Greg Cortelyou – Capital Region Timekeepers

Greg Cortelyou – Capital Region Timekeepers – by OP Callaghan.

Greg Cortelyou is a 50-plus-year veteran musician, educator, performer, collector, and all-around great guy. I had the good fortune to meet him recently and talk about his extensive career as a drummer in the Capital Region. Greg has a ton of experience, great stories, and some treasured gear. He’s a wonderful guy, and I really am glad to have met and talked with him. So please welcome to Capital Region Time Keepers: Mr. Greg Courtelyou!

RRX: How did you get started with drumming?

GC: It was after seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show – I’m not 100% sure. I remember sitting on the living room floor watching the show with my brother when we lived in Princeton, N.J. Playing in a band seemed like simple chemistry to us after seeing that I guess. Something that we could do. Everyone had a part! Later that year, my brother and I formed a band without instruments. We used moving boxes, tape, wire, rubber bands, etc. We set up in a patch of woods behind our house in Glenville, NY. We played along with records that were played on a small 45 rpm record player. Later that year, we began playing musical instruments. We saved our allowances to buy records at the Apex Record Store located on State Street in Schenectady. We would go there after hearing songs on the radio, and check out the songs we wanted to buy by listening to them again at the store on old black plastic headphones. If it sounded good to both of us, we bought the record and then went home and learned it. I still have some of those records in the collection. Our first garage band was called the Survivors. We played for whoever showed up! The band eventually moved down to the basement, and through the years morphed into the Shades of Darkness, Furnace, and then Amherst Scaffold. These bands were made up of mostly neighborhood guys. We rehearsed in the cellar until my mom blinked the lights: “Smoking Lamp is OUT!” she would say around 11:00. This went on for years at 108 Acorn Drive.

Foxfire and Foxfire II came a bit later during the early ‘70s. Foxfire was a great rock band that had a big local following, roadies, and even a devoted business manager named Len Mark Block.

Then a few years after that came Titan Strong, a local tri-city dance band that worked five to six nights a week in local clubs for many years. The group was so “tight” there was even a fine system that penalized you if you did not learn the material for weekly practice, were late, or even had the wrong-colored ruffled tuxedo shirt on for the gig! The fines were divided up and dispersed to the ones who kept it together.

The pop cover band Direct Drive was formed in the late ‘70s and played together for over 20 years doing nightclubs, weddings, parties, and corporate events in upstate New York and New England. It was like family with weekly rehearsals in our living room.

RRX: Did you take lessons or are you self-taught?

GC: I started by taking lessons when I was about 12 years old. My mom took my older brother Geoff and I up to Burnt Hills for weekly music lessons with Mr. Patrick. We both started on guitar. My brother was a natural on guitar but for me it was painful! I eventually switched to drums. That year at Christmas, I got a Remco drum set. The set had blue tinfoil sparkles, plastic rims, and a plastic foot pedal. Months later, after practicing basic sight-reading lessons and playing basic rudiments on a little wooden practice pad, I ended up buying the brand-new gold sparkle set of Stewart drums Mr. Patrick had set up in the corner of the studio. Very sweet.

I started at Berklee College of Music in the fall of 1975. I graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor of Music Degree. At Berklee, I studied privately with Bob Wagner, Bill Norine, Tony Noterfonzo, Pablo Landrum, Tommy Campbell, and many more excellent teachers. After Berklee, I went on to attend graduate school at the College of St. Rose. In 1990, I graduated with a Master of Science in Education. While at St. Rose doing graduate studies, I also worked as a graduate assistant with Paul Evoskevich directing small sectional ensembles. I also recorded and performed with the St. Rose Jazz Ensemble Big Band. I studied drum set privately with David Calarco and orchestral percussion with Mark Foster. The research paper I wrote and submitted to the College of St. Rose was titled “An Investigation of the Relationship Between Rhythm and Selected Jazz Time-Feels”.

RRX: Mark Foster is great! Do you come from a musical family?

GC: My grandmother played the piano for silent movies in the Chicago area. My father played the violin in the school orchestra. My mother and her twin sister Julie performed as professional dancers called the Watkins Sisters during their childhood years. As young adults, they joined the USO to entertain injured soldiers around the world. My older brother Geoff played guitar and was an exceptionally talented virtuoso.

RRX: Do you play any other instruments?

GC: Bass, guitar, piano, vibes, ukelele, recorder and various hand percussion instruments.

RRX: Tell us about your first kit?

GC: After the gold Stewart set, it was a set of pink champagne sparkle Ludwigs. The kit consisted of two 20” double bass drums, one 8 x 12 tom, one 10 x 13 tom, and one 16 x 20 floor tom. A 5 x 14-inch chrome Ludwig supra-phonic snare. I had a variety of Paiste, Zildjian, and no-name cymbals. No bottom heads. Very punchy!

RRX:  That’s awesome.  Who were your early influences?

GC: Ringo Starr, Ginger Baker, Charlie Watts, Carmine Appice, John Bonham, Mitch Mitchell, Butch Trucks, Jaimoe, Bill Bruford, Louie Bellson and Buddy Miles to name just a few.

RRX:  You have an extensive musical history!  Tell me some more about some of your experiences.

GC: My early experiences began as a dance band drummer. My brother Geoff and I played together in bands all through middle and high school. After high school, we continued to play as the band called Foxfire and did gigs in nightclubs across upstate New York and New England. The band broke up in 1974 and we all went off to attend college. It was at Berklee College of Music in the fall of ‘75 that I met my roommate Tommy Campbell. That was an incredibly beautiful and humbling experience. We shed and studied together for an entire year at the Berklee dorm. We remain friends and connect with each other frequently. Tommy is a professional drummer who has performed with John McLaughlin, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Manhattan Transfer, Richie Cole, the Ray Anderson Alligatory Big Band, as well as his own original group Vocal Eyes, and remains active today internationally.

RRX: Wow!  Who else have you played with?

GC: After Berklee, I returned to the Capital District area and worked with many bands in the upstate New York area in both the rock, pop, and jazz genres including: the St. Rose Big Band, Titan Strong, Direct Drive, Body & Soul, the New York Players, Jill Hughes Band, Ray Alexander Trio, Carl Landa Quartet, Cole Broderick Trio, Joey Thomas Big Band, Colleen Pratt and Friends, Destry Rides Again, Electric City, Capri, Marlowe & Company, Marcus Benoit Quartet, John Leroy, Sonny and Perley Daye, Karen Lawrence Band, Peg Delaney Trio, Mike Purcell and Company, Don Nikolski Band, Pangea, Paul Supple & Jazz Factor, Rob Lindquist Trio, The Tony Vacca Project, Josh Greenburg & the Mother Goose Jazz Band. The gigs consisted of a mix of studio sessions, club dates, weddings, parties, and other corporate functions.

RRX: Are you a career drummer?

GC: Yes. I performed professionally after graduating high school. Playing weekly gigs was not only a way of providing income for my family but an opportunity to perform with so many different and talented musicians in so many different musical settings.

RRX: Are you a drum collector?

GC: I have always collected cymbals and drums. I currently only own a few drum sets now.

Sadly, a few years ago, my drummer friend Joseph Merli passed away. He left me some exceedingly rare 1940-50’s Slingerland drum sets, Zildjian cymbals, and a collection of original vintage hardware. It was an honor to be given the drums and also to keep Joe’s memory alive. It has also been interesting and fun restoring many of them. I also was given some vintage 1920’s Ludwig drums from one of my wife’s aunt’s neighbors whose husband passed away. He was a professional drummer living and working in the Schenectady area. The most interesting thing is that it came with a little date book with his gig earnings from 1924 through 1930. The gigs he had listed were places such as the Edison Club, Woolfert’s Roost, Mohawk Golf Club, etc. He made between $4.50 and $12 a gig! It is amazing that those are some of the same gigs I played over the years in various wedding and party bands. Also included was an original receipt for the set from Baker Music House in Albany. In 1924 he paid $25 for the set.

RRX: What are you playing now?

GC: I play a 1980/1881 USA 5-Piece Gretsch Drum Kit that I bought from the Drummers Workshop store in the early 1980s. Mike Gerardi owned and operated The Drummer’s Workshop store in Rotterdam, NY. A cool place for musicians to hang, study, and pick up the latest gear. The drums are red maple finish. Drum sizes are 2-20 x 14 bass drums, 5 X 14 snare, 8 X 12 tom, 9 X 13 tom, and a 16 X 16 floor tom. Stop Sign Badge w/maple shells. The kit is in awesome shape for its age and what it’s been through. I also play DW pedals and use DW hardware. I play both “K” and “A” Zildjian cymbals but occasionally will add others for color. Sizes are 22” ride, 16” dark crash, 14” dark crash, and 14” hats.

RRX:  Beautiful! Who influences you now?

GC: My sons Jacques (piano/B3 Hammond/synth) and Graig (drums/guitar). They are always creating new and interesting original music that I love listening to. Both have been playing and performing since they were young and have performed together and on their own throughout the years. Jacques was a student at Berklee College of Music for Contemporary Writing and Production, and Graig was drummer for Intelligent Television which performed throughout the Capital District. They are both very talented musicians that I am immensely proud of.

Since I retired as a public-school music teacher in 2017, I have had a lot more time to listen closely to and study a lot of different drummers. My favorite drummers currently are Tommy Campbell, Billy Cobham, Tony Williams, Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, Steve Gadd, Dave Weckl, Steve Smith, and Bernard Purdie to name a few.

RRX: Are you still actively playing?

GC: I am currently not gigging with any regular band. Something different now. I have, however, been recruited in recent years to perform with the Schenectady City District Faculty for various presentations and concerts. I have taught private lessons and performed with various ensembles on a casual basis.

RRX: Any drumming horror stories?

GC: Of course. I have forgotten most of them. There was one gig where I forgot my drumsticks and had to make a pair of sticks out of two cut sumac tree branches before anyone noticed! Thankfully, I had a sharp pocket knife in the glove compartment. I also remember an outdoor tent corporate gig where they somehow did not have any utensils when it was time to feed the band. The worst gig I can remember was at a restaurant in Lake George. I got the call through a referral to play for what sounded like a typical dinner dance function. It was a duo consisting of myself and a keyboard player/singer who was up from Florida. Great money. I made $1,000 for three hours of work. The keyboardist could not turn off the drum accompaniment volume in his sequenced Yamaha. Ughhh! So, I played along with him and of course the tracks. No one really noticed the corny grooves! I took the bread and went home. Chalk it up to experience!

RRX:  That sounds awful!  Tell us about a favorite gig.

GC: My favorite gig was the “JAZZ INFORMANCE” Concert Series. This gig was a collaboration of Schenectady City School District Music Faculty including myself on drums and percussion, Mike Lawrence (bass), Dave Gleason (piano), Rob Aronstein (organ), and Keith Pray (saxophones). Together we created and planned different interactive presentations that highlighted the many distinct aspects of jazz music including improvisation, song form, harmony, scale types, common jazz rhythms, and the major jazz styles. This was a chance for us as musicians/teachers to explain and demonstrate to our students our various talents and personal approaches to music in an educational concert setting. We continued the “JAZZ INFORMANCE” concert series each year and visited a different school and age group each time we performed.

RRX: Put together your dream band, with you on drums.

GC: My son Jacques on keyboards, my son Graig on guitar, my good friend Mike Lawrence on both acoustic and electric bass. My wife Rochelle (mother of both of my sons) would be our cover art designer, business manager, and quality control manager! Beyond that band, who knows!

RRX: Anything else?

GC:  Music is so beautiful. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to play it with so many of my friends throughout the past 50+ years!

I owe such a great deal to my wife Rochelle for her understanding and continued support! I would never have been able to succeed without her!

Sadly, some of my closest friends and brother Geoff are not here to “play the last set,” but their influences and memories will never be forgotten.

Thank you for asking me to do the interview OP! I appreciate the awesome work you do. Thank you also for providing “us,” the community, with such great and timely information!

RRX:  It’s my pleasure, Greg.  Thank you!

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