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Adam Topol
(November 2005 Issue)
From Jack Johnson To Cuba Adam Topol doesn't see platinum
success with Jack Johnson as any reason
to relax. Actually, he's leaving no stone unturned in search of musical
tidbits
he can add to his arsenal. "All the bands we've toured with
have sick drummers," he says. "All those people blow me
away. So
sometimes, I'll run back and practice a lick that Jeffrey Clemens [G.
Love drummer] taught
me."
Topol has found no shortage of resources for
learning and expanding his repertoire off the
road either. "When I got
to Cuba, I hit everybody up for lessons," says Adam, who has studied in
Cuba on five different
occasions. "Everybody has stuff to teach you
there. I could just listen to a man talk about rumba."
His love of music from Cuba, Africa, and the West
Indies led to Ritmo Y Canto, a project (and album) in which Topol
is
joined by what he calls "Some of the best people in that art form." The
self-titled album features a collection of Afro-Cuban
rhythms and
vocals.
Studying the countries' native music and making the
album, Topol
says, has afforded him a perspective not cultivated in the
States. "Here, people get really into the singer; that's the
focal
point. Over there, it's so based on rhythms. It really opened me up."
Through Ritmo
has performed some live shows, Topol's
schedule with Johnson isn't conducive to putting in the time he'd
like
with the rumba players. Not that he's complaining. "Fortunately, I've
been really busy with Jack," he says. "For
the last four or five years,
I've gone all around the world."
Chris Kornelis
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