through working with guitarist Janne Schaffer in the jazz-pop group Opus III later in the decade, he started getting work as a session musician from 1970 onwards.

Ola’s first known ABBA-related session was also the group’s very first single, People Need Love. Together with bass player Rutger Gunnarsson, Ola is probably the only musician to appear on all ABBA albums - he was one of the most frequently used Swedish sessions musicians during the 1970s. Ola also toured with ABBA in 1977, 1979, and 1980

http://www.abbasite.com/people/bio.php?id=409

[who_would_fardels_bear]

In a related story, the drummer responsible for most of the music in the 80's was found dead yesterday after he had accidentally slipped and fallen into a bathtub:

[SevenofNine]

HEY MONK I hear

I hear on TMZ.com this afternoon it freak accident

[CommerceComet]

I was talking to a professional musician once who mentioned that the first part of the recording that is done is the percussion track which is laid down by a studio drummer who he described as a human metronome. I didn’t get a chance to ask him, so I’ll ask you, why not use a machine? Is there a tonal difference or some other way to tell if it is human or a machine?

[Yardstick]

ABBA is great. Their songs are addictive and never get old, at least for me. When an ABBA song comes on I have a hard time turning the channel.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

"Mamma Mia!" Movie Trailer to Debut on ABC during Dancing with the Stars

The sneak peek is to air Tuesday during the second evening of the dance competition show's two-night season opener.

Based on the stage musical of the same name and featuring hits from the ABBA songbook, the film is slated to open in U.S. theaters July 18.

Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Amanda Seyfried, Dominic Cooper and Meryl Streep star in the movie, which is about an independent single mother, her adult daughter, who is about to get married, and the three men who could be her father, Universal Pictures said.

[Mad Dawgg]

"I was talking to a professional musician once who mentioned that the first part of the recording that is done is the percussion track which is laid down by a studio drummer who he described as a human metronome. I didn’t get a chance to ask him, so I’ll ask you, why not use a machine? Is there a tonal difference or some other way to tell if it is human or a machine?"

It used to be very easy to tell a drum machine from a drummer, but as the technology gets better it gets harder and harder.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

My comment was meant mostly in fun. I am a big fan of 80's music, even Flock of Seagulls who were famous for using drum machines.

I guess the knock against drum machines is that they are too perfect. If you listen carefully to a song and try to block out everything but the drums, there is a distinct difference between pop and rock.

Rock drumming sounds more like jazz drumming where the drummer sometimes lags a little behind or gets a little ahead of the other instruments. This generates a certain amount of tension which can add to the emotional impact of the music.

Pop music can sound a bit sterile with everybody completely in-sync all the time.

Of course you could program a drum machine to drop a little behing or step a little ahead of everyone else, but then even that could get a bit programmatic.

Particular performances can be particularly great because the musicians made the perfect adjustments at that time and that place.

Programming any of that ahead of time and expecting to pull it off would be near impossible IMHO.

[CommerceComet]

Thanks for your answer. I'm not sure that my ear is trained well enough to detect the difference between a talented drummer and a drum machine.

Funny you mention the tension created by the drummer being a little out of sync. I was listening to the Guess Who last night and I thought the drummer and the musicians were not quite together but I thought that sounds neat. I'm guessing that it was done deliberately and wasn't an accident.

[BenLurkin]

Just damn indeed.You took the words right our of my mouth.

Guess the moral of the story is don’t live alone?

(And be sure to have safety glass!)

[SunkenCiv]

It wasn’t murder?

[SunkenCiv]

:’D

[ResponseAbility]

——Funny you mention the tension created by the drummer being a little out of sync. I was listening to the Guess Who last night and I thought the drummer and the musicians were not quite together but I thought that sounds neat. I’m guessing that it was done deliberately and wasn’t an accident.——

Maybe, maybe not. Sometimes studio time dictates what is deemed acceptable to put on the final cut, and sometimes it is after listening to the recordings after a take that it becomes apparent that the supposed imperfection actually sounds “cooler” that what was planned.

And drum machines have(had?) two major problems. No real drummer is absolutely perfect in timing, and no drummer always hits the drums in the same spots with the same force. These two differences make real drumming and synthetic drumming so strikingly different.

[grjr21]

Freak accident!

ABBA - Why did it have to be me (Live)